November 2015

Xxx... crackdown
Where’s
on Uber?
page 2
Page x
Xxx... grapples with
PVAC
upstart too… page
3
Page x
Xxx...is Uber
This
culture…
page
7
Page x
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Novemer 2015 Vol. 30 No. 11
Crack down
on Uber!
Why is the City of Toronto so reluctant to
crack down on Uber and its belligerent
assault on the City’s longstanding and vital
regulatory regime? Taxis are a basic and
essential transportation need of any large
city. The public requires, and is entitled to,
a safe, reliable, professional and affordable
taxi system. And it’s the City of Toronto’s job
to protect and preserve that all important
service.
Editorial, page 6
Cover CAB
This month’s Cover Cab is 30-plus year veteran Ahmet Gulkan, an
Ambassador who says his business is down 50 percent since the
appearance of Uber X. Gulkan and a friend have created a new app
to compete with the Silicon Valley upstart. Called Kruz, the app is
available as a free download at Google Play and the Apple App Store.
Gulkan is just awaiting bylaw certification from the City and plans to
operate as a legal service for licensed taxi and limo drivers.
2 November 2015
Why isn’t Toronto cracking down on illegal
Uber operators?
by Mike Beggs
“There’s no reason to delay.”
That’s the fervent message from
the licensed Toronto taxi industry,
in calling for immediate enforcement against Uber X service,
which was officially made illegal
in an October 1 Council vote (requesting that Uber withdraw this
service for the next six months,
while Licensing Staff drafts a plan
to accommodate such Transportation Network Companies under the
bylaw).
While popular with Toronto’s
Smartphone-carrying consumers,
the Uber X platform uses part-time
drivers carting customers around
in their private cars with no cab
driver’s license, no commercial
insurance, and none of the safety
measures required of regulated
drivers. It’s a template the Silicon
Valley startup has surreptitiously
followed the world over, growing
exponentially into a $50-billion
corporation, providing three million trips daily in 340 cities.
Uber X has been skirting around
the edges of the Toronto bylaw for
the past year. But now that loophole
has been closed by Council, and the
Toronto Taxi Alliance (TTA) notes
that, “All of the laws required to
stop Uber X exist on the books.”
Sp
ecialty
“The TTA commends Toronto
for taking a strong stand on behalf
of our democratically elected City
government, and its right to design
and implement bylaws which benefit the entire city, not just one foreign private sector business,” says
TTA spokesman Sam Moini.
“Uber’s blatant disregard for the
laws and standards of the municipalities upon which it descends is
nothing short of appalling. Uber
does not simply offer unfair competition to existing regulated businesses, Uber mounts a direct assault on the rule of the law.”
A case in point came on October 1, when, before the ink was
even dry at Council, Uber Toronto
spokesman Ian Black said his company had no intention of ceasing a
service (Uber X) that many drivers,
and Torontonians rely on. Heretofore, one of Uber’s biggest champions at city hall, Mayor John Tory
responded, “Such comments don’t
represent an act of good corporate
citizenship, but just the opposite,
for them to turn around and give us
the one-finger salute again.”
With industry having called
for a crackdown against Uber for
the past three years, Moini adds,
“What we are expecting to see is
something enforced to stabilize the
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industry somewhat.
“It’s going to be a very difficult
time (for the next six months). After Christmas, nobody knows what
the industry is going to look like.”
He notes that on October 15,
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi
took the unprecedented step of
warning residents in a written statement against driving for, or riding
with Uber, “until the insurance and
regulatory issuers are sorted out.”
And while commending Municipal Licensing & Standards
executive director Tracey Cook
for sending an October 22 letter
to Uber-Toronto management to
cease and desist with Uber X service, the TTA claims, “there is no
enforcement” going on at the moment.
“You have a law, and it should
be enforced. Why have a law (otherwise)?” states Co-Op Cabs GM
Abdullah Mohmoud. “That’s what
we continue to communicate with
the councillors, and politicians –
to do their jobs. I don’t know why
they’re not doing their jobs.
“The excuse is, we don’t have
enough enforcement officers. I really don’t have any idea, but the
whole industry is disappointed.
We followed the rules, and now
this is happening… Think about
it. You’ve got people with all these
regulations and overhead, and
you’ve got someone using a 2005
Civic to do taxi work.”
Similarly, Sajid Mughal, president of the iTaxiworkers Association says his group is “absolutely
disappointed” in Uber (which he
alleges is continuing to siphon off
fares in the face of the new law),
and in the City.
“The City has passed a bylaw,
and they’re still not charging them.
Why are you hesitating?” he aks.
“They’re clearly taking the citizens
from Point A to Point B with unlicensed cabs, unlicensed drivers,
and no commercial insurance.”
Cook advised that such enforcement is ongoing, and that those
thinking about driving for Uber X
should notify their insurance companies of this fact, and that passengers should also inform themselves
in respect to the risks of using this
service (including their rights in
the event of an accident).
Uber spokesperson Susie Heath
told the Toronto Sun her company
has met with Cook and Licensing
staff since Council, and has been “
in productive communication with
them regarding the bylaw changes,
and how Uber can work within a
regulated environment.”
“You don’t work with Enforcement,” Beck Taxi operations manager Kristine Hubbard counters.
“If they were truly working with
them, they’d stop, period. Let’s not
pretend they didn’t make a conscious decision to ignore every one
of our City’s laws.
“I absolutely believe Uber
should be answering for that.”
Lucky 7 Taxi owner Lawrence
Eisenberg maintains the City
should have started blitzes against
Uber three years back.
“They have phenomenal power,
and they only use it against the
taxi industry -- not to help them,”
he complains. “What we expected
them to do (at Council) is what
they did -- take away the grandfathering of the plate.”
“I’ve put 52 years into this business. They way things are going,
lease rates are dropping quickly,
and I’m wondering how much is
going to be left for anybody.”
City Taxi driver Jaswinder
Singh, likewise, feels “betrayed”
by his City, and its Mayor.
“Shame on Uber, they are not respecting any laws. The City should
not even talk to them. They should
kick them out. It is sad. It is not
right,” says the 21-year veteran.
“But they have money. (Mayor
Tory is) a rich guy, so he’s looking
after the big corporations. The laws
should be for everybody, and no
company should be that strong.”
Long-time independent Mike
Tranquada is among those to question Tory’s consistent position that
Uber is “here to stay” -- given that
two of his 2010 campaign kingpins now work for Uber, and he’s
a shareholder in Rogers Communications, which does business with
Uber.
“It’s a huge conflict of interest,”
Tranquada alleges. “He stepped
down from Rogers’ Board of
Directors, but he didn’t sell all his
shares.”
At this juncture, the licensed
taxi industry is in a quandary, as
to what to do next to stop Uber
X. Such alternatives include: further lobbying and public education; mounting a legal challenge;
ramped-up demonstrations by
drivers; or “taking the rooflight off
our cars”, withholding regulatory
fees, and playing ‘Catch me if you
can’, same as Uber X .
“I don’t think anything is off
the table,” Hubbard says. “I think
anything could happen, because
they’ve acknowledged Uber X
is operating illegally, but they
haven’t done anything about it. So
it seems, it isn’t enough.”
She cites one recent incident
where, “A licensed taxi driver
stopped outside of city hall and just
started yelling, ‘Enough, Enough.’
That’s how far it has gone.”
Co-Op Cabs GM Abraham
Mohmoud says the industry is very
upset, and warns, “It’s going to
boil over soon.”
• see page 10
While commending
Municipal Licensing &
Standards executive director
Tracey Cook for sending an
October 22 letter to UberToronto management to
cease and desist with Uber X
service, the TTA claims ‘there
is no enforcement’ going on
at the moment.
‘You have a law, and it
should be enforced. Why
have a law otherwise?’ says
Co-Op Cabs GM Abdullah
Mohmoud. ‘That’s what we
continue to communicate
with the councillors, and
politicians – to do their jobs.
I don’t know why they’re
not doing their jobs.’
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3 November 2015
Mississauga grappling with Uber issue
too…
F
by Mike Beggs
ollowing Toronto’s lead,
the City of Mississauga
has issued a Request For
Input from its taxi and limo industries with respect to the regulation of so-called Transportation
Network Companies (TNC’s),
namely Uber.
Written submissions were due by
October 16.
This comes on the heels of a special meeting of Mississauga’s Public Vehicle Advisory Committee,
where consultant Matt Daus led a
“Town Hall session” on the existing taxi laws and regulatory paradigm, the current state of transportation services, and new technology
solutions.
In its Request to industry, Licensing staff wrote, “The City of
Mississauga is seeking to analyze
and assess the impact of Transportation Network Companies on
the city’s for-hire transportation
market, and to determine whether
new regulations should be developed which specifically address the
regulation of TNC’s, or whether
the existing regulatory structure of
public vehicle licensing bylaws is
sufficient.”
Daus is slated to file his report
at a special PVAC meeting, on
December 7. Previous to that, consultant Dan Hara will deliver the
results of his Taxi Plate Issuance
Model Review at a special November 19 meeting of PVAC.
While proponents tout the fact
Uber is handier and cheaper, the
controversial interloper’s licensed
counterparts call into question Uber
X’s lack of commercial insurance,
sanctioned driver screening and
vehicle inspections, in-car security
cameras, or any evidence the company or its operators are charging
and remitting HST.
On September 30, Toronto City
Council passed a motion instructing
staff to report back in six months
with a framework for licensing
Transportation Network Companies. And the latest developments
at PVAC have Mississauga taxi interests fearing the same outcome.
“We need to think this through
clearly. Are we regulating Uber,
or not?” states Blue & White Taxi
president Baljit Pandori.
He notes his brokerage, All-Star
Taxi, and Black Cab now have apps
of their own.
