Olivia Chow acknowledges Taxi, rideshare drivers’ concerns
“Let’s give it another try…let’s see if we could do better”
Uber’s influence in the Mayor’s office is not what it was when John Tory presided, it appears.
At the close of the December 10th Executive Committee meeting, half of which was dedicated to a review of Toronto’s Vehicle for Hire industry, Chow noted that Uber had contacted her to complain.
“We gave a task to the staff, and they did hard work. They invited 76,800 people for consultation in the month of June to July of this year. They had 3224 consultation participants, over 1000 users, 121 with accessibility needs. They asked the taxi and the limo industry, with 292 folks industry, PTC industry, stakeholders, five town halls, 320 attendees, and many of you submitted emails, feedbacks. And yet, this morning, I was told by one of the companies, Uber, to be precise, that somehow we did not consult.”
“Excuse me, that is definitely not the case.”
After an emotionally gruelling afternoon of listening to Uber drivers trapped in poverty and Taxi drivers whose retirement plans were annihilated, Chow proposed sending the staff report back for more work. The report’s recommendation that rideshare vehicles be “capped” at 80,429 licensed was derided by almost every speaker, all day, as being exponentially too many.
Other elements of the report deemed to need more work included algorithmic pricing and consumer protection; accessible services; congestion; driver earnings; and several others.
Chow’s motion, passed unanimously
Caution: Motions are shown below. Any motions should not be considered final until the meeting is complete, and the City Clerk has confirmed the decisions for this meeting.
1 – Motion to Refer Item moved by Mayor Olivia Chow (Final)
That:
1. The Executive Committee refer the item to the Deputy City Manager, Infrastructure Services, in consultation with the Deputy City Manager, Corporate Services, for further consideration and report back to the Executive Committee with recommendations including:
a. congestion management measures within the City of Toronto’s jurisdiction to reduce the impact of empty Private Transportation Company vehicles on congestion, including traffic modeling-informed guidelines for the appropriate modal mix between private vehicles, vehicle-for-hire vehicles and other modes of transportation in the downtown core and inner suburbs;
b. a jurisdictional scan of the Private Transportation Company fleet size per capita in neighbouring municipalities, data on the number of licensed Private Transportation Company drivers in Toronto who also hold licenses in neighbouring municipalities and how many trips begin or end outside the City of Toronto’s boundaries;
c. consumer protection measures within the City of Toronto’s jurisdiction to ensure a competitive and fair vehicle-for-hire sector, including consideration of the following measures as a condition of Private Transportation Company licensing:
i. in-app fee transparency in both standard and ‘surge pricing’ conditions detailing how much the rider paid to the driver, to the Private Transportation Company and any other fees paid by the rider or driver;
ii. post-event transparency detailing the number of additional drivers active in-app as a result of ‘surge pricing’ and the corresponding impact on consumer wait times, to be disclosed publicly following any instance of ‘surge pricing’; and
iii. regulating the fares charged by Private Transportation Companies to riders;
d. options to incentivize and expedite the shift in the Vehicle-for-Hire fleet to zero-emission vehicles, in addition to existing considerations without additional cost to the City of Toronto;
e. options for a dynamic licensing limit that responds to a number of variables including congestion
targets, rider wait times, driver unengaged time, the proportion of active drivers out of the total licensed, and emissions reductions, and a principle of one driver-one license, and engage a table comprising representatives from the vehicle-for-hire sector, including drivers and drivers’ associations, to inform this approach;
f. recommendations for the Province of Ontario to inform a regional approach to vehicle-for-hire licensing that takes into account cross-border travel and licensing, regional travel patterns and congestion management, environmental considerations, AODA compliance, consumer protection, and employment standards;
g. further cost analysis, cost-benefit analysis, and possible operational models of the proposed Centralized Dispatch Service, including the feasibility of soliciting bids from external suppliers to operate the Centralized Dispatch Service or utilizing existing dispatch service through WheelTrans central dispatch;
h. the feasibility of lowering the fee for Standard Plate Owner renewals, including the examination of reduction scenarios up to 75 percent and the associated costs of a reduction;
i. the feasibility of directly distributing the Zero Emission Vehicle Grant Program to drivers through a one-license/one-driver approach to Private Transportation Company driver licensing; and
j. options to reduce the financial burden on individual taxi drivers for to transition to digital meters.
4a – 2024 Review of the Vehicle-for-Hire By-law and Industry – Supplemental Report: The Transportation Impacts of Vehicle-for-Hire in the City of Toronto
Recommendations
The General Manager, Transportation Services recommends that:
1. The Executive Committee receive this report for information.
Origin
(December 9, 2024) Report from the General Manager, Transportation Services
Summary
The purpose of this report is to provide the full 2024 Transportation Impact Study, included as Attachment 1 to this supplementary report.
Financial Impact
There is no financial impact resulting from this report.
Background Information
(December 9, 2024) Supplementary report from the General Manager, Transportation Services on 2024 Review of the Vehicle-for-Hire By-law and Industry – The Transportation Impacts of Vehicle-for-Hire in the City of Toronto
https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2024/ex/bgrd/backgroundfile-251487.pdf
Attachment 1 – The Transportation Impacts of Vehicle-for-Hire in the City of Toronto
https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2024/ex/bgrd/backgroundfile-251488.pdf
