Toronto announces new Uber licence, background checks for drivers

The GlobeandMail.com
Aug. 16, 2016
By Jeff Gray and Oliver Moore

A month after contentious rules to legalize UberX were supposed to come into effect, the City of Toronto said on Tuesday that it had issued a new sort of licence to the disruptive ride-for-hire service and will begin screening its drivers with criminal background checks.

Taxi drivers’ groups, stung by the decision to allow Uber to operate its service in Toronto, had lashed out at the time it was taking to issue a licence to their controversial competitor and had planned a protest for Wednesday morning. Some called for Uber to be shut down until it is licensed.

Paul Sekhon, head of the United Taxi Workers Association of the GTA, said the protest would go ahead. He argued that the city’s new rules for Uber don’t go far enough and called it “a stunt” to announce the new licence on the eve of the demonstration.

“They are playing with the innocent lives of taxi drivers,” Mr. Sekhon said in a phone interview.

At a news conference late Tuesday afternoon, Tracey Cook, head of the licensing department, denied the timing had anything to do with the protest planned for outside her department’s east-end offices, saying it was coincidental.

“I have a lot of respect for the taxi industry,” Ms. Cook told reporters. “They’re upset. It’s a period of transformation. They have a right to do what it is they want to do. It’s unfortunate. I would really rather see the taxi cab industry work on delivering quality customer service to the people that use their service instead of protesting.”

The city has approved Uber for a Private Transportation Company licence, saying this will be the first of its sort in the country. The decision means the city will begin screening UberX drivers for criminal backgrounds, driving record and insurance. Ms. Cook said the city would begin to vet information Uber is collecting from its 12,000 drivers, before issuing individual licences to those drivers, a process she expects to take until the end of September.

Since city council passed the Uber changes on May 3 after a divisive and at-times emotional debate, municipal bureaucrats have been busy setting up a system to administer the new regime. Ms. Cook said city officials originally planned to issue the licence to Uber on Aug. 3, but installing new technology took longer than anticipated. The rules, which require Uber drivers to have insurance, undergo inspections and identify their vehicles, became law on July 15.

In an e-mail, Beck Taxi operations manager Kristine Hubbard expressed approval at Tuesday’s development.

“We’re glad Uber has been brought into the regulatory framework, that they will have to respect the responsibilities that come along with that,” she wrote. “We look forward to the city screening and licensing individual Uber drivers as soon as possible to ensure that all ground transportation options are safe for Torontonians.”

Ms. Cook said Uber was co-operating with the city and already following the new rules, including one that forbids cars older than seven years from being used as Uber cars or taxis. That change alone has pulled 30 per cent of Uber’s cars in Toronto off the road, she said.

“Today marks another important milestone for bringing affordable on-demand transportation options to Toronto,” Uber Canada spokeswoman Susie Heath said in a statement.

“We are pleased to receive our PTC license from the City of Toronto today and look forward to continuing to serve the hundreds of thousands of Torontonians who ride and drive on the Uber platform every week in our city.”