“We have the technology,” he
comments. “The only reason this
Uber technology is successful is
because of the lower price. But
once we (add) on the insurance, the
permitting and the cameras, these
people will leave town.”
And contrary to Uber’s self-de-
scription as a “ridesharing” service,
on his Smartphone, he notes the
California-based company is registered under “Category Code 4121
for Taxis and Limousines.”
He claims business is down 30
percent at night time, and that plate
values have fallen off by half.
On the stands, eight-year man
Avtar Gill says, “They’re killing
our business. Around Square One,
you see a lot of Uber X cars. (Fall)
should be a little busier time, but it
still feels like summer.”
A Blue & White driver, Gill suggests it’s “very risky” for consumers to be riding around in Uber X
cars driven without commercial
insurance. Licensed operators shell
out $8,000 to $9,000 for this insurance (for two drivers on the car).
“People are just looking at the
price,” he says of Uber X’s success.
“They just want to save $3.”
Right now, he says everyone in
the industry is, “looking at Toronto”. He expects Mississauga will
go the same route as the big city,
because, “that’s what they always
do.”
That leaves this lessee and father
of two worried, and weighing out
his options.
“We have to see after the winter,”
he adds. “But some people have already left the business. Everyone is
looking at how the City will go.”
A monstrous $50-billion global
technology company, Uber is now
found in 50 countries and 330 cities around the world, but dogged
by controversy wherever it goes.
Uber management claims to have
approximately 13,000 drivers
across the GTA -- mostly working
the Uber X platform, where they
reportedly make good money on a
flexible, part-time schedule.
At PVAC, Uber Canada Public
Policy Manager Chris Schafer cited
a recent Leger poll, where four out
of five Ontario residents believed
Uber should continue to operate.
He stressed that, “several jurisdictions in Canada” are actively considering regulations to address the
issue of ridesharing/UberX, and
that public safety, and consumer
interests remain paramount to his
company.
“By adopting smart regulatory
responses to ridesharing, Mississauga will be well-positioned to
harness the economic potential of
ridesharing to create jobs for local
residents, and create value for local
consumers by providing them with
enhanced transportation alternatives,” he added.
In a Lakeshore Road strip, Sylvain, 24, said he has never tried
Uber but has a lot of friends recommending it.
“I think it’s a good idea, low
prices. But I believe they should get
it regulated,” he offered.
A twenty-something teacher
named Sarah says she uses Uber X,
“all the time”.
“I prefer it over a (regular) taxi,
any day. It’s cheaper, and a lot more
convenient. And the conversation is
better,” she said.
But when informed about concerns over the screening of Uber X
drivers, she hedged, “I guess it depends. If I’m by myself, maybe not,
if I’m with my friends, I would.”
Withholding his name, a local businessman suggested most
people using Uber X simply don’t
understand the insurance issue, and
the legal ramifications of being in
one of these cars if it crashes.
“Would I get into a car that says
Blue & White, or Bob’s station
wagon?” he asks, sarcastically.
He also observed that licensed
taxis are overburdened with regulatory fees.
“I think the fees are too much,”
he added. “And if Uber exists without fees, then the taxi business
should, too. Let the competition
start up.”
On the prospects of Daus’ report
on TNC’s, long-time plate owner
Peter Pellier stated bluntly, “I really
don’t care what he comes up with,
unless it supports the existing regulatory system.
“There’s just no accommodating
the Uber X business plan. It just
won’t work. You have to limit the
number of taxis, TNCs, whatever
you want to call them. And Uber
never will.”
Pellier holds out hope that Mississauga will take a harder line on
Uber X than in Toronto, where
Mayor John Tory’s open support
for Uber and like technologies is
clearly driving policy.
“A cancer cell has no control
of its own growth. That’s exactly
how Uber operates,” he continued.
“We’re hoping the councillors in
Mississauga will see that.”
He stressed that Mississauga
numbers just 11 councillors (as opposed to 44 in Toronto), and that
two of them sit on PVAC.
“We have councillors who have
an understanding of how the taxi
industry works, whereas most of
the Toronto councillors don’t – they
have a lot on their plate,” he said.
“I am hopeful that at the end, we
get the support we need. I’d like to
see a final decision on Uber before
the end of the year. Part of the problem is the uncertainty.”
One of the industry’s prime concerns lies among plate owners, and
the viability of their “taxi driver
pensions”.
“It’s the plate owners who are
left holding the bag. What do they
do with the plate?” Pellier asked.
Pandori maintains it’s the government’s role to step in and buy
back these plates.
“You have these people working
for the cab industry for the last 40
years. Somehow, these guys have
to be compensated,” he offered.
At the October 1 meeting, the
PVAC also passed a motion that
Mayor Bonnie Crombie write let-
ters to both the Minister of Municipal Affairs & Housing (requesting
that the Province seize the Uber
problem, including failure to remit
HST, and the serious hardship to
the duly regulated taxi industry, and
to undertake a Province-wide solution). But this was superceded by
another motion – passed by Council on October 14 -- that the Mayor
file a written request with Premier
Kathleen Wynne that a study be
• see page 10
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About 35 percent of Canadianborn cabbies, and 53 per cent of
immigrant drivers had at least
some postsecondary education
and may be overqualified for their
jobs.
But most glaringly, taxi driving
emerged as the primary occupation for 255 Doctorate or Medicine-related degree holders – 200
of whom were immigrants!
A further 6,040 cab drivers
(12 percent) held a Bachelor’s,
or Master’s degree, the majority
(80.7 percent) being immigrants.
Among all immigrant taxi drivers, 20.2 percent have Bachelor
degrees or better, more than four
times the rate for their Canadianborn counterparts (4.8 percent).
Furthermore, it found that immigrants accounted for one-half,
and up to 80 percent of taxi drivers
in eight of Canada’s biggest cities (Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary,
Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal,
Ottawa-Gatineau and Hamilton),
and that in Toronto and Vancouver
specifically, no less than 80 per
cent of taxi drivers are immigrants.
The report also showed that,
“Immigrants from India, Pakistan,
Lebanon, Haiti, and Iran were significantly overrepresented among
immigrant taxi drivers.
Other key findings:
• The vast majority of Canadian
taxi drivers are male (85.1 percent), and especially among immigrants (97.5 percent).
•Overall, about 44.1 percent of
taxi drivers have at least some
postsecondary education and
may be overqualified for their
jobs.
•More than one-third of immigrant taxi drivers were born in
Warden Ave
Abdi Sherif
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Worku
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Mohamed
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Mekonnen
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Chamshug Jampa
Choeden
by Mike Beggs
he 2014 Canadian movie
Dr. Cabbie provided a
lighthearted look at the
reputedly large number of immigrants with PhD’s and MD’s
driving taxi.
But a study by Citizenship and
Immigration Canada (from March
2012) offers definitive evidence
that immigrants are indeed significantly overrepresented and overqualified in the taxi driving trade.
Entitled “Who Drives A Taxi
In Canada?”, (using 2006 Census
data) this study breaks down the
statistics surrounding Canadianborn and immigrant cabbies, but
more specifically examines the
“deskilling” of highly educated
immigrants who wind up behind
the wheel of a cab (at least until
they upgrade their degrees to Canadian standards). It also paints a
general portrait of taxi drivers in
Canada, and in eight major cities,
in terms of their immigrant status,
landing period, country of birth,
educational attainment, field of
study, and location of study.
The study confirms that taxi
driving has become an occupation highly concentrated with immigrants. “In fact, in 2006, of the
50,000 taxi drivers across Canada,
half were immigrants,” it reads.
“The ratio is double that of immigrants in the Canadian population
of the same age, meaning that immigrants were significantly overrepresented in the taxi driving occupation.”
Taxi driving is identified as a
skill level C in the National Occupational Classification, which
usually requires secondary school
and/or occupation specific rating.
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India or Pakistan.
• The Top 10 source countries of
immigrant taxi drivers are India,
Pakistan, Lebanon, Haiti, Iran,
the United Kingdom, Somalia, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and
Greece.
These results serve to reinforce
the long-held belief among many
Toronto taxi drivers, that their industry has become a “social welfare net” for the City.
Its’ findings also support the
sentiments of Chicago documentary filmmaker Eric P. Martin, who
alleges that this same situation
makes the City of Chicago, “indirectly exploiters of a population of
98 percent immigrants.”
Similarly, in his 2014 treatise,
“The 21st Century Taxi Driver: An
Examination Of The Hidden Injuries Of Race In Urban Canada”,
Professor Lorne Foster, Director
of Diversity & Human Rights at
York University observes that, “In
light of a growing awareness of
such wasted immigrant talent, the
search for practical and sustainable solutions has acquired a sense
of urgency.”
He notes these “Road Scholars” are often over-educated and
often disenchanted immigrants
employed in an underpaid service
industry. And due to the foreign
credentials gap, he suggests that
once they get “McJobbed” into
this low-paying, dead end work,
they have a hard time getting out
of. (During the 2012 Toronto Taxi
Industry Review, drivers complained repeatedly about grinding
out 12-hour days, six or seven days
a week, while barely scraping by).
“Indeed, today the occupation
of big-city taxi driving is often
seen as the quintessential ‘survival
job’,” Foster writes. “Meanwhile,
many skill jobs go unfilled.”
Former long-time Toronto shift
driver Peter McSherry maintains
the occupation of taxi driving has
always been looked down on, with
a, “Can’t you find anything better?” connotation, which often
flies in the face of the driver’s actual educational and/or intellectual
standing.
In her 2006 article, “Driving
Street Justice: The Last American Cowboy”, Purdue University
Sociology Professor Elizabeth A.
