Decals: One last thing to debate before region’s new taxi bylaw is final

TheRecord.com
Aug. 18, 2016
Anam Latif  

How big should an identifying decal be on a taxi, limo or Uber car?

Regional councillors are still trying to figure it out after a meeting Wednesday.

It's the only issue left to vote on in the region's proposed vehicle-for-hire bylaw that will replace the existing taxi bylaw and make ride-hailing app Uber legal.

In the draft bylaw, all vehicles-for-hire will be required to have two decals printed with the broker's name or trademark visible on vehicles.

But how big should they be?

In Toronto, council approved decals at a size of 5.5 inches by 5.5 inches, about the size of an index card.

Uber told council they want to keep decals consistent. Regional councillors didn't quite agree.

"My concern is not everyone has 20/20 vision. There are a lot of people that probably couldn't make out a small decal like that," Coun. Geoff Lorentz said.

The decal size shrunk a bit since politicians first saw the draft bylaw in June.

Staff recommended a decal that is roughly 12 inches by 12 inches as a minimum requirement.

In a new report, staff said they reduced the size after receiving industry feedback.

Cabbies in the crowd weren't too pleased with this change.

"I personally think if we are to go with this size we might as well completely abandon any decal size requirements altogether as the new proposed size is simply not going to work. It's too small." said Tiho Popovic of City Cabs.

He noted it would not be visible by residents who have a visual impairment.

Council decided to defer the issue to a Sept. 21 meeting to further review decal size.

"I would be very interested in finding out if there's been any research done on people with visual impairments to see how big it needs to be to be legible and accessible," Coun. Karen Redman said.

Council hopes to wrap up the proposed bylaw that same day with a final vote. A new taxi bylaw has been in the works for over a year.

Taxi drivers have lobbied the regional government to create a balanced playing field for all vehicle-for-hire drivers, arguing the arrival of Uber hit the taxi industry hard.

Two other outstanding concerns, in-car cameras and licensing fees, were approved Wednesday night.

Regional staff recommended traditional taxi cabs should be required to have in-car cameras but not Uber vehicles, arguing pre-arrangement and GPS monitoring were sufficient for safety.

Council voted to scrap in-car cameras and only require GPS monitoring systems instead.

The idea behind GPS tracking is that trips can be tracked, stored and handed over to law enforcement if required.

Council also scrapped the recommended licence fee schedule, opting to charge ride-hailing and car-sharing companies per trip instead of annual per-vehicle fees.

Broker fees for taxis will be scaled according to fleet size. Annual fees range between $150 for one to 50 cars and $50,000 for fleets between 2,000 and 2,999 cars.

Auxiliary taxis like Uber will pay 0.11 cent fees per trip and a 0.7 cent fee in lieu of providing accessible vehicles.

Licensing fees will be reviewed six months after the bylaw goes into effect, an undetermined date at this time.

RideCo, a small local ridesharing company, asked the region to push the date so they can work on getting an insurance policy specific to their model.

The bylaw was first supposed to go into effect on Jan. 1 and then Oct. 1 of this year. Council said they will pick a date at the next council meeting on Sept. 21.