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4 January 2017 AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF $100 FOR BEING OUR OUTSTANDING DRIVER OF THE MONTH DRIVER OF THE MONTH EFREM FSSAHAYE Beck Taxi would like to congratulate Efrem as December’s Driver of the Month. A customer took the time to let us know about the wonderful customer service she received from Efrem. She said that she has broken ribs, and is not able to do a lot of moving or lifting due to that. The customer was travelling with 2 heavy bags, and was unable to lift them. She said that Efrem assisted her to and from the door, while carrying her bags. Efrem was driving a van cab and got out to take out the ramp so it would be easier for her. The customer said that the service that Efrem provided was outstanding! He went above and beyond the call of duty to help her and to ensure that she was comfortable throughout their ride. When there was traffic, he apologized and took a quicker route so that she could get home quicker and be more comfortable. The customer said that Efrem is an excellent representation of Beck Taxi! Thank you for going above and beyond the call of duty to help make Beck Taxi the #1 brokerage in Toronto! Keep up the great work Efrem, it is appreciated! Honourable Mentions Ahmed Ma’alin Farah, Khadir Daud Ramashkumar Manickam Ahmed, Murad Abdulahi Aamir Sajjad Iyinolakan Olawale Kazeem Khan, Feroz Shah Abdul Ahmed Iqbal, Shahid Hussain Altaf Afzal Mohammad Gared, Zewdu Bahita, Dawit Hafteslas Sherif, Abdi Ahmed Mohammed Ashfaq Popal Salim Omar Abdi Aziz Waqar Hameed Chaudhry Thambipllai Pathmarupan Chaci, Ali Fazalahmed Popal Malik Azhar Mehmood Preetinder Singh Lakhanpal Dalbir Sandhu Durrani Salman Akhter Waqar Hameed Chaudhry Kullar, Charanjit Singh Wali, Ghulam Mussana Bin Hamayun Abel Fekadu Shibeshi Raja, Parvaiz Mian Sohail Ahmed Rashid Patel Abdul Naghshbandi Iqbal, Haroon Ahmed Iskander Abdosh Khurram, Ghias Baffour Ababio Hagos Fsehaye Singh, Jaswinder Kanesu, Thayaparan Kashif Muhammad Mehdi Gejza Cepela Charanjeet Singh Johnson Randolph George Aman, Said Tahir Mohammad Cheema Nasir Mehmood Asif Chekol Adinew Tariq Muhammad Khan, Zafar Mohmoud Mohmmed Mohammad Noor Sivasamy, Thiruvarulselvan Warfa Salah Ahmed Ali, Md Yunus Dhondup, Dorjee Ahmed Rashid Patel Wali Amrudin Abebe Micheal Worku Abdi Abdiasis Ahmed Alauddin Al-Amin Shanmuganathan, Shiyamsunthar becktaxi.com Satkunalingam Satkunanathan Khattack, Faheem Ali-Mirsalari Ebrahim Malikzai, Abdul Walid Bajwa, Mashhood Ahmad Arshad, Muhammad Tahseen, Rana Adnan Khadim Irfan Ali Asghar Narimany, Farshid Tipu Saheed Mohamoud, Harun Mohamed Frimpong Manso Yaw Mohammed Abdullahi Shaikh Azhar Imran, Faisal Abebe Micheal Worku Kwame Kyere Habteselasse Mitiku Shahid Farooq Igbonekwu, Michael Nyack Neambhard Daniel Medja Rahman, Syed Mashfiqur Rana, Muhammad Umair Ahmad, Waqar Bahita, Dawit Hafteslas Rajan Sharma Sahi, Mubashir Ahmed Oakville bows to Uber wave of municipal compliance Oakville Mayor Rob Burton by Mike Beggs Following the lead of Toronto and several other Canadian municipalities, the Town of Oakville has decided to welcome Uber X into its taxi bylaw. Despite the vehement protestations of licensed operators, a draft bylaw laying out a separate licensing category for Transportation Network Companies (TNC’s) like Uber X, passed unanimously through Oakville’s Administrative Services Committee (ASC) on December 5, and Oakville Council one week later. In putting forward the motion, Mayor Rob Burton observed that the City has “wrestled with” taxi industry problems for many years, and that in the face of Uber’s worldwide popularity, “technology marches on, and the taxi industry has to find ways to compete.” Central to the crafting of the new bylaw was the knowledge that Uber has operated outside of the law in many cities but the authorities have largely been unable to crack down on them. “There was no enforcement before, and until we have a bylaw we won’t have enforcement,” explained Jim Barry, Oakville manager of bylaw services. “(In this new bylaw) we have built in the ability for officers to take ghost rides.” The new bylaw proposes TNC licensing fees of: $786 per year for 1 to 24 vehicles; $854 for 25 to 99 vehicles; and for companies with 100-plus vehicles a fee of $50,000 per year, plus 11 cents per trip for all fares initiated in Oakville. There will be no Vehicle Supply Cap, no Surge Pricing Cap, and lower standards on driver screening, vehicle