Hoffman observed that taxi drivers are, “deskilled, and rendered
non-persons as a matter of public
definition.”
5 November 2015
Driverless cars may be
right around the corner
H
by Mike Beggs
ow far out are driverless
cars?
That’s a burning question in the back of the minds of
taxi operators the world over,
in an industry already grappling
with the disruptive and very likely
game changing intrusion of Uber
and other virtual dispatch operations.
The public testing of self-driving cars has been given the legislative okay in four U.S. states
(California, Michigan, Nevada,
Florida), in London, Japan, and
now Ontario (where a pilot project will commence on January 1,
2016). This technology is being
pushed by corporate giants like
Google, Uber, Delphi Automotive,
Tesla , Nissan, Mercedes-Benz,
General Motors, Audi, Volvo, and
Bosch, with projections of these
cars hitting the road anywhere
from 2016 to 2025.
Driverless cars sense their surroundings by using radar, range
LIDEA, GPS, and computer vision. They interpret sensory information to identify appropriate
navigation paths, obstacles and
signage, and are capable of updating their maps to adapt to changing conditions, and uncharted
movements.
These Space Age electric or hybrid vehicles have the potential to
revolutionize personal transport,
prevent an estimated 3,000 roadway deaths every day globally (by
eliminating the huge incidence of
human error, and the issue of impaired or distracted driving), and
reduce car emissions by more than
90 percent (through the intelligent
planning of each trip, and dispatching the right-sized cab).
But questions remain, surrounding safety (should their computers
get hacked into or go on the fritz,
potentially causing whole fleets to
crash), insurance (pertaining to liability), the high price tag of these
vehicles and their sophisticated
parts, how autonomous cars will
interact with human-driven cars
on our streets, and the nagging
thought that North Americans simply won’t relinquish their love affair with the personal automobile.
Other fundamental concerns:
driverless cars are not designed
to serve people with disabilities
or accessible vehicle needs; can’t,
at least at present, be driven in
heavy rain or snow (a huge hurdle
in Canada); and uncertainty about
how they would respond to emergency situations, like a child darting out on the road?
With Google and Uber at the
forefront of this massive research
and development, the prospect
of impending fleets of driverless
“taxi bots” looms as a nightmarish
prospect for conventional taxi operators. But several Toronto industry leaders suggest this technology
will only reach critical mass much
later than sooner.
“We haven’t looked into this
yet. It’s not close,” says Co-Op
general manager Abdullah Mohm-
oud. “I can’t predict. Maybe we
will have pilotless airplanes.”
Veteran driver Louis Seta observes that theoretically, “This
eliminates the need for a taxi
driver. But it’s not going to happen
overnight.”
“I don’t think the driver will disappear,” he continues. “There will
be people wanting that interaction. This is such new technology,
we’re twisting in the wind.”
Beck Taxi operations manager
Kristine Hubbard notes the Ontario trials will require a driver in the
front seat, in case something goes
wrong.
“A driverless car will never replace a taxi driver. I really believe
that,” she comments.
“No driverless car is going to
carry a senior with a walker, or go
in the pharmacy to pick up a prescription, or make sure a child gets
into school safely.”
While acknowledging this technology is, “going to affect the taxi
industry for sure” at some point,
Baljit Pandori, president of Blue
& White Taxi in Mississauga
agrees there are many kinks still
to be worked out. Like how is a
passenger traveling from Point A
to Point B going to tell the robot,
they want to get off at a stop, midway through the fare?
While also citing some red herrings, long-time Hamilton driver
Hans Wienhold concedes technology’s inevitable march forward.
“That’s the future, and I think
that’s part of Uber’s agenda,” he
says. “They’re going to get all
these guys driving for them, then
slide in these driverless cars. And
then they’re going to drop the
drivers out on the street.
“In the long run, definitely (this
will happen). But then, I thought
Uber was a long- run thing. It
took me by surprise how fast they
moved.”
While Google made a $258-million investment in Uber back in
2013, in February of this year
Uber launched a serious challenge
to Google with the opening of its
Uber Advanced Technology Centre in Pittsburgh, poaching 40 of
the world’s leading experts from
Carnegie Mellon University.
And while Uber’s groundbreaking app technology has already
shaken the cab business to its core,
its leaders have been sizing up the
driverless car market for years,
• see page 9
LAWYERS
Tyrone Crawford, b.a., m.ed.,ll.b.
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Traffic Tickets
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House Sales
House Purchases
Mortgages
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Parenting Agreements
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Editorial
6 November 2015
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Tel: (416) 466-2328 Fax: (416) 466-4220
Editorial
City must enforce
regulation
T
axis are a basic and vital transportation need of any city. The
public needs, and is entitled to, a safe, reliable, professional
and affordable taxi system.
Taxis do not compete with public mass transit. They are a complimentary service filling needs that mass public transportation systems
(buses, streetcars, trains, subways, etc.) are simply not designed or
equipped to serve.
Cities around the world have understood this for over a hundred
years. That is why there are taxicab licensing regimes, and municipal
bylaws in place governing the industry and those who participate in it.
Matters of regulation include, but are not limited to, judicious limits on the number of taxis, vehicle condition and safety, proper insurance, driver training, driver safety, fare structures that are fair both to
cab drivers and the public, how passengers can expect to be treated
by service providers and more enlightened municipalities also set out
expectations of how drivers should be treated by the public (drivers
have rights too.)
Absolutely critical to any licensing regime is the matter of enforcement of the established rules. Without tough, fair enforcement,
there is simply no point to having rules at all.
Licensed taxi operators welcome fair, yet strict, regulation for the
protection of both the public and their own short and long-term economic well-being.
Over the past 30 or so years Taxi News has covered the taxicab
business in Toronto, keeping high on our list of priorities how authorities enforce the rules. With the occasional blip, overall enforcement
hasn’t been too Draconian. Regulators mostly try their best to work
with their clients, the licensees who are business people working to
earn a decent living. Bad licensees are rare and don’t last long.
Where our regulators have failed, consistently and inexplicably,
is in reining in some who deliberately flout the law. Until recently,
these were a small number of bandits, scoopers, those not licensed
in Toronto yet come to the city to deliberately steal business that, by
law, should go to those who pay Toronto’s licensing fees.
We firmly believe that fair competition is good. The public deserves the best service available. But when you have one or more
groups who ignore the law, engaging in obviously unfair competition
while authorities deliberately turn a blind eye, not just for months,
but for years, we have serious problems with our regulators.
When you have the head of our municipal licensing department
tell City Council that the problem is too big to enforce against, we
are utterly appalled. The City had no problem recently booting out
a driving school instructor for flouting the bylaw. He’s a little guy
struggling to feed his family. But his “continual disrespect for the
City bylaw flies in the face of the whole licensing regime” a City attorney told the Toronto Licensing Tribunal.
So the City has no problem depriving one poor slob of his livelihood, but gives Uber a free pass? We don’t get it.
We hear some charges have been laid against some Uber X drivers. There is no word on actual convictions. How many charges have
been laid against corporate Uber under the new bylaws? None, as far
as we can tell.
The City has no problem going after a cab driver who overcrowds
a cab stand but can’t bring itself to go after a company that turned
scooping from a minor annoyance into a behemoth. Other cities
around the world saw the problem. They acted aggressively to protect
their licensing regimes. Toronto, inexplicably, did nothing for years.
We’ve all heard the phrase, “bringing the administration of justice
into disrepute.” We think it may well apply to this situation.
It is long past time Toronto licensing authorities started to respect
their own regulatory principles and to protect the licensees who pay
exorbitant fees for the right to carry on business in this city. If they
don’t, why should anyone obey Toronto’s licensing bylaws? If you
allow anyone to flout the law, then get rid of the laws altogether and
let all compete fairly. But don’t be surprised if you are unhappy with
the end result.
Letters to The Editor
Star columnist gets
what Uber’s all about
To the editor,
(Editor’s note: This is an open
letter to Toronto Star columnist
Emma Teitel.)
udos on revealing Uber’s
dark underbelly. As you
rightly pointed out, it is
anything but a godsend.
When comparing traditional
taxis with Uber X - from the standpoint of consumer protection and
safety, not to mention price, Uber
X lags far behind. For starters,
their surge pricing policy can result in a trip significantly more
expensive than the meter rate. Add
to that the fact Uber X drivers are
not trained; nor are their vehicles
inspected for mechanical fitness;
nor do they carry commercial auto
insurance; nor are they registered
K
with Revenue Canada regarding
payment of the HST, which, by
law, is a requirement.
Clearly, the adage: you get what
you pay for, is certainly the case
with respect to Uber.
Compounding matters, Uber X
drivers are shortchanged by the
company in an arrangement that
heavily favours Uber. Good to see
that Uber’s aggrandizing ways
have pricked your social conscience. All being well, Saturday’s
column will have a similar effect
on your many readers.
In truth, what seemed like the
Second Coming with respect to
Uber, is just another sleight of
hand.
Peter D. Pellier,
Mississauga cab owner
City must reverse motions
passed September 30
To the editor,
(Editor’s note: This is an open letter to Ward 31 Toronto Councillor
Janet Davis.)
own a Toronto Standard
Taxi Licence that I drive on
most days and have so for
42-plus years. With this number
of years of service, the least I
should expect is an explanation
I
as to what occurred at council
on September 30, 2015, regarding Toronto’s taxi industry. I did
not attend council’s meeting,
but some of the comments you
made after the meeting showed
me you do have some interest in
taxi issues, so I was wondering
if you could explain a few things
• see page 14
More letters on pages 13, 14 & 15
November 2015
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Comment
7 November 2015
There’s change, and then there’s CHANGE
T
he worst things happen, invariably, at the most
inconvenient times.
This is a rule of nature that can neither be ignored
nor, most often, avoided.
