about safety?

2 January 2017
As ‘terrible, terrible year’ draws to a close,
a desperate industry looks for answers
LAWYER
Tyrone Crawford, b.a., m.ed.,ll.b.
Taxi Plate Sales
Taxi Plate Purchases
Taxi Tribunal Hearings
Criminal Charges
Traffic Tickets
Incorporations
House Sales
by Mike Beggs
2016 is likely to be remembered
as another year from
hell for Toronto taxi operators
– a sentiment certainly
shared by cab drivers across the
GTA and beyond.
That brutal assessment comes
thanks to the wave of lawmakers
who have gone out of their way to
accommodate the much-maligned
but apparently unstoppable Uber
X service under its own separate
licensing category (Transportation
Network Companies) – granting
them unlimited entry of vehicles,
along with significantly relaxed
regulations for driver training and
screening, vehicle standards, insurance,
etc.
Previously inundated with
15,000-plus vehicles operating
outside the bylaw, the Toronto taxi
industry is now forced to contend
with a growing fleet of more than
20,000 Uber X cars, all of which
Toronto Municipal Licensing &
Standards reports have been properly
screened, inspected, and insured.
“It has been a terrible year, just
terrible,” says Lucky 7 Taxi owner
Lawrence Eisenberg. “And it’s not
looking good for the new year.”
He alleges by allowing Uber X
in under its own category, the City
has “screwed” the taxi industry,
and Uber is “absolutely killing
us.”
That pain is being felt across the
industry: by long-time owners like
himself who believe the City has
reneged on a longstanding “social
contract” wiping out their plate
values and retirement income:
shift drivers and lessees who have
seen their earnings plummet to alltime
lows; garages and brokerages
who depend on a healthy industry
for their livelihoods.
Mohammed “Reza” Hosseinioun,
a director of the iTaxiworkers
Association says he has never seen
it so bad.
“I don’t know what happens
after Christmas. This is unbelievable,”
he tells Taxi News. “Now,
more than 50 percent of our business
is gone. There’s no flag business
anymore. Those guys who
used to cruise are sitting on taxi
stands.
“Nowadays, you can’t believe it,
some taxi drivers are working 16
hours a day. I used to take a day
off, now I’m working seven days
a week. There’s no such thing as a
family life.”
Many veteran industry leaders
claim the City has long used their
industry as a licensing cash cow,
and is now doing the same by licensing
an unlimited number of
Uber X cars (reportedly generating
revenues for the City of upwards
of $500,000 a month, or $6 million
a year, from the fee paid by Uber
on every fare).
Long-time owner operator Gerry
Manley has been leading the
industry battle for fairness at the
hands of the City of Toronto. He
says the new bylaw is “riddled
with illegalities, errors, and indiscretions”;
and he is among those
to suggest the licensing of Uber X
falls in line with the City’s longterm
“hidden agenda” to deregulate
the licensed cab industry. In
protest, Manley is withholding the
new $130 Driver’s Fee slapped on
taxi owners, along with his 2017
renewal fee.
He says the City needs to shelve
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the bylaw in its entirely and start
over, and after little or no response
to his appeals, Manley has reached
out to the Minister of Municipal
Affairs & Housing, claiming the
new bylaw, “has all but destroyed
many decades of hard work and
sacrifice by our entire membership.”
He wants the Ministry to
become involved in setting a bylaw,
“that deals fairly with all the
people involved in the Drive For
Hire industry.”
So far, that correspondence has
gone unanswered by the City and
the province.
However, in December, Manley
had a brief conversation with
Councillor Cesar Palacio, chair of
the Licensing & Standards Committee,
who promised he would
respond to Manley’s “lengthy correspondence.”
“We will see whether he gets me
answers from staff,” he says. “It
has been seven months.”
Although hasn’t had the opportunity
to examine the new bylaw
in detail, long-time Toronto owner/operator
Al Moore says, “It certainly
hasn’t leveled the playing
field. It’s not level by any stretch,”
he comments.
“They’re all following Toronto.