inspections, and age restrictions. Staff was also instructed to report back by June of 2017 with recommended changes to the taxi bylaw that can be implemented quickly, “to promote fair and balanced treatment of the ride-selling market.” However, in the eyes of Toronto cab operators who were similarly promised “fair and balanced treatment”, there is little fairness to be found in any regulatory regime that allows Uber X to play by its own rules. Toronto taxi operators cite many inequities under their City’s new vehicle-for-hire bylaw. And, according to Oakville cab driver Rachel Har, their new rules, similarly, clearly tip the balance in favour of TNC’s. She alleged the Town of Oakville has paid the industry, “nothing but lip service” about fairness and equity. “In the last two years we’ve lost 40 percent of our business. Which of you can afford to support your family with 40 percent less income?” she asked Oakville councillors at the ASC meeting. Har stressed that, unlike licensed cab operators, no Uber drivers are purchasing the $55,000-plus modified vans for carrying the disabled community -- despite the rapidly aging population demographic. “I can’t see any Uber driver going for that,” she said. “Once you put us out of business -- which you are going to do, make no mistake -- who is going to be transporting them?” she asked. Driving for more than 40 years, Sleiman Haddad stated, “I’ve always abided by the rules that govern us. We are not being fairly treated. We feel we’ve been betrayed by the system. I pay close to $2,000 in renewals. Is that a fair ground for us, compared with them?” Veteran owner/operator James Bolan noted that, over the years Oakville has lowered the plateto-person ratio from 1 to 2,800, to 1 to 1,300 – and now has granted Uber unlimited entry into the market. He questioned the staff recommendation that Uber drivers be allowed eight demerit points. And on the dropping of driver training by the Town, he warned, “GPS is not the be all and end all.” “And for us, we have to put a car on the road at four years, Uber, it’s seven years. That’s a huge difference,” he added. Bolan also pointed to the Aviva insurance policy available to Uber X drivers, which only covers them for up to 20 hours on the road. “What happens if you get to 22 hours that week, then something happens?” he asked. “Even if you have full-time insurance, the app • see page 8 Staff was instructed to report back with recommended changes to the taxi bylaw that can be implemented quickly to promote fair and balanced treatment of the ride-selling market.
City should exempt taxi industry from road tolls, say critics of new Tory plan by Mike Beggs The recently approved road tolls on the Gardiner Expressway, and Don Valley Parkway will be not only another annoying expense for suburban commuters, but, potentially, one more dagger in the side of Toronto taxi drivers courtesy of Mayor John Tory. After a drawn-out debate on December 13, Council approved the Mayor’s controversial motion by a 32-9 count. Three days later Council voted 32-4 to go ahead with a $3.2 billion rehabilitation plan for the Gardiner, approved earlier this year. Pricing is still to be determined, but a staff report projected that a $2 per trip toll would rake in $200 million per year in revenues for the City, with a proposed startup of $100 million, and annual operating costs of $70 million. A staff report from September of 2015 proposed a flat fee of $1.25 to $3.25, or that the roads could adopt a distancebased system where drivers pay between 10 to 35 cents per km. traveled. According to staff, an estimated 110,000 drivers use the DVP north of Bayview/Bloor, and 228,000 drivers use the Gardiner east of Highway 427, every day. And, 40 percent of drivers who travel the DVP and Gardiner come from outside the city. Reversing his position from the 2014 mayoral campaign, Tory advocated that toll highways have become a necessity to, “tame the traffic beast.” “I believe traffic is at a crisis – and we have to fix traffic by building transit,” he stated. “Tolls are paid in cities around the world, places many of us have visited -- and have been shown to reduce travel times and ease congestion, as they encourage people to take transit.” Toronto must still receive permission from the province to implement the tolls. Transport Minister Steven Del Duca stated, “If the Mayor and the City want to implement tolling on City-owned highways that would be their decision, and they would need to have public