In this case, my computer went fitzzzz the day before the
paper went to bed. The good news is that I didn’t lose any
files. The bad news is that it took serious expertise and a
very long time, to fix things so that I could have the indefinable joy of working close to a 24-hour day.
What that means is time I would have used to check out
things likely of more interest to you, was “wasted”, or more
properly, reallocated, to getting this infernal machine back
in working order.
In our increasingly electron driven and computer dependent working world, really bad stuff can happen very
quickly.
This simple truth also applies to the computers we have
in our cars. Who of you hasn’t had a computer issue in one
of your cars, or relating to one of the systems you use daily
to do your jobs? Damn few of you, I’d confidently wager.
But the geniuses in various versions of Silicon Valley
around the world are eagerly beavering way coming up with
self-driven vehicles, guided by computers.
Given our present experience with all of our whoop-dedoo spanking new technology, how many of you think the
transition away from human control is something we should
rush into?
I know it terrifies the stuffing out of me.
Yes, I know humans are also immensely fallible, and the
death and injury toll created by humans on our roads is horrendous. I know the proponents of automation say the new
technologies will make things safer for all.
Really? A huge “maybe” to that.
But when something does go wrong, at least
with humans you can hold someone accountable, either in court and/or financially, at least
in theory.
(Don’t get me started on City officials saying
they can’t go after Uber, allegedly operating illegally, because the problem is too big. They
can go after licensed cab drivers who don’t fill
out their trip logs, but are incapable of going
after UberX drivers operating without commercial insurance? Or the company itself, again
allegedly, operating without a City taxicab
brokerage license? Please. Oh, we hear about a few UberX
drivers being charged, but this is way too little and way too
late. Even Mayor John Tory seems to be getting a bit peeved
with Uber for continuing to flout City-enacted laws, again,
a whole lot belatedly. )
When something goes wrong and something bad happens
with a fully automatic car (or truck, or bus, or whatever),
just who are we to hold accountable? You can’t very well
put a corporation in jail. Or how do you put the finger on
huge teams of anonymous writers of computer code who
seriously screwed up?
Look at Volkswagon this past two months. They get
caught deliberately screwing around with their vehicle’s
emissions computer control systems, and all they have to do
is earmark a few billion bucks to pay out in compensation
and fines. No big deal.
Look at the financial crisis of a few years ago, when a
whole pile of corporations and corporate executives were
caught with their hands in the cookie jars, ruining millions of
people financially while lining their own pockets. Not a single live human has been charged to date, let alone convicted.
So consider those two facts and apply them to self-driven
vehicles of all types.
Horrendous things will happen. There will be zero human
accountability. And millions of human jobs will disappear. I
predict the jobs of many, if not most, cab drivers will disappear. Perhaps not in the next 10 years or so, but you can bet
it won’t take much longer than that for the process to start.
It may well start sooner, as driverless taxis are already being
road tested.
I have no doubt that some will say we don’t see buggy
whip makers any more. True. Neither do we see monks toiling way with quill pens copying Bibles and other religious
texts – Gutenberg took care of that job.
But what we deal with, so far pretty badly, is the pace of
technologic change. The Monks had what, a century, more
or less, to adapt. The decline of buggy whip makers took
what, 30-40 years? Now, a job thought secure could well
be gone in six months. I once thought tool and die maker
was one of the best, most secure jobs on Earth. Now most
of their work has been taken over by computer guided machines. Doubt if carpenters, plumbers, electricians and roofers are going to disappear soon, though. Could be wrong
about them, too.
So perhaps my problem with technology is not that it is
there, but rather that it is the pace of that change that is overwhelming not just old buggers like me, but governments and
society as a whole. I’m not sure we are, or can be, prepared
for the speed of change that is becoming overwhelming.
As well I’ve got it on pretty good, and multiple authority, that at least one insurance company (Intact)
is developing a commercial car insurance policy specifically designed to meet the needs of
UberX drivers, at a lower cost than licensed cab
drivers pay.
As one cab driver friend asks, what are they
designing to help licensed cab drivers? Not
much, as far as I can tell.
Finally, this month I went to visit my
95-year-old uncle. It was great to see him and
my cousins and their families when the cause
was not a funeral. I do urge you to make the
effort to see the people you care about before it
is too late.
REAR VIEW
What does rise of Uber say about modern
culture?
T
jobs, but to naively support a business that ultimately will
not support them.
While the taxi contingent waited on pins and needles
the whole day for the outcome of Council’s debate, Uber
supporters left shortly after having made an appearance.
Why? Because for them it wasn’t about the life or death
of a whole industry. For them and their passengers Uber is
just the latest passing trend; a neat app with which to grab
a few extra bucks or get a cheaper ride. They are on the fly:
want it--- get it--- got it--- gone! They don’t delve into the
consequences of their choices, the impact of their enthusiastic support. Sadly, these pro-Uber users are merely
emulating the behavior of today’s role models.
Lack of integrity is epidemic in our ‘sharing economy’. Everyone, including politicians, corporate
magnates, celebrities, sports stars, even law enforcby Susan Hoffman
ers, regularly overlooks the morality component of
At City Hall on September 30th, I observed some dif- their behavior. It has become commonplace to take what
ferences between the blue-shirted Uber supporters and the you can and screw everyone else. And so the much bandied
yellow-shirted taxi industry supporters. Uber people were about phrase ‘level playing field’ has become mere lip serfewer in number and younger by far than the taxi contin- vice to the concept that all participants should play by the
gent. They seemed generally unfazed by the seriousness of same rules. In fact Uber’s idea of playing fair is this: Give
the business at hand. They were not there to fight for their us our own designation and let us do our own thing or we’ll
To the editor,
here has already been much debate about the pros
and cons of Uber so I will not reiterate them here.
Rather I would like to examine the over arching
‘idea’ of Uber as a phenomenon and what it says about
society. Or more succinctly put - who likes Uber?
As I myself have seen and read in reports, it is mostly
the 20 to 40 year-old set for whom, apparently, convenience
trumps even their own safety— those who, believing it has
nothing to do with them, flippantly disregard factors like
legality and morality.
CabStand
take our app elsewhere.
Evidently Uber is the poster child for badly-behaved corporate citizenry. Already, in its relatively short existence,
there’s a litany of their misdeeds: sabotaging competitors;
threatening journalists; disregarding customer privacy
rights; gouging customers with surge pricing; passing the
buck to hapless ‘partners’; the list goes on...
Perhaps the most insidious of these transgressions is the
cynical disregard for their compatriots. The plight of legal
taxi drivers means nothing to this ‘sharing-is-caring’ group
- they even scoop each other for rides! And why not? Is it
not what contemporary corporate culture projects - a culture
that is impersonal, cut-throat, unsympathetic and unethical
in its conduct?
Without making this a lament for a moral society, I do
believe that people would not be jumping on the Uber bandwagon so quickly if they were more mindful of professional
ethics and general decency. Suffice to say then, that those
who love Uber should take a closer look. Try to imagine
where this new culture is leading us and think about whether
we really want to go there.
Susan Hoffman
8 November 2015
by Louis M. Seta
Uber, Uber, Uber…
I
don’t know about the rest
of the people in the taxi industry but I personally am
tired of all this Uber talk. After
reviews by the MLS, committee
meetings with the Licensing and
Standards Committee and a full
City Council meeting, Uber continues to operate with impunity.
Some people are still stirring
the pot and declaring Uber will be
stopped from operating in Toronto
but the reality is not soon or ever.
The head of the MLS has publicly
stated that she has a lack of manpower to stop Uber. I don’t doubt
her veracity at all. The problem
has been from the very start that
everyone assumed that when Uber
established itself in Toronto the
existing brokerages would drive
Uber into the ground.
Uber has established itself and
created a huge base of users. It
also has offered options to cab
drivers that they didn’t have before. Uber is not the sole operator
using an app based system but is
the one that has driven a wedge
through the old order and the new
one. In many cities and countries
around the world this very conflict
between new and old systems is
now playing out. The question that
needs to be asked is will cab users
prefer an efficient prompt system
to one which is archaic?
When I first started driving cab
some 30 years ago brokers used
to tell the people who called for
a cab the cab would be there in
15-20 minutes and people happily
accepted this service time. Scroll
forward to today and cab user expectations are now in the five minute range. Times change, people’s
expectations change and method
of payment and fluidity of usage
change. Technology puts the user
in the loop keeping them updated
and assuring them the cab driver is
taking the correct route by having
them see and hear the driver being
directed by an app to the end destination.
Let us put this Uber issue to rest.
If we flood the market place with
cabs the result will be the market
will adjust by people leaving the
industry if they cannot make a living. If one doubts this ask the fleet
operators about the number of
cabs they have sitting. If shift drivers can’t make money, they will
stop driving. If Uber drivers can’t
make money or the cost of operating their cars becomes excessive
they too will get out.
Let us look at what is happening
in the US. Uber drivers and more
specifically Uber X drivers are
seeking government intervention
to regulate Uber by declaring drivers to be Uber employees. There
also is a move to change the Uber
X app to include a tip function. As
Uber becomes better established
it is running or will run into the
same problems that regular cab
brokerages have encountered. The
possibility of unions organizing
Uber drivers is also on the horizon. While consumers like Uber
service, they have been using the
system on the backs of the drivers,
this will not continue perpetually,
especially if Uber operators have
PointofView
to insure their vehicles commercially and need to have City licenses.
The City needs to make a few
adjustments to create a fair competitive industry. All cabs should
use the same pricing model for
meter rates whether on an app
or a fixed meter. Surge pricing
should be allowed for no one or
for everyone. All cabs should be
clearly demarked with roof lights,
numbers and plates for the safety
of the travelling public. All drivers should be licensed by the City
and all vehicles conveying clients
should be insured. Let’s face it the
old ways are finished and many
people will face financial suffering
while the industry converts itself.
