Uber Public Consultation Results to be Tabled at City Hall

640toronto.com
June 21, 2016

City councillors are about to get their first look at the full results of London’s public consultations on Uber’s operation in the Forest City.

The information will be revealed during Tuesday’s meeting of the Community and Protective Services Committee at City Hall.

The data includes results from an Ipsos phone survey the City commissioned which found 64 per cent of respondents want Uber to follow the same by-laws as taxis and limos.

The City says 500 Londoners were contacted for the poll.

Over the course of the last few months, city officials have met with representatives from Uber, local limo and taxi drivers as well as heavyweights from London’s business and tourism sectors.

London’s Chief Municipal Law Enforcement Officer Orest Katolyk says they also spoke with seniors and local youth to learn about their perspectives. Katolyk says he believes their consultation process was also a good public education campaign.

“The public definitely recognizes that a new form of vehicle for hire has been around and is not going to go away,” Katolyk tells AM980. “I think there were a lot of people that learned things also that existing brokers do use modern technology.”

Spokesman for the London Taxi Association, Roger Caranci, says proper guidelines for Uber’s operation in London need to be in place and the group is happy the report headed to Tuesday’s committee meeting suggests the same.

“It’s the protection of the consumer and the drivers and if staff were to go towards watering that down we think that would be going down the wrong path so we’re happy to see that the report says that those things that protect people should be included in whatever bylaw is put foward to allow Uber to operate legally.”

Caranci maintains Uber’s current form of operation is putting people at risk.

“We don’t know how good the cars are, we don’t know who the actual people are that are driving them,” he says. “People are being put at risk every single day when they take a ride and we’re very adamant about that fact.”

“We want to make sure that (Uber abides) by the rules in place until those rules are changed.”

Tuesday’s meeting of the Community and Protective Services Committee begins at 4 p.m.