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8 January 2017<br />
GTA mayors following Toronto’s lead in bowing to Uber<br />
• from page 4<br />
has to be engaged, and these<br />
guys do private runs after they<br />
have the Uber connection. So, now<br />
it’s not insured?”<br />
At ASC, Barry presented an<br />
overview of the report, recommending<br />
a tiered approach to the<br />
licensing of Uber.<br />
“The higher volume (100-plus<br />
vehicles) means higher administration<br />
costs to manage TNC’s,”<br />
he related. “Enforcement will usually<br />
be conducted by at least two<br />
officers, working at night.”<br />
He said the training for taxi<br />
drivers is also being looked at being<br />
taken out of the bylaw, as in<br />
Toronto.<br />
Previously involved in bylaw<br />
development in Edmonton, Toronto,<br />
Ottawa, Waterloo Region,<br />
and Niagara Region, Uber Canada<br />
public policy manager Chris<br />
Schafer spoke of, “the benefits<br />
Uber might bring to a town like<br />
Oakville.”<br />
He suggested a 73 percent level<br />
of support in Oakville, “frankly<br />
shows support for increased choice<br />
in the way residents in Canada get<br />
around town.”<br />
“Oakville is in a pretty advantageous<br />
situation, because staff had<br />
an opportunity to see what has happened<br />
across Canada,” he said.<br />
He requested the recommended<br />
seven-year age limit on vehicles be<br />
increased to 10 years, to be consistent<br />
with the majority of the other<br />
cities which have passed TNC laws.<br />
“Currently, 13 percent of Uber<br />
drivers would be impacted by a<br />
seven-year vehicle,” he noted.<br />
Councillor Jeff Knoll said the<br />
demerit issue “really bothers me”,<br />
considering licensed cabbies are<br />
called in to meet with staff after<br />
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reaching six demerit points.<br />
“I have concerns <strong>about</strong> drivers<br />
with seven demerit points on the<br />
road running our children around,”<br />
he stated.<br />
Barry explained that under the<br />
new bylaw, “We would leave it up<br />
to Uber to mitigate that.”<br />
Questions were also raised <strong>about</strong><br />
Uber’s streamlined driver training.<br />
According to Schafer, Uber offers<br />
online training, and updated<br />
tips for good customer service,<br />
plumbed from its customer feedback<br />
system, (where customers<br />
can rate drivers on a scale from 1<br />
to 5). He noted that Ottawa staff<br />
reviewed all aspects of customer<br />
service and concluded that, “Uber<br />
outperformed traditional ground<br />
transportation.”<br />
Among the documents Oakville<br />
staff leaned on in its research was<br />
the federal Competition Bureau’s<br />
November of 2015 report entitled,<br />
“Modern Regulations in The Canadian<br />
Taxi Industry”, which warned<br />
that with the intrusion of Uber X,<br />
“Regulators need to make sure that<br />
their rules get the overhaul they<br />
desperately need, before the whole<br />
taxi system seizes up.”<br />
The report concludes that,<br />
“Competition should be an essential<br />
guiding principle in the design<br />
and implementation of regulations.<br />
Greater competition benefits consumers<br />
in terms of lower prices,<br />
higher quality of service, increased<br />
consumer convenience, and higher<br />
levels of innovation.”<br />
“Regulatory limits on competition<br />
should be based on the best<br />
available data, be designed to address<br />
legitimate policy concerns,<br />
and be no broader than what is reasonably<br />
necessary to mitigate those<br />
concerns.”<br />
But Toronto taxi industry leaders<br />
say their City has continued to<br />
turn a blind eye to enforcement<br />
against Uber X operators since they<br />
became licensed this past summer,<br />
while deriving an estimated<br />
$500,000 a month in per trip revenues<br />
from the TNC drivers. And<br />
Bolan fears the Oakville authorities<br />
will follow suit.<br />
“I see the problem is, they‘re just<br />
not going to police it, and basically<br />
nothing will change,” he said. “I’ve<br />
never seen the inspectors come out<br />
at night, and (the Uber X drivers)<br />
go all night long in Oakville.”<br />
“I can’t blame the people (for using<br />
Uber). I blame the enforcement.<br />
They didn’t enforce against Uber,<br />
they let them run wild.”<br />
He just hopes the public will,<br />
“come to their senses and see there<br />
are things more important than just<br />
price.”<br />
Given its history of pumping<br />
out more and more plates, Bolan<br />
feels the Oakville powers that be<br />
“don’t care” <strong>about</strong> plate values,<br />
and whether longstanding owner/<br />
operators have a retirement or not.<br />
Nor does he see the industry raising<br />
a court action.<br />
“I doubt it,” he added. “I think,<br />
in Oakville, they’re just tired of<br />
fighting -- and nothing happens.<br />
The only way it goes to court is if<br />
Toronto leads the way.”<br />
Oakville resident, and Mississauga<br />
plate-holder Peter Pellier suggests<br />
the passing of this bylaw will<br />
have some bearing on how things<br />
unfold in Mississauga, where<br />
they’re still setting the parameters<br />
of a one-year pilot project for Uber<br />
X.<br />
“Yes, I think it does,” he says.<br />
“There’s no question the Mayors<br />
are keeping in touch on this issue.<br />
The GTA in many respects is<br />
a single entity, certainly economically<br />
speaking….I’m certainly convinced<br />
(Mississauga Mayor Bonnie)<br />
Crombie and (Toronto Mayor<br />
John) Tory are on the same page<br />
with Uber. She doesn’t want to<br />
break with Toronto.<br />
“While this is still only a pilot,<br />
my feeling is it’s a small step to<br />
making the arrangement permanent.<br />
It is a done deal, but if we can<br />
introduce some regulatory requirements<br />
that might dissuade some<br />
individuals from joining Uber, we<br />
will do that.”<br />
He notes the Quebec government<br />
is, likewise, weighing out how to<br />
properly regulate TNC’s, and that<br />
the Provincial minister involved<br />
said he is looking at how to compensate<br />
the taxi industry.<br />
“I’m encouraged by that,” he<br />
says. “I think the money should be<br />
coming from the company (Uber),<br />
who should pay a per trip compensation<br />
fee that goes directly to the<br />
owners -- since the municipalities<br />
aren’t <strong>about</strong> to compensate us.”<br />
He claims owners have been<br />
“pulverized” by the Province and<br />
local regulators, who let their investments<br />
be decimated by Uber<br />
X. He likens it to the post traumatic<br />
stress experience suffered by war<br />
veterans and other frontline service<br />
workers.<br />
“(You have) all of these victims,<br />
thousands across the GTA,” he<br />
adds. “The province, and the local<br />
municipalities have really left us<br />
dangling in the wind here. The fact<br />
the Province has been silent up to<br />
this point is unconscionable.”<br />
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