Will Uber be driven out of city?

TheWhig.com
July 22, 2016
Paul Schliesmann

No Uber in Kingston.

Apparently, that will be the outcome if the Kingston Area Taxi Commission follows the recommendations of its task force report dealing with "transportation network companies."

A spokesman for Uber, Chris Schafer, said so himself this week.

If the ride-sharing company is forced to open a local office in Kingston, set minimum fares or put signage on its cars -- those are all reasons for Uber to say so long to the Limestone City.

That would be a remarkable turn of events.

Uber, with its smartphone app-based technology has been used to getting its way in the hundreds of markets it has barged its way into worldwide.

The company, according to Schafer, recently clocked its two-billionth ride.

That's a "2" with a "b."

As it has in Kingston, Uber employs a kind of Trojan horse business model.

It quietly recruits local drivers, then suddenly announces that they will be picking up fares and there's nothing officials can do until it's too late.

Could Kingston be one of the rare exceptions?

Since 1990, cab companies and taxi licence holders have been playing by made-in-Kingston rules established by a private members bill in the Ontario legislature.

The rules of the commission are exhaustive, including everything from dress codes for drivers to background criminal checks and maintenance inspections.

For more than a quarter of a century those guidelines, enforced and overseen by the commission, have made Kingston's taxi service what it is today: safe, reliable and clean, with a fare structure that is open and transparent.

And if you don't like the service or the experience, there are formal complaint mechanisms that can be triggered.

Kingston's taxi industry also fills the needs of a particular portion of the local population.

"There are a lot of older folks who don't own a smartphone and don't want to adapt," said Roy Ambury, the taxi commission's unofficial historian and a cab driver himself since 1978. "There are a lot of people who don't have a credit card."

Ambury has been witness to the remarkable evolution of the business.

Prior to 1990, Kingston and the surrounding townships used a zone system. Each time your cab crossed a line on a map it added an extra 25 cents or so to the fare. That meant a trip from today's Metro store to the corner of Princess and Victoria streets, a few hundred metres, might cost as much or more than a cab ride of several kilometres.

"It was a real wonky system," said Ambury.

Today, the big three cab companies in Kingston use their own apps for cab bookings, much the same as Uber's.

The local taxi industry has certainly not rolled over to Uber's emergence.

They rightly point out that while about 700 people are employed driving cab in Kingston, the taxi companies pay local taxes and the profits stay in the local economy.

The industry also enjoys special market conditions enshrined in the commission bylaws.

Ambury said there were about 450 taxis on Kingston-area roads at the time the commission was created, a number whittled in half to about 220.

Those 220 taxi plates are leased out by the commission; without one, no one can provide passenger pickup and delivery service in the city.

As Ambury pointed out, there is a considerable waiting list for plates, so letting Uber into the market would allow it to essentially jump the queue.

Other jurisdictions, like Ottawa, have tried to use bylaw enforcement to crack down on Uber drivers.

But the court approach didn't work as judges handed the problem back to the municipalities to settle with Uber themselves.

Thus the Kingston task force and its 26 recommendations that seek to guarantee Uber will at least play by the rules that the taxi companies must follow.

But no Uber in Kingston?

That's a possible outcome that continues to nag taxi commission chairman John Pyke and one that goes to the heart of the commission mandate.

"Where's the public interest here? As a regulator we're looking at two parts: protecting the public and protecting the drivers. I'm not appointed by an industry association to protect a certain business interest," said Pyke.

"If people want to use Uber is it reasonable for the taxi commission to work to facilitate that? I think it's reasonable for us to consider the public interest."

Pyke said it is unfortunate that they haven't heard from members of the public.

"Are they happy with the status quo?" he asked. "Do they want Uber? What is the public interest?"

That's something the commission will have to determine when it sees the draft bylaw concerning transportation network companies possibly sometime in August.

Roy Ambury is clear on that point.

"I think that Uber should have to jump through all the hoops the plateholders have to jump through to be licensed," he said.

And that could spell the end of Uber in Kingston.