Let us not forget that in the
1960’s the City only allowed
Garages and Brokerages to own
plates. Drivers weren’t allowed
to own anything and worked on
a 50-50 meter split with the car
owners. This continued for quite a
while until the car owners realized
that drivers were cheating them by
high flagging. (The manual meter
had a little flag attached to it and
when the meter was engaged a lever attached to the meter was lowered which started the meter and
lowered the flag attached to the
meter.) The car owners made the
City pass a Bylaw which made it
illegal to flat rate a fare or as it was
commonly called High Flagging.
Even now over 50 years later owners dictated the rules with the tacit
cooperation of the City.
Has anything changed? Well
Brokers lobbied to have the drop
decreased by $1.00 to fight Uber,
again on the backs of the drivers.
Did the Brokers or Garage owners
publicly announce the decrease of
cab rentals or monthly radio dues?
Again let’s fight Uber but not out
of our pocket, rather the pockets
of the drivers. What message does
this send to the cab travelling public?
The message is we overcharged
you and now we are giving back
$1.00 from the pockets of the drivers.
• see page 13
9 November 2015
Uber gets pass
but Mayor all
over parking
offenders
T
by Mike Beggs
oronto cab drivers might
want to stay on top of
their parking tickets.
That’s the advice of long-time
owner/operator Gerald Manley,
who has been recently learning the
intricacies of the City’s Habitual
Offenders provision, part of Mayor
John Tory’s much-publicized zero
tolerance campaign on downtown
parking. This came after Manley’s grandson (Austin Morrison)
had his car tagged and towed for
parking overnight on a side street
in the Pharmacy Ave.-York Mills
Rd. area – to the tune of more than
$400 (between the $150 ticket and
$268 towing and storage fee).
He notes that no one else parked
on the same street overnight got
towed, only ticketed. And when he
proceeded to the Abrams Towing
compound, Manley was informed
that the car had not been towed for
the overnight parking infraction,
but under the City’s new “Habitual
Offenders” program, under which
police check every car, and have
it towed if the owner has three or
more outstanding parking tickets.
Manley says he never heard the
Habitual Offenders provision announced publicly.
“That seems extremely expensive, way out of line,” he says. “I
don’t have any sympathy for my
grandson, but is this another way
for the City to make sure they’re
getting as much money as possible
into its coffers?
“In our industry, we’ve probably got lots of cabs with outstanding parking tickets. These guys
better get their tickets cleaned up,
or it’s going to cost them.”
Tory launched his zero tolerance campaign for parking on
major downtown streets during
morning and afternoon rush hour,
in January 2015. More than 7,500
parking tickets were issued, and
1,200 vehicles towed during the
first month.
And while the Mayor suggested
at the time that, “traffic congestion
is strangling our city,” one former
cabby deems such penalties onerous and heavy-handed for those
trying to eke out a living.
“That’s unaffordable,” he says.
“John Tory could afford a ticket
like that, but not guys who aren’t
even earning the minimum wage.”
Aware of the Habitual Offenders program, veteran independent
Aldo Marchese agrees, “It is excessive.”
He alleges the City is “going
overboard” when it comes to towing, but is doing next to nothing
to crack down on illegal Uber X
drivers, who are taking more than
40 percent of revenues out of the
pockets of licensed drivers.
And he wonders why the Mayor
is so eager to tow everybody else’s
car, but has made no overtures to
the Province for municipal licensing enforcement officers to be
granted the additional powers to
impound Uber X vehicles?
“He’s all for Uber,” he says.
“Everybody else is not allowed.
He’s just saying to tag and tow.
“I think John Tory has gone
above and beyond. He just doesn’t
care.”
Similarly, with Uber X now defined as illegal under the Toronto
bylaw (for the next six months),
Manley wonders why the Mayor
isn’t following his Council’s directive to pursue a court injunction
against this outlaw operation?
“Why aren’t you interested in
going after Uber X? They are violating the City bylaw,” he comments.
“If the Mayor can get involved
in an initiative where he’s towing
cars, why isn’t he doing something
to actively take an order from his
own Council?”
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10 November 2015
Where is promised enforcement of Uber?
• from page 2
“There are discussions of all
these things, and the voices are getting louder and louder,” he relates.
“But we’re still in discussions.
“It’s coming from every corner –
the fleets, the drivers...You’ve got
to do something, or just quit. You
say, ‘I’m done with this industry’,
or you fight to survive.”
Industry will keep pushing the
Province to amend the Highway
Traffic Act, and allow officers to
tow and impound Uber X vehicles – powers being advocated for
in Ottawa South MPP John Fraser’s “Taxi Bandit Bill” which has
passed through second reading in
the House.
“Now, it’s coming to committee,
and we are waiting for the decision. But the cab drivers are suffering significantly, since Uber X has
not stopped, ” Mughal relates.
Tranquada points to the success
of the towing and impoundment
program in Montreal.
“In Montreal, if you see an Uber
X driver pull up, you phone the police and tell them where they are,
they hook up the Uber X car , put
the car in the compound and they
ticket the driver,” he says. “If I
phone in an Uber X driver with the
number, (Enforcement staff) tell
me they’ve had no directive from
up above (about this). Somebody
told the Police to do nothing.
“We don’t want to disturb the
Police Chief (Mark Saunders) from
getting his PhD. He’s too busy for
the little people. Maybe we should
pay a police chief to enforce the
law.”
As for Uber X drivers working without proper insurance,” he
says, “You can’t do it. I can’t do it.
They’ll come and take the plates
off your car.”
Moini is among those to complain that while cab drivers are always tagged “for every little thing”
by licensing enforcement and po-
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lice officers, “they never touch
Uber.”
“So the police obviously have
the time available for Uber, too.
Why can’t they look for Uber drivers,” he says. “Not only are they
breaking the law as unlicensed
drivers, and for unlicensed vehicles. These are the two biggest
violations under the bylaw and the
Highway Traffic Act.”
Mughal notes the new reduction in the meter drop rate to $3.25,
which kicks in on November 1,
represents “another burden” on the
cab driver, who will be losing an
estimated $15 per day.
“Drivers are already suffering,”
he adds. “We agreed on the decrease, because we thought Uber
X would be gone. How much more
can the cab driver suffer? The
Mayor is turning a blind eye to the
cab industry.”
The iTaxi leader suggests something big is imminent – like shutting down the streets, and/or Pearson International Airport.
“We are planning to meet with
all the stakeholders, as to if we
want to shut down the streets,” he
relates. “You just don’t know how
much push I’m hearing from the
drivers.
“We let it go during the Pan Am
Games. We behaved,” he continues. “We’ve waited and waited
and we’ve lost business, but there
is still no action from the City, enforcement, or police. I am talking
to Hamilton, airport drivers, differ-
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While some municipalities are
taking “strong actions”, he alleges,
“Our Mayor is just welcoming this
illegal activity. Uber is giving them
the wrong information.”
He suggests the taxi-riding public “should take responsibility as
well”, by no longer using Uber X.
“Our message to the public is
very clear, that Uber X cars are not
properly insured, and they’re not
licensed drivers. He urges people
“not to support this illegal activity,
and not to take a risk with Uber X.
“It’s cheap for the public, but
how much is safety worth?”
Mohmoud chips in. “It’s the politicians’ job, basically, to protect the
public. You’ve got a lot of young
people (taking Uber X). They’re
20 or 22, they just take risks and
they don’t understand the consequences. It’s just cheaper, and it’s
just cool.”
Hubbard alleges Uber X drivers
have been misled about their level
of insurance, and seen their fees
hiked from 20 to 25 percent. Meanwhile, she cites four recent charges
of sexual assault against Uber X
drivers, who don’t go through police background checks like their
licensed counterparts.
She says the City should be
warning people about the risks associated with Uber X service.
“We have four alleged sexual
assaults. But God forbid you park
somewhere you shouldn’t park,”
she comments. “The public thinks,
‘It must be okay because they’re
not stopping them.’”
She notes that several licensed
brokerage now have similar apps
to Uber’s -- including Beck Taxi,
whose app is used hundreds of
times per day, and represents 17
percent of its business.
Mughal suggests one or two serious enforcement blitzes might be
enough for the police to “send a
strong message”, and put the fear
into Uber X drivers.
“If the police start charging them
under the Highway Traffic Act, the
tickets will be on their licenses.
Uber can pay the cost of the ticket,
but it will go on their license and
it will by very hard for them to get
insurance,” he offers.
He’s calling for the City to make
sure there’s a level playing field,
in the updated bylaw. “If there is,
we don’t have a problem,” he says.
“We’re just waiting for the staff report. I hope it will be fair.”
At this point, Moini says the
TTA is “open to anything, but we
have to decide that step by step.
Anything is possible.
“We’re just waiting to see what
we’re going to do, and what action
anybody is going to take,” he adds.
“People’s livelihoods are at
stake. They’re being taken away
from them at this time. We want to
be sure every stakeholder in the industry is treated fairly, and is lawabiding.”
He also notes that at a time when
there’s “a flood of vehicles on the
road”, the City is issuing another
100 Toronto Taxi Licenses to service to the accessible population.
And while Mayor Tory claims
Toronto does not have the resources to stop Uber, Moini notes that,
“other jurisdictions have found
better solutions than a car-by-car
check.”
“France arrested the top Uber
executives who refused to obey
French laws. Montreal police began impounding Uber X cars,
and drivers got the message very
quickly,” he adds. “Why is it Toronto isn’t doing this? Paris, Montreal and Guelph enforce the law,
why can’t Toronto?”
