Pedicabs may not operate in New York City without a DCWP-issued pedicab registration plate. By law, the City can only issue new pedicab registration plates when the number of registered pedicabs falls below 840. Every year, DCWP solicits applications to enter a lottery for any pedicab registration plates available, up to the statutory limit of 850.

In each lottery cycle, applications are assigned an application order number based on when they are submitted. Applications that qualify for the lottery are randomly assigned a ""Pedicab Lottery Priority Number"". Qualified applications are selected from the lottery in priority number order until the number of available plates have been awarded.