buy-in.” He also acknowledged, “how important it is to relieve congestion in Toronto, for residents and commuters.” But he vowed the Province will not impose tolls on Ontario’s 400 series highways. Tory said the money raised through tolls would go into a separate fund, earmarked to address CREDIT + 10¢ per credit transaction DEBIT per debit transaction $33 billion worth of unfunded transit, and infrastructure projects, and to be audited annually. The tolls were slammed by Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown, NDP leader Andrea Horwath, and the taxi industry (now facing the prospect of paying tolls all day, going back and forth from the downtown). “Road tolls, it’s just another cash grab,” says Sajid Mughal, president of the iTaxiworkers Association. “And it’s going to hurt the cab industry even more.” He notes the added cost, due to stopping at the tolls, will ultimately be passed on to the customer – with a typical $55 airport run, now coming to about $60 on the meter. And he questioned why a mayor Expires February 28 2017 Contact us: 40 Wynford Dr Suite 300B Toronto, M3C 1J5 www.paxi.ca Trademark of Visa International Service Association and used under license. MasterCard is a registered trademark of MasterCard International Incorporated. Used under license.Interac is a registered trademark of Interac Inc. Used under license. Used by Amex Canada Inc. under license from American Express. so strongly behind public transit has added to traffic congestion, by pushing for open entry for Uber X vehicles, under the new Vehicle- For-Hire bylaw (with some 20,000 PTC vehicles now registered and cruising the streets)? “That $2 per car is not going to stay at $2 per car, like with 407 tolls. As soon as they can increase it, they will,” warns Toronto Taxi Alliance executive director Rita Smith. “(And), we’re suspicious whether that money will actually go to improve transit. It may go to reserves.” And further to the point, with a 3.2 percent property tax hike still on the table, she fears cab drivers, “are going to get hit twice.” In his vocal opposition to the tolls, Brown stated, “The last thing we need is to make life more unaffordable in Ontario.” “I certainly wouldn’t support tolling the DVP and the Gardiner,” he said. “To make people pay for the infrastructure they already paid for, it seems unreasonable.” Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti launched his own campaign against the tolls. “What they’re trying to do is grab money from the same old people all the time. These highways have already been paid for,” he told CP 24. Mammoliti argued that the Province should, once again, take responsibility for TTC funding and operations, through Metrolinx, suggesting it could save the City $600 million per year. Ward 7 Councillor Stephen Holyday warned consumers, “Hang on to your wallet, because 5 January 2017 you’re about to get robbed with these tolls.” The staff report recommended a range of ways to raise revenues, including a proposed property tax increase, and the reintroduction of the personal vehicle tax. Long-time Oakville owner/ operator Al Prior urged industry members to support a petition against the tolls. “The 905 is really subsidizing Toronto, and it only encourages more toll roads,” he says. “There’s going to be tolls everywhere. This is a critical issue for the taxi industry. We can’t afford any more expenses. Even worse, the Gardiner won’t even move traffic as the repairs are being done -- your $2 wasted.” Of the new tolls, Mississauga owner Peter Pellier scoffs, “Whatever Tory wants, Tory gets. What a weak-kneed Council. “(They will) do anything to avoid increasing property taxes, which they should be doing. Toronto property taxes are lower than right across the GTA.” He agrees one can look for the 400 series of highways to follow suit in becoming toll roads, five to 10 years down the line. “You think the provincial government is going to turn a blind eye? The Province is always hungry for cash,” he continues. “Once the public accepts tolls, they will maybe start with the 401.” Not only does he consider this a cash grab, veteran Toronto owner/ operator Gerry Manley notes Tory campaigned heavily on the promise of no tolls. “I think we pay enough taxes in • see page 12 Serving the Greater Toronto Area FOR AiRpORt peAk peRiOd peRmits Call Kuldip Khabra at 416-241-4700 dAy & Night shiFts at Competitive Rates Call Andy at 416-803-8130
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