Region says no to in-car cameras for Uber, taxis as it wrangles with proposed bylaw

Therecord.com
Aug. 18, 2016
By Anam Latif

Cameras, licences and decals - that's what it came down to as regional councillors deliberated sticking points in the proposed vehicle-for-hire bylaw on Wednesday night.

If passed, the vehicle-for-hire bylaw will make ride-hailing app Uber legal.

As a licensing and hearing committee neared the three-hour mark, councillors decided vehicles-for-hire will not be required to have in-car cameras but will need GPS monitoring systems.

"What we've done here is consistent with what's going on across the province," regional chair Ken Seiling said after the marathon committee meeting.

Council was expected to cast a final vote on the proposed bylaw on Wednesday that would make ride-hailing app Uber legal, but the decision was pushed to Sept. 21 to deliberate further on the issue of decal requirements for all cars for hire.

City staff first recommended that traditional taxis will be required to have cameras but not auxiliary taxis like Uber.

Requiring in-car cameras was a deal-breaker for Uber.

"Taxis are anonymous, you don't know who they are getting in the back seat," said Uber Canada representative Chris Schafer.

"In the Uber ridesharing model people aren't anonymous and there is no cash transaction."

But the local taxi industry argued cameras should be required in all for-hire vehicles to even out what they have called an unfair playing field.

"We have an opportunity here to be pioneers, we can put these cameras in place," said Bill Chester, a representative of the Waterloo Region Taxi Alliance.

Under the existing bylaw, cameras are not required for taxis.

"In a few years time people could run out of business," Chester said. "We're trying our best to be competitive."

The other big issue was about the region's proposed licence fees that would require per-vehicle licences.

Uber didn't like the idea and said in other cities, a per-trip fee model seems to work well. Other local ridesharing companies, such as RideCo and Driverseat, agreed.

Schafer said the model "works well for the ridesharing industry."

He said it's because many ridesharing and ride-hailing companies have drivers who only drive a few hours a week to "top up their income."

Large upfront fees would hinder them from pursuing that opportunity, Schafer added.

The fees would mean Uber drivers would pay 0.11 per trip, a charge that would appear on consumer receipts.

The proposed vehicle-for-hire bylaw, meant to replace the region's taxi bylaws, has been in the works since last summer when Uber became available locally.

If given the green light, the bylaw will officially go into effect at some point this fall. That date has changed a few times as the region has wrangled with the bylaws nuances.

Uber told the region last summer the ride-hailing app will wait until a new regional bylaw was in place before launching locally.

They set up shop anyway, much to the ire of regional politicians and local taxi drivers.

Many around the regional council table were hung up on the way Uber pushed in and has been operating illegally for more than a year as council scrambled to put a new bylaw together.

Mayor Berry Vrbanovic said while he supports technology, he doesn't support Uber's approach.

"It's what gives technology a bad name," he said.