It’s Toronto’s responsibility to protect taxi drivers

Taxi drivers operate the way we insist they do - and they’re getting “clobbered.”

Thestar.com
Feb. 5, 2016
By Royson James

I had vowed some time ago to stay clear of the morass that is the city’s taxi industry. And here I am again being dragged into the maelstrom. Emails upon letters upon phone calls have greeted Wednesday’s column that slams city council for fiddling while the industry they regulate and encumber burns.

This is not an apologetic for the cabbies. Some are slovenly. Some contribute to their bad image by turning away passengers whose fares are not large enough, even though this is illegal. Some don’t show up as requested. Some forget they are in the service industry. Some needed a kick in the pants that Uber has provided.

But this is a regulated industry. They play by rules set by the community - through our elected officials at city hall. They operate the way we insist they do - often to their financial detriment.

When was the last time you saw an old cab? They carry extensive insurance coverage. Cabs are inspected frequently. New rules demand accessibility to people with disabilities. These are all good. A civilized and caring society demands the rules and regulations that protect citizens against price gouging, injury, and arbitrary conduct.

Enter Uber, with no rules.

An aggrieved taxi industry might be forgiven if it flouted the rules imposed on them by the city - until the rules apply to everyone, Uber included. Forget the minimum charge that starts the meter. Turn it on after 5 minutes. Or, run frequent sales, like “Half-price Tuesdays.” Charge more in snowstorms or after Leafs games or during the NBA all-star weekend. Don’t renew taxi licences. Line up at city hall and beg the inspectors to enforce the above, all of them, bylaw infractions. Swamp the system. Create a crisis. Maybe, then, city hall will understand the urgency of the situation.

Oh, the public will whine and grouse and wag fingers at the irresponsible cab drivers. These are the same public who now give cabbies the finger in order to save $5 or $10 on a fare. The way of the world, circa 2016, is to rush to the bottom. Increasingly, citizens care only about one thing: how to save a buck.

The rest understand the need to fight back.

As misery loves company, I called the politician who first got me writing about the cab industry. Howard Moscoe. Remember him? He tried all his political life to reform the industry, to reduce the value of the plate and level the playing field, to get drivers a fair shake.

“I’ve carried this burden all my life,” says the retired city councillor. “I always cared for the individual driver who had to work half a day just to cover the leasing cost of the car.”

Moscoe’s uncle Joe received the city’s first sold taxi licence plate. Returning from the war - he was captured in Dieppe - he and others formed the Independent Cab Owners Association, convinced city hall to sell them a taxi licence. This, in time, would increase in value and serve as a pension for the war widows.

Moscoe’s dad, Alex, drove for 25 years.

Moscoe’s attempted reforms were never uniformly welcomed in an industry where every benefit for one is denounced as a death blow to the other. And now?

“The taxi industry is gone forever. That’s certain,” Moscoe says. “You can’t beat Uber, you have to join them. If Uber can come in and do it, why not you?”

The result would be a kind of Wild, Wild West where several competing online dispatchers like Uber match cars with passengers.

If the city feels it has an obligation to protect citizens - and it does, Moscoe says - then it would have to force all drivers, Uber included, to be licensed, insured, have their cars inspected on a regular basis. You may have to deregulate fares - which, of course, opens it up to price gouging. Competition, and thousands of available rides, one hopes, would counter this.

“The city has the responsibility to protect the taxi industry,” Moscoe says. “The city allowed it to develop this way; the city has the responsibility to relieve the pain. They owe it to the industry. They are all being clobbered by technology.”