It's unusual to see Alpha Barry not behind the wheel of his car.

"I drive eight hours, nine hours if it's busy," said Barry, a Lyft driver.

Barry has been a full-time Lyft driver for seven years, but he says the last three months he's been randomly locked out and not allowed to accept rides for days, sometimes weeks at a time.

"One time I was locked out for three weeks straight," said Barry.

The lockout is a restriction by ride share apps, like Uber and Lyft that limits drivers access to their platforms. The lockout is a result of a rule adopted by the Taxi Limousine Commission in 2018 that established a pay formula after a study revealed 85% of drivers were making less than minimum wage. The rules account for a formula composed of a per mile rate, per minute rate and utilization rate which is the percentage of time drivers have a passenger.

Barry says he used to drive six days a week without incident. He used to make over $1,000 a week but now he's lucky if he makes even $500.

"I'm having a hard time paying my bills, this month I have to go and borrow money to pay my rent...why are they doing this to us, what benefit are they getting out of this, they are destroying families right now," said Barry.

The Taxi Limousine Commission says the lockouts are a loophole for rideshare companies to avoid paying drivers for down time as they wait for new rides or on their way to pick up passengers.

"The harmful lockouts we've recently seen happened because multibillion-dollar companies intentionally exploited loopholes in our minimum pay rules to avoid paying hardworking drivers more. This defies the intention of our rules and the underlying Local Law, so we are in the process of amending and tightening those rules. Drivers are more than what Uber and Lyft refer to as 'supply': they are human beings who deserve the protections our city intended," said David Do, commissioner of the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

Lyft says the lockouts are a direct result of the city's complex driver pay system. The company says they need both riders and drivers, and must maintain balance by offering ride prices that people are willing to pay and attractive earning opportunities for drivers in order to stay competivie with the market.

“The current pay formula still requires lockouts, which means drivers continue to see limits on when they can earn, riders are still waiting longer to get to where they need to go, and Lyft can’t serve New Yorkers in the way they are expecting. This poor experience is why we don’t deploy lockouts anywhere else except in this unique situation, and it’s why we need a long-term fix," a spokesperson for Lyft said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Uber says the lockouts that started in the summer ended in September after a period of low demand and pressure from the city. The ride-share giant says in 2019, under old TLC rules lockouts were always in place.

“Changes the TLC made in 2023 means lockouts are now only needed in times of low demand - in fact NYC drivers took home more money, spent more time online and did more trips on average while lockouts took place compared to the same period a year ago when they did not.” said, Josh Gold a spokesperson for Uber.

The City Comptroller Brad Lander and the New York Taxi Workers Alliance are now working with City Council on legislation to close the lockout loophole. Comptroller Lander sent a letter to TLC requesting raw trip data, income data, compliance and communications between the Adams Administration and the apps in order to develop new policies.