On his Shangox web site, veteran driver Asafo Addai suggests Toronto should follow the lead of the
authorities in France, where Police
shut down the Uber-Paris office
and arrested its top executives.
“It is time for Toronto to stand
up and defend its bylaws,” he
writes.
“The honeymoon is over and
Toronto has to return to being a
law-abiding society, and cease the
practice of selective enforcement
of the laws.”
Lack of enforcement issue in
Mississauga too
MICHELLE TORREALBA
Fleet Manager
cell: 647-462-4992
phone: 905-625-3420 ext. 225
email: [email protected]
• from page 3
undertaken within the appropriate
ministry, resulting in a basic set of
principles which individual municipalities can then use to formulate regulations for Transportation Network
Companies within their jurisdiction).
The PVAC also approved, in
principle, an amendment to Bylaw
420-04, as proposed by Mark Sexsmith, of All Star Taxi, related to
the definitions and interpretations
of “Broker” and Driver, and that
the proposals be referred to Daus
for inclusion in his report. This rec-
ommendation was also adopted by
Council on October 14.
Disappointed with the enforcement efforts against Uber X, Pandori suggests, “The City, they should
go to the public with a press conference saying, ‘It’s not right. You’re
challenging our rules, and we’re
going to catch you.’ They can fine
them up to $25,000.
“The only way they will stop
Uber is if the councillors and bureaucrats say, ‘We’re not going to
let this happen, it’s not right.’ And,
we’re caught in the middle.”
11 November 2015
Driverless cars coming sooner than many expect
• from page 5
well aware that much of the cost of
a fare stems from the driver’s salary. In May 2014, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick proclaimed, in techhipster lingo, “The reason Uber
could be expensive is because
you’re not just paying for the car
-- you’re paying for the other dude
in the car.”
Over the past six years, Google
has racked up a whopping 2-million-plus miles of autonomous
car testing on the public roads of
Mountain View, California. A total of 14 crashes has sent up some
red flags, but Google management
attributes all of these accidents to
human error from the other cars
involved.
Serviced by smartphones, its
vehicles would effectively operate as an automated taxi service.
In May 2014, Google unveiled a
new two-seater driverless “taxi
bot”, with no steering wheel, no
pedals, and a top speed of 25 miles
per hour. Testing began in the San
Francisco Bay Area roads earlier
this year, and they’re slated to be
for sale by 2020.
In April, Google signed an
agreement with New York City
Mayor Bill Di Blasio to slowly
replace NYC taxis with driverless Google taxis. According to
the Mayor’s office, there would be
5,000 autonomous cabs (known as
“Zippies”) on New York streets by
2016. For the convenience of passengers, these taxis would come
equipped with food vending machines, ATM’s, and “better entertainment options” -- with no tipping required!
In July, the Delphi “Roadrun-
ner” self-driving car safely completed a 3,400-mile trip from San
Francisco to New York.
Driverless vehicles are currently servicing London’s Heathrow
Airport, carrying passengers from
their cars to the terminals (replacing two shuttle buses), in a trial
project. They’ve been transporting
about 800 people per day, with no
accidents to report.
And in Tokyo, the company Robot Taxi Inc. announced it will be
testing autonomous cabs on neighbourhood streets in early 2016.
They’ve invited 50 residents to try
out the service on a 3-kilometre
trip from their homes to predetermined supermarkets, having previously tested these cars out on the
highways.
But while they may appear safer
than human-driven cars in several
respects, given the regulatory and
liability issues, there’s no guarantee that driverless cars will ever
become legal. At this point, they
still present as many cons as pros.
Other cons include: heavy opposition from car enthusiasts; the
economic chaos expected from
monumental job losses; the fact
that driverless cars still can’t be
trusted to operate without error;
the huge loss of revenues by governments if fewer people take out
a driver’s license.
Other pros include: better management of traffic flow; less concerns about parking scarcity; the
prospects of families needing no
more than one car in their driveway; and boosted productivity by
being able to do paper work or
make phone calls while traveling
in these cars.
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Google co-founder Sergey Brin
maintains that this technology has
the power to “change lives”.
“Too many people are underserved by the current transport
system,” he has stated. “They are
blind, or too young to drive, or too
old, or intoxicated.”
But there’s still work to be done
to make these vehicles safe, and
viable enough for our streets. And
they may remain the stuff of sci-fi
movies for a few years yet.
Seta cites numerous questions
about how all this would work
for the general public. He asks if
groups would pay so much to hire
a car by the hour, could there be a
scenario where brokerages end up
owning these vehicles, or would
the public transportation system
pick people up and drop them off?
He suggests there will always
be a percentage of people wanting
to drive their own cars and reserve
the option of taking driver-operated taxis.
“It’s still very unclear,” he offers. “You have to think, it’s in
the future. Domino’s wants to use
driverless cars to deliver pizzas.
It’s a nice sound-bite, but we’re
not that far yet.”
At the bottom line is, he says the
taxi business should be paying attention to the way this technology
is advancing, “because it will affect us”, and “a lot of people in the
transportation industry could lose
their jobs”, if it comes to pass.
“If there’s any choice in the
matter, personally I like driving
my own car. I wouldn’t want to sit
in some kind of sealed capsule,”
Wienhold offers. “It may very well
be (the future of the cab business).
I’m hoping I can make it through
the next few years.”
Currently overseeing the development of a two-year plan to
integrate autonomous cars onto
Toronto streets, Manager of Transportation Services Steve Buckley
recently told The Toronto Star,
“This stuff is coming, probably
faster than we expect. And there
isn’t a clear path forward.”
L&S
MEETING
SCHEDULE 2015
The following is the list of scheduled meetings of
the Licensing and Standards Committee for 2015.
Thursday November 26, 9:30am
Tuesday, March 24 - 9:30am August no meeting scheduled
Tuesday, April 21 - 9:30am Friday, Sept. 18 - 9:30am
Monday, May 25 - 9:30am Monday, October 19 - 9:30am
Thursday, June 25 - 9:30am Thursday, Nov. 26 - 9:30am
July no meeting scheduled
December no meeting scheduled
Committee members are: Cesar Palacio (Chair),
Glenn De Baeremaeker, Jim Karygiannis (Vice-Chair),
Giorgio Mammoliti and Josh Matlow.
MEETINGS IN COMMITTEE ROOM 1
Secretariat Contact: Dela Ting, 10th floor, West Tower, City Hall
100 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON M5H 2N2
email: [email protected], or by phone at 416-397-4592 or by fax at 416-392-1879
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12 November 2015
License granted despite assault and weapons
convictions
A
by Colin Duffy
t the October 29 meeting of
the Toronto Licensing Tribunal, taxicab driver Sandeep Singh was granted a taxicab
driver’s license, despite a convic-
tion for aggravated assault in 2007.
Three incidents from 2006 to 2007
appeared to be a concern to the Tribunal, including convictions for assault with a weapon and possession
of a dangerous weapon, but those
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two convictions resulted only in
peace bonds.
In a pre-hearing settlement,
Singh and the City agreed that he
will be subject to three years of probation. On the next three renewals,
he must provide the City, at his own
expense, an updated abstract of his
criminal record and driving record.
If he is charged or convicted under
the Highway Traffic Act, Municipal Code, or Criminal Code during
his probation, he must notify MLS
in writing within three business
days. If the City has any concerns
with new charges or convictions, he
can be brought before the Tribunal
again.
Both City lawyer David Gourlay
and Singh agreed that the convictions were dated, and that he appears to have moved on with his
life. Singh is now married and has
a two year-old child, and currently
works as an auto mechanic.
The Tribunal chair for this hearing was Nicole Treksler, with Ali
Alibhai and Lori Marzinatto also
sitting.
Also on that hearing date, the
Tribunal approved extensions to
the time allowed for two estates
to sell the taxicab plates of own-
ers who passed away. The estates
of Muhammed Afzal and Farzad
Bakhtiar were granted nine-month
extensions to the time they have to
dispose of the plates. They can sell
the plates, or if any member of the
family obtains an owners’ license
the plate can be transferred to them.
Nine-month extensions to the 12
months allowed by the bylaw have
become routine in recent years.
Tribunal member Ali Alibhai questioned City Lawyer David Gourlay
about this practice, asking, “Tell
me how you came to nine months.”
Gourlay responded that the fact that
the bylaw is in flux was a factor, but
“This is not the appropriate forum
to discuss changes in the bylaw”.
In recent years a combination
of factors like the rise of so-called
ridesharing operations like Uber
and the increased number of licensed taxis in Toronto has resulted in a sharp drop in the price of
a taxicab plate, and estates often
postpone selling a plate as long
as they can in the hopes of getting a better price. Roya Parizadeh, trustee for the Bakhtiar estate,
commented that she hoped that the
bylaws would stabilize in the next
9 months, saying “We need some-
thing for his children”.
Also resolved on this date, Taxicab plate owner Joe Youseph Rajab
was brought before the Tribunal
to have conditions on his former
taxicab driver’s license transferred
to his owner’s license. Rajab was
convicted of criminal negligence
causing death. He explained that
the conviction was in connection
with the death of his infant son, and
he blamed the error on the doctor.
He explained that he did not intend
to drive, and that he “won’t pose a
threat to the public.”
The conditions were not transferred when he switched from being a driver to having an owner’s
license, but the bylaw requires the
Tribunal to approve conditions on
a license so correcting the error required a hearing.
Previous Tribunal members have
commented on this process, with
Leigh Lampert once asking, “Why
can’t an administrative error be
handled administratively?” In each
such case, the answer from the City
has been that the bylaw doesn’t
allow for such an administrative
mechanism to transfer conditions
on licenses, and that they can only
be imposed by a Tribunal order.
