How other Canadian cities have handled the new ride-sharing reality

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This article was published 21/03/2017 (3093 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hamilton city councillor Sam Merulla admits before Uber came to the southern Ontario city they were worried about who was driving for the ride-sharing service and if they were insured.

Now Merulla says those questions have been answered but while people in Hamilton are embracing Uber, the bylaw governing them is still “a work in progress.”

“We’ve come from having a huge concern about them to the point there’s acceptance and growth potential… but it’s a whole different industry now.”

Passengers appreciate Uber, taxi drivers hate it, but, like the experience in Hamilton, whether Canadian cities say they like it or not there’s no way of stopping the ride-sharing service if it wants to set up shop in a city.

As Winnipeg moves closer to having Uber drivers on its streets, Ottawa, London, Toronto and Calgary are just some of the more than 40 cities in Canada that have embraced the service in the last few years, whether willingly or unwillingly.

Each of those cities has seen an increase in Uber rides, a drop in the number of fares for traditional taxis, and cab licences go from being worth tens of thousands of dollars down to the price a cab driver pays for them.

Until the Pallister government announced earlier this week it would introduce the Local Vehicles for Hire Act, which will dissolve the Manitoba Taxicab Board and allow municipalities to create bylaws to regulate them, Winnipeg was the only major city in the country to have its taxicab industry governed by a provincial body.

A report released last year, commissioned by the taxicab board, recommended allowing ride sharing services into Winnipeg because there are so few cabs serving the city. The report said while other Canadian cities of comparable size have one cab for every 860 people, Winnipeg has only one for every 1,252 people.

Calgary’s Chief Livery Inspector, Abdul Rafih, says that city sets the maximum fares taxis can charge there. Currently, cabs in that city charge $3.80 for the first 120 metres and then 20-cents for each additional 120 metres when driving faster than 20.24 kilometres per hour.

But Rafih says none of the five cab companies in Calgary or its 5,200 cabbies charge that much for a ride any more.

“We set the maximum rate, but they all decided to reduce the rate they charge and that is their choice,” he said.

“In the past the city would set the rate and the taxi companies would use that number. I agree that since the introduction of Transportation Network Companies (like Uber) into the marketplace, the taxi industry has unanimously decided to reduce their rate.

“They wanted to remain competitive.”

Merulla said when Uber first started its service in Hamilton, and the city hadn’t had a chance to meet with them, the city had its bylaw inspectors ticket its drivers — when they could find them.

“It was cat and mouse,” he said.

“Our bylaw inspectors would go out and use the service and then charge them.”

But Merulla said it is different now that they have met with Uber and it is regulated.

“At present it is working,” he said. “We know who the drivers are and they are insured. We now have the oversight. That was our concern.”

Other cities, like Winnipeg, that don’t have Uber at this time are Halifax and Vancouver.

In Halifax there is no Uber service there, but the company is welcome to open up shop there as long as they use licensed taxi drivers. Brendan Elliott, a municipal spokesman, says there is a wrinkle though: the number of conventional taxi licences there is capped at 1,000 but there is a waiting list so if Uber came they would have to use currently licensed drivers already working for another dispatcher.

Vancouver’s city council voted last October to extend its moratorium on issuing new taxi licences for another year so no new cabs will operate on the city’s streets until later this year at the earliest. The decision was made because that province is currently reviewing British Columbia’s taxi industry to see how it can co-exist with Uber and other ride-sharing services.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca