1. Art and Diseño

Is
someone having
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40050017
February 2015 Vol. 30 No. 2
A woeful
story
Toronto taxi drivers report the 2014
holiday season was the slowest in
memory and even some brokerages
are admitting business was down as
much as 25 percent. Meanwhile, city
hall continues pumping out new taxi
licenses, more and more Ambassadors
are on the road around the clock, the
streets are over-run with unlicensed
competition and your costs are going
through the roof. Where does it end?
See story on page 3
Editorial, page 6
Cover CAB
This month’s Cover Cab is Hussein Ali, originally from Mogadishu, Somalia. Ali came to Canada
in 1988 and he’s been driving cab for 18 years. He says the more he drives a cab, the more
he’s learned to like it. Ali has already taken his TTL test and is just waiting for his new vehicle.
2 February 2015
L&S has second thoughts about City’s
controversial cab reforms
M
by John Q. Duffy
embers of the Licensing and Standards
Committee have voted
to request staff reports on licensing bylaws in general, and,
in particular, how to reopen various aspects of the latest round
of taxi reforms passed by Council in February 2014.
The votes came at the first meeting of L&S held in this new term
of council, held Wednesday, January 14th, 2015.
Members of the committee are
Councillors Cesar Palacio (Chair),
Glenn De Baeremaeker, Frank Di
Giorgio, Jim Karygiannis (Vicechair), Giorgio Mammoliti, and
Josh Matlow.
The committee chair, Cesar Palacio, asked Municipal Licensing
and Standards staff to do a “comprehensive” review of the City’s
licensing bylaws, arguing that
many are so outdated as to be an
embarrassment to the City.
“In essence” he says in his motion, “the Bylaw should be reviewed clause by clause and each
requirement and type of business
license must be justified as why it
is there, and if those reasons are
still relevant and sensible.“
Furthermore, three committee
members brought up their own
taxi-specific motions as rare “new
business” items. All asked for
staff reports, all of which were approved.
STARS
Georgio Mammoliti moved that
MLS “review the previous City
Council direction on the rationale
for restricting the transfer of standard taxi licenses to licensed taxicab drivers and report back to the
Licensing and Standards Committee.”
He said he simply did not understand why the latest round of
restrictions on plate transfers was
instituted.
Glenn Di Baeremaeker moved
MLS report to the March 24, 2015
Licensing and Standards Committee meeting on the rationale for
choosing July 1, 2014 as the effective date for an Ambassador License being able to be transferred
to an estate.”
He said one of his constituents
died tragically and unexpectedly.
The widow, who wants to drive
her husband’s taxi to support her
family, has been prevented from
doing so because of this cut off
date.
The councillor wants to understand the reasoning behind the
date imposed on the industry.
Finally, Frank Di Georgio stated
the City’s “taxi licensing system
is unstable and uncertain because
City Council recently took actions that modified the regulatory
framework of the industry, using
an abbreviated approval process.”
He stated, “Furthermore, the
Council decision of February 19,
2014, had the effect of violating a
fundamental notion of entrenched
rights, bringing more turmoil to
the industry.”
Furthermore, he stated, “Historically, pre-existing rights or
licenses with specific attributes
have received protection under
new legislation or regulations.”
He said, “Council’s decision in
February 2014 stripped standard
taxi licenses of that protection. It
is imperative that this fundamental
right be protected if the industry is
to succeed in embracing new technology and more effective operations. Any changes to the licensing structure of the industry must
assess the economic viability and
sustainability of the industry as
well as provide for a reasonable
and equitable phased implementation of initiatives.”
He asked for a MLS staff report
for the March 24, 2015, meeting
on the feasibility of reinstating
the Toronto taxi licensing regulations for standard plate licenses
“that existed prior to February 19,
2014.”
In his motion asking for the
comprehensive by-law review,
Palacio stated that he is asking for
a, “bold and innovative action to
address critical challenges that our
City faces, that is, to ensure that
our City is more livable, affordable, functional, and conductive to
do business by eliminating unnecessary regulations and red-tape.”
He stated, “In many ways, the
Bylaw has become a frustrating
impediment to small business and
an embarrassing example of municipal red-tape. A comprehensive
review is long overdue.”
Councillor Frank Di
Georgio stated the
City’s “taxi licensing
system is unstable and
uncertain because City
Council recently took
actions that modified
the regulatory framework of the industry,
using an abbreviated
approval process.”
He stated, “Furthermore, the Council decision of February 19,
2014, had the effect of
violating a fundamental notion of entrenched
rights, bringing more
turmoil to the industry.”
He said he would like to see the
list of licensing bylaws reduced to
half, or less, of its current size.
Toronto requires licenses of
more than 100 “businesses, trades
and callings” while, by comparison, the City of Ottawa licenses
only 16 businesses.