13 November 2015
Letters to The Editor
Could NYC idea reduce assaults?
To the editor,
I am sharing a photo of a New York City taxi that displays a warning
about the penalties for assaulting a taxi driver. Would this help in keeping
taxi drivers safe here in Toronto?
Malik Rashid
City will pay the
price for industry’s
downfall
To the editor,
1.Mayor John Tory is in violation for allowing Uber drivers to
keep running their taxi business
when he is aware that Uber does
not have commercial insurance.
2.The Mayor is trying his best
to take over the taxi business
by hiring cheap labour without
costing a single penny under
the name of “advanced technology”.
3.The Mayor is ignoring the people (taxi drivers) who spent their
whole lives working as taxi drivers in accordance with Toronto’s
taxi bylaws.
4.The Mayor is ignoring the fate
of all the people who took loans
to buy their taxi plates.
5.The Mayor is laughing at the
taxi operators who recently obtained the City’s Toronto Taxi
License and spent over $55,000
on their new City mandated accessible vehicle.
6.The taxi regulatory system was
created by City Council which
spent tons of time discussing the
taxi industry. But the Mayor has
now become the “taxi expert”
without participating or attending any taxi related workshops
or meetings.
7.While the subcommittee held
meetings to discuss taxi issues,
the mayor said “Uber is here to
stay.” This means the subcommittee meetings were pointless
and meant nothing to him.
8.When the Mayor claims that this
industry needs advanced technology, then why does he not
tell the licensed brokerages to
implement these advanced/new
technologies? It would appear
the Mayor’s intention is to grab
the taxi industry for himself.
If City Council continues to allow Uber to operate in Toronto, the
City will be held accountable for
any damages caused to its licensed
taxi operators.
Regards,
Kuldip Singh
Prepare for change
• from page 8
When this kicks in at the beginning of November it will create
greater resentment between the
drivers and Garage owners. Meanwhile agents and garage owners
have already notified plate owners
that their monthly plate lease rates
will be lowered. One has to wonder how much if any of the savings
will be passed onto the shift driver.
Many people are saying that the
taxi industry is on the cusp of major changes, I personally think we
have passed the cusp, we are into
ground shaking changes. In the
UK the courts have ruled that Uber
is legal and allowed to operate. In
Toronto our City is grappling with
the Ontario Superior Court decisions. Absentee plate owners need
to re-evaluate their business plans.
The forward thinking and adaptive
Brokers will survive. Those stuck
in age old business models will
end up folding. Whatever happens
one should remember the demand
for cabs will increase not diminish, but the way they operate will
definitely change.
For now, at least the demand for
cabs driven by operators will continue and perhaps increase. When
one looks down the road and
driverless vehicles enter the market place, there will be massive
changes yet again. The driverless
cabs are at least a decade away but
their eventual operation in the cab
industry is a certainty, not speculation.
Good luck to everyone in the
brave new world we are about to
enter. One should remember that
Uber is not the end result of the
taxi industry but rather the beginning of the taxi industry changes
that will flood our industry.
Sincerely,
Louis M. Seta,
Cab Driver
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14 November 2015
Letters to The Editor
In what world does Toronto need 100 more taxis???
• from page 6
to me that I cannot get the Mayor, City Council, L&S Committee members or staff to do for
the betterment of our industry?
Uber X
You stated that Uber did not win
and that the City closed a legal
loophole that allowed a Superior
Court Judge earlier this year to
decide Uber did not fit into existing City bylaws and reject a City
requested injunction to stop operating here. You stated Uber X is
illegal as of September 30, 2015,
and Uber must use only licensed
taxi drivers. You further went on
to say Uber can no longer “flout”
the bylaw and promised effective
enforcement.
Considering Uber facilitates taxi
service and is not a ride share as
they claim, I cannot understand why
the City is so bent on going after the
snake’s body (the Uber X drivers)
when they now have the right to cut
off the snake’s head (Uber, in their
Uber X operation) given Uber’s refusal to stop Uber X?
Uber facilitates taxi servicing
between the consumer and the
operator who services them as
a for-hire-identity that receives
compensation for such service and
Uber profits from that service as
well so how can there be any question about the illegality about this
service? If you would check with
legal, I am sure since the City has
made a council order that Uber X
is operating illegally, there is now
more than enough evidence and
reasons to go to court and seek
an injunction that the court now
cannot refuse as Uber is violating
a council directive to cease and
desist operating Uber X and the
company has publicly refused to
comply. To allow Uber X to continue could well spell the financial
disaster of the entire Toronto taxi
industry. Action is required now,
not in the spring of 2016.
Also consider that Uber is violating a provincial statute regarding
the lack of proper insurance and if
you research the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a
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federal statute, you will find Uber
is in violation of that Act as well,
since they are a foreign company
from the United States operating in
Canada and the Act is very specific
that any business that is operating
in Canada must abide by all municipal, provincial, territorial and
federal laws that they are now in
contravention of.
Uber Taxi
This is the only legal app that
Uber presently operates (short of
holding a broker’s licence which
soon should be remedied) which
abides by all the current taxi bylaw
requirements and gives the taxi using public access to the Uber technology and credit, therefore meeting all of the concerns of Mayor
Tory and any other councillor who
believes consumers should have
access to the Uber technology.
The Issue of an Additional 100
Toronto Taxi Licences
The Toronto taxi industry has
over 2,000 more licensed taxicabs
than are required considering the
present economics and consumer
demand. This issuance of TTLs
is nothing more than a political
correctness with no foundation or
proof to show such need. Council
needs to stop this and quit believing staff’s claims that the disabled
community’s needs are not yet
being served. This is a blatant lie
with no foundation in truth nor did
staff ever produce any proof for
this supposed need, nor talk with
the current TTL operators. If staff
had bothered to inquire of the ex-
isting TTL operators,
like I did, they would
have found out that the
average TTL operator
serves between one and
six wheel chair accessible van requests PER
WEEK! Do we really
need 100 more TTL’s
on Toronto’s streets???
$1.00 Reduction in the
Taximeter Drop Price
You were led to believe this was an industry request to compete
with Uber, which in
fact is untrue. This proposal was brought forward by the executives
of the Toronto Taxi Alliance (TTA) and the iTaxiworkers, most of whom do not drive a
taxi and will not have to shoulder
the financial losses, which on average, depending on how many
orders the taxi driver services, will
be between $3,000 and $5,000
dollars per year with no relief from
the escalating business costs.
Considering Uber X has surge
pricing that can see their fares increase by two to five-times their
normal rates and sometimes even
more, thus making the costs of
those trips well above a licensed
city taxi, what do you think
the $1.00 meter reduction will
achieve? The answer is absolutely
nothing. It is not the rates that will
make our industry competitive, it
is the technology. If every taxi has
a Point Of Sale Terminal (POS)
TAXI DRIVERS
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Baljit: 416-236-3646
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Bajwa: 416-836-3536
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2010 Dundas St. W.
531-8134
(between Lansdowne and Roncesvalles)
and a mandate to serve every patron requesting to pay by debit or
credit, the taxi industry can compete.
The Hiring of 10 Additional Bylaw Inspectors
Councillor, you do realize that
this expenditure must be paid by
the industry membership as the
MLS is mandated to be financially
self sufficient? Tracey Cook stated that Toronto’s Police Services
are too busy to become involved
in less serious crimes such as the
ones being committed by Uber X.
It should be noted, however, that
Toronto Police have no problem
ticketing our membership to the
tune of millions of dollars per year
for minor administrative offenses— we are an easy target.
How will the hiring of 10 new
bylaw inspectors amount to anything? They have no authority to
stop any vehicles, including a taxicab or limousine as they may only
be checked when stationary, nor
the right to ask for any documentation proving the driver, ownership
of the vehicle or insurance certificate. All an Uber X has to do when
a bylaw inspector asks for this information is say goodbye and have
a nice day and the bylaw inspector
is powerless to do anything about
it unless accompanied by a police
officer.
I would greatly appreciate a response to my inquiries as it is not
only me that wants these questions
answered, but the entire Toronto
taxi industry is looking for an explanation as to council’s actions on
these issues. We ask you to review
these recommendations and if you
support them, we would ask you to
reverse your decisions of September 30 and have council re-open
these issues and do the right thing
for our membership.
Thank you in advance for any
explanation and/or support you
can give me and the entire Toronto
taxi industry on these very serious
issues.
Gerry Manley
15 November 2015
Letters to The Editor
A few suggestions for how to fix the taxi
industry…
I
To the editor,
have a few suggestions that I
would like the City council to
consider concerning the taxi
industry in Toronto.
1. The first thing the City should
be doing is to issue an additional
2,600 licenses plates, this would
bring the number of plates to approximately 6,000. Toronto has
more taxis per person than Vancouver, Ottawa and Los Angeles,
but fewer cars per person than
Montreal, Chicago and London,
England. This would help to alleviate the problem of not having
enough taxis.
2. The Ambassador plates that
have been issued should be part of
the additional 2,600 plates. This
would eliminate the Ambassador
plates and bring them to Standard
plates. Those holding an Ambassador plate should be required to pay
the City $50,000. This would give
the City approximately (1,313 x
$50,000), $65,650,000. This money should be used only for expansion of public transit.
Since Ambassador plates are
selling right now for approximately $126,000 per plate the Ambassador drivers if they do decide to
sell would see a profit of approxi-
mately $76,000. They should be
allowed to sell on the open market
allowing anyone to purchase them.
3. The balance of the plates should
be sold on the open market for
$150,000 per plate. This would
again bring the City an addition,
(1,236 X $150,000) $185,400,000,
all used for the expansion of public transit.
4. The City should then force Uber
to follow all of the same regulations as the taxi industry as a
whole.