(In Mississauga, Mayor Bonnie
Crombie), she’s just following
suit. They’re doing what Toronto
did, and they want to make sure
they have it right, so they don’t
upset Uber.”
Hosseinioun brands the present
situation “total nonsense”, with
the MLS offering “no answers” to
taxi industry inquiries.
Now basically self-regulated,
he alleges, “Uber is going to the
Commission with what is good,
and what is bad for them. They are
telling (the City) what to do.
“Why do we have a two-tier system
here?” he asks. “What is the
difference between us and them?
The Uber drivers are carrying passengers
for compensation.”
Manley suggests the whole
question of the bylaw’s legality
boils down to one critical point.
“You can’t sub-delegate authority,
unless it says so in the City of Toronto
Act, and there’s no mention
of that in COTA. They’ve sub-delegated
their authority to a private
company. That is illegal.”
Among the major issues industry
is kicking up about is the abolition
of the long-running MLS
driver training course, and MLS
Vehicle Inspection Centre on Eastern
Avenue – which critics say will
significantly compromise the level
of customer service and safety.
Similarly, in Hamilton, veteran
owner/operator Hans Wienhold
cites the recent experience of one
taxi owner who was subjected to
a mandatory City of Hamilton taxi
inspection, and told he must replace
his vehicle -- even though
it had another year of useful life
under that city’s six-year bylaw
limitation.
“The reason?” he asks. “Because
the ‘check engine’ light was glowing
on the dash, and even after the
owner had had the issue resolved
by a mechanic, he was still forced
to replace the vehicle.”
By contrast, he notes that not
one Uber car has undergone a similar
inspection to date.
“You would have thought that,
given the City of Hamilton’s disgusting
abeyance of Hamilton’s
taxicab regulations in order to accommodate
the Uber corporation,
they would have, at least, eased up
on their heavy-handed treatment
of the incumbent taxi operators,”
he says on his Block Rants blog.
“You’d have thought wrong…
They relentlessly harass the incumbent
operators, while giving
Uber a free pass.”
Wienhold is among those who
maintain that Uber’s much-praised
“business model” is not sustainable,
and will result in misery and
disaster for all drivers – cabbies
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and Uber X drivers alike. (Manley
suggests many such drivers may
well end up on the welfare rolls).
“Uber is not about technology
and it is not about a free market
revolution, it’s about corporate
manipulation of the taxi business
via a broken political system,” he
alleges.
“The Uber corporation will continue
to extract its 25 percent commission
from the taxi-using public,
regardless of whether there is
a 10 percent surplus of cab drivers,
or a 2,000 per cent surplus of cab
drivers,” he adds.
Pointing to the recent complaints
from Uber drivers in Toronto,
Eisenberg agrees stating,
“Once they came in, (Uber) increased
their prices for everything.
Those (Uber X drivers) who do the
work for them know they’re going
to get screwed. They just do it.
Surprise, surprise.”
Mississauga plate owner Peter
Pellier says it has been proven
time and time again, that, “the
open entry model cannot work in
the ground transportation industry”.
He says “the only encouraging
news” at the moment, is that
some Uber drivers in Canada and
the U.S. are complaining about
their rate of pay – given the huge
number of drivers, and Uber’s 25
percent fee off the top.
“(Under) the Uber model, the
Uber guys aren’t making money.
So this is going to backfire for
Uber all over the world,” he suggests.
“But does Uber care,” he continues.
“They want their share of the
autonomous vehicle market when
it really solidifies. That’s what
they’re really after. There will be
self-driving cars available in every
neighbourhood for short, medium
and long range fares, so they’re
building their (client base) through
Uber X.”
Hosseinioun claims the riding
public is slowly realizing what is
happening to Toronto’s ground
transportation market under the
new bylaw, and that, “They’re
now sending e-mails, and calling
our councillors saying, ‘This is not
right.’”
Of the service provided by Uber
X drivers, he observes, “The first
thing they do is GPS. The customer
has to sit in the car for five
minutes, while the driver finds his
way.”
But where do Toronto’s taxi operators
turn now in their fight to
stay afloat?
There has been talk of further
driver demonstrations, court
action, and calls for financial
• see page 9