For Immediate Release: October 10, 2025

Washington, D.C. – The D.C. Department of For-Hire Vehicles’ (“DFHV”) own administrative law judge ruled today that “DFHV’s denial of Empower’s DDS [Digital Dispatch Service] application . . . was unlawful.”

Although Empower, unlike Uber and Lyft, does not provide transportation services or pay anyone to do so, in an effort to protect drivers who use Empower to work for themselves, the company filed registration applications with DFHV (for a second time) on May 1, 2025. Three weeks later, despite District officials claiming for years how important it was for Empower to just register with DFHV, the agency illegally rejected Empower’s applications.

Empower CEO, Joshua Sear shared, “The District has been doing everything it can to block drivers from working for themselves in competition with Uber. While Empower continues to appeal a number of other illegal DFHV orders, it is good to see that there is a limit to what even DFHV’s hand-picked judges will allow the Bowser Administration to get away with.”

About Empower:

Empower is disrupting companies like Uber with an innovative model: drivers set their own rates, get 100% of the fare, and pay the company a subscription fee in exchange for software and support services that help them run their own businesses. With Empower, drivers are neither employees nor contractors; they’re customers. Under this model, drivers are making thousands of dollars more per month working for themselves than they make working for Uber, which only pays them about 50% of what riders pay. Because drivers get 100% of the fare, they are able to charge riders about 20% less, on average, than Uber charges and still make considerably more money. Booking through Empower, riders save money. They also have more choices: they can request a same-gender or favorite driver, which many riders indicate provides them with a greater sense of safety. To learn more about Empower visit www.driveempower.com.

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