Competition good in ride-sharing world, Chamber says

WinnipegSun.com
Nov. 29, 2017
David Larkin

Loren Remillard thinks the arrival of ride-sharing will be good for business, including taxis.

Winnipeg must keep up with the “pace of innovation” and welcome ride-sharing once and for all, the president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce says.

The Chamber released recommendations on Wednesday that it has submitted to the City of Winnipeg on how the city should draw future vehicle-for-hire bylaws.

Chamber president Loren Remillard said while he respects the point of view of a taxi industry reluctant to welcome the likes of Uber or Lyft into the city, he doesn’t believe objections should stand in the way of progress.

“Blackberry was on top for the longest time. No one ever could conceive of the idea where Blackberry would not be the smartphone champion of the world,” he said. “But flash forward a few years later and they’re not. That is the pace of innovation in this world. It’s redefining the business community.

“We understand and we appreciate the concerns expressed by those representatives in the taxi industry. Many of those individuals have poured their heart and soul into their business. … But this is the nature of business.”

Among the Chamber’s recommendations is an assertion that the ride-sharing industry should be regulated differently than the taxicab industry.

“Ridesharing is unique from the traditional taxicab industry, so it needs its own unique regulations,” the Chamber’s report states.

The Chamber also sites figures from Mississauga, Ont., where taxi dispatches went up nearly 10% in the year after such companies came to the city. Remillard believes adding ride-sharing operations would help free up more cabs and create a similar effect in Winnipeg.

“The drivers, because it’s more advantageous for them to do volume, short distances, are really concentrated within that downtown business district,” he said. “Whereas it’s not as attractive to those drivers to do the long haul ones. … That’s where you’ve seen in some of these other jurisdictions a significant increase in the number of taxis because there’s more availability now.”

Remillard said Chamber members don’t fear competition.

“We have a lot of CEOs tell us ‘I don’t worry about my competitor. I worry about the kid in his parent’s garage creating the next disruptive technology that’s going to make my entire business obsolete.’”

Attempts by the Winnipeg Sun to reach a representative of the Winnipeg Taxi Alliance were unsuccessful.