‘We have family to feed.’ Toronto taxi drivers say more support needed as city offers relief to beleaguered industry

Thestar.com
Feb. 26, 2021
Jenna Moon

Beck Taxi driver Jafar Mirsalari remembers one pandemic-era pickup clearly. It was 4 a.m. in COVID-19’s early days, and he had picked up a customer from the hospital.

Though the customer was masked, they were coughing and seemed to have difficulty breathing. “Don’t worry, it’s not corona,” Mirsalari recalls the passenger saying before they opened the door.

“As a part of our job, we are supposed to transport people from A to B, whether they’re sick or drunk or whatever the case might be,” Mirsalari said. So when the ill passenger asked for a ride, he didn’t hesitate to open his doors. Later, Mirsalari drove around with his windows down to air out the vehicle and cleaned the surfaces inside.

After that, ride requests dropped substantially. The lack of people on the street meant fewer people taking a taxi to get around, while the customers that did exist took shorter trips for fear of encountering the virus. In an industry that has already grappled with the rise of ride-sharing and the high costs of licensing, the pandemic has meant yet another blow to taxi drivers trying to get by.

“I would say if you work 12 hours, you’re lucky if you get seven (or) eight calls,” Mirsalari said. “A lot of drivers don’t even get that, they end up with $40, $50 a day.” Despite the low earnings, many drivers have opted to stay on the road.

Including gas, insurance and brokerage fees, daily earnings between $100 and $220 are needed to break even on expenses, Mirsalari said. Brokerage fees at Beck Taxi have been reduced by 50 per cent since April 2020, and those who have stopped driving are not charged, the company confirmed.

“If the car goes off the road or if your licence gets revoked, it’s not that easy to get the licence back if you lose it,” he explained. “You have to reapply (and) go through the whole process from scratch.”

The costs associated with driving a taxi in Toronto have only grown: Aside from the new cost of installing plastic shields in cars and keeping extra masks on hand for passengers, Mirsalari also estimated that, in total, he pays around $1,400 annually as an owner and operator of the taxi.

City council voted earlier this month to recognize the industry’s suffering by reducing regulatory fees. Presented with options ranging from cutting fees by anywhere from 25 per cent to 75 per cent, councillors opted for a 50-per-cent reduction.

Fiona Chapman, a director in the city’s licensing division, said the actual motion approved by council cut fees for taxi brokerages and owners of taxi and limousine licences, but not taxi and limo drivers, despite councillors’ comments at the meeting suggesting drivers were getting relief.

City staff, in consultation with city legal, have since figured out how to extend the rate relief to drivers as well.

Annual renewal fees being reduced by 50 per cent this year include $1003.84 for taxi owners, $132.60 for drivers and $281.95 for brokerages that provide services including dispatch. Also, a new charge on taxi and ride-hailing services to help fund extra payments to providers of accessible on-demand service for riders with disabilities will be reduced by 75 per cent this year.

Chapman said she knows insurance costs are the biggest concern for many taxi operators, but the fee reduction will provide some relief. “Like everything else, every little bit helps,” she said.

Samy Halim, who commutes from Mississauga to drive his taxi in Toronto, said about 50 per cent of his business has disappeared. Meanwhile, he estimates that he’s lost as much as 75 per cent of the customers that would normally flag him from the sidewalk.

Samy Halim, who commutes from Mississauga to drive his taxi in Toronto, said about 50 per cent of his business has disappeared. Meanwhile, he estimates that he's lost as much as 75 per cent of the customers that would normally flag him from the sidewalk.

“It has a big impact on everything,” Halim said, continuing that he’s trying to provide for his wife and triplet teen girls who are studying online for their first year of university. “We have to spend from the money we saved. We (haven’t) saved anything since (coronavirus) came.”

That said, Halim’s optimistic things will look up -- something he’s trying to impress on his passengers. “We want them to be positive, I tell people, ‘don’t worry, it’s going to go away.’ ”

The fear of catching the virus comes second to getting people around, Halim said, noting he doesn’t avoid picking up passengers from the hospitals. “These people have to get around too. We have to transport people. It has an impact for them.”

Halim says the city should do more to help drivers in his situation. “We have family to feed,” and some have families abroad that need support, he said.

Kristine Hubbard of Beck Taxi said she’s grateful that some councillors have taken up the taxi industry cause.

“For sure it helps,” she said of the rate cut that will mean hundreds of precious dollars saved for operators. The vast majority of taxi plate owners are also drivers, she said.

Hubbard said the number of taxis paying a monthly fee for Beck’s dispatch and marketing services has dropped by half since last March.

A snapshot of daily trip data shared with the Star shows total rides in a 24-hour period dramatically declined, hitting fewer than 3,000 in mid-April 2020.

However, while she appreciates the break offered by the city, Hubbard says taxi operators are still at a disadvantage in comparison to ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft -- a disadvantage felt more acutely during the pandemic, with extra requirements for insurance, vehicles and more.

“This doesn’t level the playing field at all.”