Toronto requires licenses of
some businesses that are either
provincially or self-regulated, creating unnecessary paperwork and
duplication expense and red tape,
giving citizens a sense of consumer protection while in fact doing
nothing but imposing a license requirement for the sake of having a
City license, he said.
For example, “The Bylaw requires a license for a number of
antiquated, archaic and obsolete
things that should be revisited.”
There is a license requirement
for: “Every person who sells fresh
horse meat in quantities less than
by the quarter carcass.” Ch. 5452(23): “Every person who owns
or keeps any exhibition of wax
works, menagerie, circus-riding
or other like show usually exhibited by showmen.” Ch. 545-2(15):
“Every proprietary club (as defined by the Municipal Act), which
directly or indirectly keeps or has
in its possession or on its premises any billiard, pool or bagatelle
table.” (The Municipal Act, on the
above-noted examples, no longer
even contains such a definition.)
• see page 14
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3 February 2015
Overseers driving industry to brink of
collapse, warns veteran critic
In a 4,500 word manifesto mailed en masse to members of local and provincial government, media
and industry members, veteran taxi regulation critic Gerry Manley throws down the gauntlet…
P
by Mike Beggs
otentially brought it its
knees by the City’s new
taxi bylaw – including
such hugely contentious measures as the new Toronto Taxi
License, and 100 percent on demand wheelchair accessible taxi
service – long-time owner/operator Gerald Manley suggests
the struggling industry may be
on the road to self-implosion.
But in an 8-page manifesto issued on January 1, and sent to government and industry en masse, he
suggests, “The beast the Toronto
cab industry faces is a multi-headed beast” and that “it will take a
unified effort to bring this creature
to its demise”.
And, he warns that any one head
of this Colossus could cause severe
industry damage if uncontested.
For example, he believes the
Province and the City are both
heading towards deregulation of
the Toronto industry. And while
other cities have gone this route
and come back to the table to address fair regulation, he feels, “if
they continue down the road of
leading our industry to its financial
ruin, it will be much too late.”
Manley maintains that the Province is “definitely the main body
of the beast” and must ultimately
shoulder the responsibility for all
of the issues the Toronto industry
faces today. He notes that back
in 2006, the Province enacted
the City of Toronto Act (COTA)
which gave the City self-governing powers, describing the City’s
government as mature and responsible, and capable of implementing responsible by-laws.
He says that assumption, “has
been proven incorrect”, but suggests there were underlying reasons for this Act being enacted.
“The Province didn’t want to
deal with the City’s issues any
longer. And with this legislation,
it would remove some of the financial burden from the Province
to the City as well,” he writes. “In
my opinion, the Province erred in
legislating the Toronto Act, and
Toronto has been proven far from
grown up or dependable.”
He alleges that either acting
on their own volition or acting in
concert, the Province and the City
have, for several decades, been
guilty of:
• enacting unfair, unnecessary
and debilitating statutes and bylaws;
• enacting conflicting statutes and
bylaws;
• disregarding their oath of office
to protect their electorate;
• breaking their word and promises
routinely;
• collecting millions of dollars in
over licensing and non-required
fees, which were never returned;
• continually refusing to answer
questions about their actions;
• providing no accountability, nor
rationale for many of their rulings;
• not holding major stakeholder
meetings on certain matters;
• political misconduct;
• listening to but not hearing input
from industry membership;
• and attending meetings with a
preconceived and set agenda.
• “It is pretty clear,” the indictment
concludes, that the industry’s
public overseers “feel the 10,000
people who work in the Toronto
taxi industry are nothing more
than a disposable workforce, not
worthy of their consideration.”
He notes that over the years
his industry has contacted dozens
of MPP’s, several Premiers, and
LAWYERS
Tyrone Crawford, b.a., m.ed.,ll.b.
Sanaz Golestani, j.d., b.a. (hons)
Taxi Plate Sales
Taxi Plate Purchases
Taxi Tribunal Hearings
Criminal Charges
Traffic Tickets
Incorporations
House Sales
House Purchases
Mortgages
Wills and Power of Attorney’s
Notaries
Promissory Notes
Divorce
Child Custody and Access
Child Support
Spousal Support
Cohabitation Agreements
Separation Agreements
Marriage Contracts
Property Division
Parenting Agreements
4945 DUNDAS STREET WEST, TORONTO, ON M9A 1B6
between Kipling and Islington
TELEPHONE: 416-760-8118 | FAX: 416-760-8175
TYRONE CELL: 416-827-1611 | SANAZ CELL: 647-920-5241
Lawyers are in Association
numerous Ministers to have them
come up with a fair and level playing field for all taxi industries in
this province, to no avail.
“It is pretty clear what the Premiers and MPP’s feel about the
over 10,000 people who work in
the Toronto taxi industry, and that
is that we don’t count,” he comments.
As for the City of Toronto’s
role in all this, he says, “It’s difficult to know where to begin.”
