Despite the city’s efforts to keep Uber out of Burnaby, it appears the battle has been lost.
On Tuesday, the province announced ride-sharing services will be coming to B.C. by December 2017 after more than a year of consultations.
In an effort to level the playing field between the taxi industry and ride-sharing companies, the province plans to implement several measures, including doing away with municipal boundaries, so drivers can provide services wherever and whenever a passenger needs a ride.
Dan Layng, Burnaby’s chief licence inspector, told the NOW it’s too early to know what this will mean for local bylaws.
“At this point, we’re just digesting the information,” he said. “I’m going to reach out to my counterparts in other cities. We all have similar (taxi) bylaws, so it will have impact regionally. We just have to determine now what that impact is and what we want to do moving forward.”
Other provincial measures include:
*Investing up to $1 million into new app-based technology for taxis, so the public could hail and pay for a cab with a smartphone in the same way they would for a ride-sharing service
*Installing crash avoidance technology in all B.C. taxis, a cost to ICBC of up to $3.5 million
*Taxis will retain exclusive rights to be hired by phone, at a taxi stand or flagged down at the curb
*Streamlining insurance claims, with savings in the range of 25 per cent
*Opening up the taxi supply to address the shortage of taxis and vehicles for hire
The City of Burnaby’s stance on ride sharing, specifically Uber, has been that the business model is no good.
Councillors have repeatedly voiced concerns about the service, including passenger safety and how it would affect the city’s taxi industry.
“Instead of supporting local entrepreneurs and protecting consumers, they seem to have knuckled under to the billionaires from Silicon Valley,” Coun. Sav Dhaliwal said of the announcement, what he called a “squandered opportunity.”
Ride sharing isn’t good for taxi drivers who have invested hundreds and thousands of dollars into buying an operating licence, Dhaliwal added.
“People have invested because they believed it was a franchise backed by the province of British Columbia. That was their ticket to a job, which was barely making a living. They took a mortgage; they didn’t buy homes. They bought taxis because at least that was putting food on the table. Today, that turned into nothing,” the councillor said.
Dhaliwal said Uber drivers having wheel-chair accessible vehicles is another concern. He pointed to Burnaby-based Bonny’s Taxi, which has 15 per cent of its fleet equipped for wheelchairs, he said.
Uber’s surge prices – when fares automatically increase when taxi demand is higher than the drivers on the road – is worrisome, too, said Dhaliwal.
“That’s when people need a taxi the most. That’s not consumer protection; that’s just helping somebody, billionaires, get more money.”
The province, however, says it will make sure that “appropriate safeguards” are in place to protect consumers through fair and transparent pricing.
The new measures will also see Class 4 licences phased out for taxi drivers. Instead, both industries will maintain records that prove: all drivers have an unrestricted driver’s licence and are at least 19 years of age; all drivers have passed a criminal record check; all drivers have passed a safe driving record check; and vehicles have passed regular mechanical inspections.
Tuesday’s announcement was met with some backlash from the Vancouver Taxi Association, which plans to fight the proposed changes, according to multiple media reports.