5. The Uber drivers and cars
should be forced to undergo all of
the regulations that the taxi industry does.
6. This would include training, car
inspections, renewal fees (approximately $1,250), and insurance requirements etc.
7. If, after paying all of the fees
that the taxi industry pays, Uber
still wants to charge less per ride,
then they should be allowed.
Several things will happen once
there is an even playing field.
1. Once the City has issued the
new plates you will see that after a
while the plates start to get traded
again and the price will increase.
This is what originally happened.
The City originally charged $5,000
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Looking for taxi plate to buy. Call Khan
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Traffic ticket court date set downtown
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per plate to drivers only. Some of
the drivers in turn sold the plates
to other people for a profit, others
kept them and passed them on to
either their spouse or even their
children. Every time the plate was
sold it was sold for more money.
Some drivers sold out quickly to
make a fast dollar and others held
out and built up a business.
2. As for Uber, once they are
forced to follow the same regulations and requirements as the taxi
industry you will see them either
increase their fares to cover the
cost or actually disappear. Take
away the advantage and you will
see a return to stability and the return of the taxi industry.
There should be changes to how
the taxi drivers and the cars operate and here are a few suggestions:
1. All of the cars from all of the
companies in the Toronto should
be one color so that the public immediately recognize a taxi. An example is in New York City where
all of the cabs are yellow.
2. All the cars should be washed
before or after each shift. (This
should be paid for by the company.)
3. The drivers should all be in uniforms (simple uniforms but uni-
SUDOKU
Standard Toronto taxi plate for sale,
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Beck Taxi driver wanted in Scarborough.
Please call 647-782-2525.
Mississauga taxi plate for sale. Call
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Oshawa Standard taxi plate for sale.
Please contact Patrick at 289-600-5974
4
Toronto Standard plate for lease by
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7
Drivers wanted for Beck Taxi in Scarborough. Call Naeem at 647-782-2515.
Toronto Standard taxi plate for lease
straight from owner, Call 905-731-2329
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Looking for Toronto Taxi Plate to lease.
We pay top dollar. Guaranteed to pay all
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Standard Metro taxi plate for sale. Call
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Drivers wanted night or day. Beck,
Crown, or Diamond. Call Sam or Hossein @ HPM Taxi. 416-899-7054 or 416725-1919.
7
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4
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4
7
3
3
5
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8
1
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Standard Toronto taxi plate for sale. Call
905-493-6066 anytime.
Toronto Standard plate for lease by
owner, 905-451-5230
9
8
Wanted, plates to lease. Call John: 416
918 9602. Email: [email protected]
Retired Ambassador wishes a double
Sunday Shift. Please call Dale at 416893-1941
suppose to be professionals. They
should dress and act as if they are.
There are several benefits to the
City for helping the taxi industry
as a whole. This includes changing the regulations for how Uber
operates.
The City receives money for the
following:
1. Renewal of the licence plates
each year.
2. Education of the taxi drivers (14
day course that each new driver
has to take).
3. Continuing education for both
drivers and owners. (Two days
for licensed drivers & one day for
owners)
4. Fines paid for infractions of
drivers or owners.
Here is another source of income
for the City to consider:
Like the real estate land transfer
tax, there could be a transfer tax
when a taxi plate is sold or transferred.
An appropriate tax would be a five
percent transfer fee.
This would be applied whether a
plate is sold or transferred to heirs
of the original owner.
These are only my suggestions on
how to improve the industry.
Bernie Goldhar
We want to hear what you have to say
WRITE TO US: send your emails to
[email protected]
Metro Taxi plate available for lease. Call
647-702-6404 anytime.
Ambassador taxi plate for sale. Best offer. Call 416-795-6063 anytime.
forms, example jacket with name
of driver and company, black
slacks, a shirt with a collar, and in
summer a shirt with the name of
the company and driver). This is
a service industry and the drivers
are representing the industry as a
whole and a specific company.
4. The drivers should not be able
to eat in the taxis. It isn’t a lunch
room and I don’t want to smell the
food when stepping into the cab.
5. The driver should not be allowed to use the cell phone while
working. It is already stated in the
bylaws but not enforced. Do you
allow your office workers to use
their cell phones for personal calls
while working?
6. The drivers should not be playing the radio while having a passenger in the car, again this is in
the bylaws. My taste in music may
be different than the driver’s.
7. Train the drivers to get out of
their cars and open the doors for
the passengers – again, this is a
service industry. When you go to a
hotel the concierge opens the door
and this would be a great practice
and healthy for the driver as well.
These few suggestion may help
the public have a better image of
the taxi driver. The taxi drivers are
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VISIT TAXINEWS.COM FOR THE SOLUTIONS!
For $20 including HST / month you can advertise a plate for lease or plate to lease.
Advertising Call: John Duffy Tel: (416) 466-2328
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6
16 November 2015
Accommodating Uber will destroy all
benefits of regulation
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To the editor,
(Editor’s note: This is an open
letter to the Mayor and members
of council for the City of Mississauga.)
o accommodate Uber,
or not to accommodate
Uber, that is the question.
In due course, the PVAC will
deliberate on the recommendations
of a consultant’s report regarding
so-called ‘Technology Network
Companies’, and, in turn, recommend whether or not to regulate
them under the Public Vehicle Licensing Bylaw.
Ultimately, Council will render
a final decision, the consequences
of which will have far-reaching
implications for both the people of
Mississauga and members of the
taxi industry.
Before proceeding, it is worth
noting that the City has one of the
best regulated taxi industries in
Ontario, if not the entire country.
No other jurisdiction can lay claim
to a standing committee of Council, with citizen reps and industry
members, which has been operating continuously for more than 40
years.
T
Reliable taxi service is achieved,
first and foremost, by strictly controlling the number of cabs. This
enables those who provide the
service to earn a reasonable living. Mississauga has carefully
regulated the number of licensed
cabs since September, 1970, when
a freeze on additional plates was
first introduced, and the Priority
List created. Suffice to say, this
policy has served the City exceedingly well.
Enter Uber.
Notwithstanding claims that it is
not a taxi service – a claim rooted in semantics rather than fact
– Uber is illegally siphoning off
business that is the purview of the
City’s taxi industry. In short, a regulatory system, in place for more
than four decades, has been compromised by an interloper with no
official standing in Mississauga.
Imagine the howls should Uber
decide to operate a transit system within the City, all the while
thumbing its corporate nose at
regulations protecting Mississauga Transit. Would the City even
remotely consider accommodating Uber in this instance? Hardly.
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Fully Insured | Metro Lic #B20047
Effective November 1, 2015, the new fare to enter a taxicab will be $3.25.
Taxicabs must charge this reduced rate starting November 1.
Municipal Standards Officers will be testing and sealing taxicab meters at five (5) meter shops from Sunday,
November 1, 2015 to Wednesday, November 4, 2015, 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Automatrix Auto
Service Centre
Contact: Edward
Wong
22 Ingram Drive, Unit 3
(rear of 24 Ingram
Drive)
647-361-7720
Best Digital
Contact: William Li
44 Fasken Drive
Unit 1A
416-675-9473
Car Audio and Taxi
Service
Contact: Rajen
Paul
140 Manville Road
Unit 2
416-752-7770
Pardo’s Communications
Contact: Pardo
Albino
93 Broadview Ave
416-466-3100
Solid One
Contact: Nick
Arvanitakis
873 Eastern Ave
416-955-9806
Please note: Municipal Standards Officers will document the time and place of taxicab meter recalibration for each
taxicab. Taxicabs will be subject to random taxicab meter audits.
For more information, go to www.toronto.ca/vehicleinspections or call 416-392-6700
What’s good for the goose is good
for the gander.
The grim reality for Mississauga’s cabbies is inescapable.
If Uber, and similar ‘TNC’s’, are
recognized as a separate entity in
the Bylaw, and licensed to operate,
the balance between the demand
for service and the supply of cabs,
assiduously monitored for lo these
many years, will be destroyed, laying waste the livelihoods of hundreds of cabbies who have played
by the rules. All may be fair in
love and war, but this is business,
and, perforce, business needs to be
closely regulated.
Invoking the wise words of
George Santayana, philosopher,
poet and humanist: ‘Those who
cannot learn from history are
doomed to repeat it.’ Deregulation
of the taxi industry has failed miserably in every single city where
it has been introduced. Make no
mistake, accommodating Uber
effectively would deregulate taxi
service in Mississauga, rendering
it all but impossible for anyone to
earn a living. Greed and opportunism have a nasty habit of spoiling
things for all parties concerned.
For those who cling to the
misbegotten belief that more
cabs equates to better service,
think again. An oversupply of
cabs/’TNCs’ severely depresses
individual incomes, in turn leaving
operators with insufficient funds
to maintain their vehicles. What
follows is a sharp decline in the
quality of service. Drivers, obliged
to work an inordinate number of
hours attempting to make ends
meet, are prone to error. Friendly
service devolves into surly service.
Uber would have you believe
the taxi transportation pie is infinite in size. As with so many of
Uber’s claims, nothing could be
further from the truth.
Rather than imperil an industry the City has wholeheartedly
supported over time by creating
a separate licensing category for
‘TNCs’, why not simply insist
they play by existing rules, and use
the services of licensed cabs.
At present, Mississauga licenses
668 standard cabs, 152 of which
operate at Pearson International
Airport, in accordance with the
Licence Issuance Model. As well,
41 Accessible Taxis have been licensed. It would be politically expedient at best, and foolhardy at
worst, to circumvent a process that
has served the City so well, particularly when it involves a corporate
bully with no regard for the consequences of its actions, and, when
all is said and done, which chooses
to play by its own rules.
Thank you,
Peter D. Pellier