Taxi operators, owners continue to fend off Uber

TheWhig.com
Nov. 16, 2016
Paul Schliesmann

Kingston taxi operators and owners appeared before the Kingston Area Taxi Commission on Wednesday to make their pitch for protecting their livelihoods in the face of competition from the Uber ridesharing service.

They also urged the commission to speed up the writing of a new regulatory bylaw -- only to hear that the computer bearing the draft regulations had crashed and the information likely not retrievable.

That glitch will likely push the writing process into the new year.

"We have a very excellent taxi service in Kingston," said driver Kevin Murphy, who with other local members of the taxi industry has been watching the review process unfold over the last nine months.

Murphy focused his presentation on safety concerns with Uber, listing a number of incidents around the province where Uber drivers have allegedly sexually assaulted passengers.

He said he recently stopped training a driver candidate because the man was making lewd comments about women as they walked by -- but he doubted if Uber's vetting system would be able to do the same.

Mike Mulrooney said he owns 19 cabs and employs 62 drivers and his operation pays $130,000 in GST charges.

He described the taxi industry as the fifth-largest employer in Kingston and important to the local economy.

The owner of Ameys Taxi, Mark Greenwood, called Uber a "heartless company who care nothing about the law, its drivers or local community in which it operates" and stressed the benefits the local taxis bring to the Kingston economy and community.

Lack of tight regulations on Uber and other app-based ride companies, Greenwood said, will result in "the degradation of your local taxi industry and replace it with a multinational who does not care for its drivers or could not even find Kingston on a map at their head office in California."

Following the presentations, commission member Ric Bresee of Loyalist Township moved a resolution defining a taxi "as transportation for persons or passengers in exchange for a fee or tariff" and "that non-traditional services shall be regulated under an upcoming bylaw from the Kingston Area Taxi Commission."

Bresee said he just wanted to get those definitions "on the books" to make it clear ride-sharing services should also be regulated.

"Having this on our books gives us the ability to say whoever is delivering people in a car for a fee is a taxi," he said.

Uber representative Chris Schafer also attended the commission meeting.

He said a number of Ontario cities are introducing bylaws that allow Uber and the traditional taxi companies to co-exist.

"Kingston continues to talk about ways to regulate ride-sharing out of existence," he said after listening to the discussion.

Commission chairman John Pyke said he will ask the City of Kingston for administrative help to get the new bylaw completed.

"What we need is a draft bylaw in front of the committee to discuss," said Pyke.