He alleges that over the past four
decades, the City has moved from
• see page 9
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4 February 2015
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Honourable Mentions
Aaser Cheema
Dawood Imran
Abdul Wadud
Denesew Kidanemariam
Abdulkadir Ahmed
Derrick Owens
Abdulnasir Ali
Ejaz Ahmed
Adid Hussein
Gengatharan
Veeragathippillai
Ahmad Sakha
Ghirmay Araia Mengesha
Ahmed Al-Khulaidi
Golam Mostafa
Ahmed Zekeria
Gujar Karim
Ali Holkani
Harry Naraine
Ali Mahboob
Hussein Hamiri
Amarjit Singh
Ibrahim Idris
Amir Ranjkesh
Imran Tufail
Ansar Mohammad
Khalid Mehmood
Arif Mohamad
Khawaja Muhammad
Atif Chaudry
ichael Phulchand
Atif Mehmoud Butt
Mohamed Isse Nuh
Ayaz Rafiq
Mohamed Souror
Azam Muhammad
Mohammad Ibrahi
Mohebi
Azhar Shaikh
Mohammad Qadeer Khan
Badar Munir
Mohammed Ahmed
Basim Abulhusain
Mohammed Ismail
Bekele Sahlu
Mohammed Khan
Bhupender Singh Bisla
Mohammed Nasir
Dan Al
Mohamud Farah
Daud Gafow
Mohmaud Duale
Mubashir Shahid Khan
Shazad Chaudhry
Mudassar Muto
Sobhy Hanna
Muhammad Irshad
Suban Sohil
Musa Naseer
Syed Hussain Ali
Mussay Tekleab
Syed Muhamad Syed
Mustafa Ayturk
Tayyas Farooq Awan
becktaxi.com
Muzammad Riaz
Terry Sheridan
Nadesanathan
Perampalam
Thakaparan Kanesu
Naeem Akhtar
Wazir Ali Rattar
Nandy Subrata Kumar
Yasir Afridi
Niranchan
Nallarethanam
Yusuf Ahmed
Nosrat Nabiri
Zabiullah Barez
Omari Mohammed
Nassim
Zakir Hossain
Pathamanathan
Waheswaran
Preetinder Singh
Lakhanpal
Quarban Ali Ahmed
Rahman Abdul
Rajwinder Kumar Sharma
Saeed Mohammad
Samasuntharam
Suntharakumar
Samson Worku Negash
Senavariyan Paramsothy
Shahid Aslam
Shahid Hussain
Sharnwaz Khan
Okay, 2014 was brutal
for T.O. taxi industry, but
what about 2015?
T
by Mike Beggs
he Toronto taxi industry
got it from all sides in
2014.
And ultimate prospects are still
very much up in the air, with the
result of the Toronto Taxi Alliance’s (TTA) legal action against
the City still outstanding, and the
City looking at a March 7 court
date in its application for an injunction against the illegal Uber
ridesharing app.
A minor bit of good news did
emerge from the January meeting of the Torontso Licensing &
Standards Committee, where two
separate motions were approved
pertaining to reexamining the
controversial new by-law, or elements therein. With L&S Chair
Cesar Palacio speaking out, in
this respect, this raises the outside
possibility that the Toronto Taxi
Industry Reform package, and the
new By-Law might be revisited,
and even amended, or even, some
hope against hope, shelved altogether. However, this news comes
with the knowledge that L&S is
a small six-member committee,
while the full Council is dealing
with weighty issues like funding
for public transit, just one plank
in new Mayor John’s Tory’s ambitious agenda.
And having seen so many
dashed hopes over the years at the
hands of city hall, industry leaders
are taking this latest development
with a grain of salt.
“I really don’t have any feeling
(about it),” says owner/operator
taxi
services
Contact:
Louis M. Seta
2910 Danforth Ave. Toronto. M4C 1M1
Phone:
416-528-3171
Email: [email protected]
Office Hours are:
Monday & Wednesday 1-3pm,
all other times by appointment
Taxi Services offers direct
deposit for operators and free
weekly email statements.
No coNtract • free statemeNts
No iNstallatioN required
Taxi Services now can offer
Fleet Insurance for fleets
and Ambassadors who have
multiple drivers.
serviNg the iNdustry siNce 1983
Gerald Manley. “Are they going
to walk the talk? Talk’s cheap. Can
you take some solace they will actually do something? I wouldn’t
count on it. You’ve got to remember they’re just asking staff for a
report.”
Manley suggests the whole bylaw should be trashed, or at least
frozen until these staff reports are
received.
“The stuff they proposed is a
disaster,” he comments. “The Bylaw violated Council, it violated
statutes. What more do you want?
Staff definitely didn’t listen to us.
But where’s this going to go? Who
knows?”
While still catching up on details of the L&S meeting, Beck
Taxi operations manager Kristine
Hubbard says the news offers, at
least a small glimmer of hope for
industry.
“But you get a little tired of hoping against hope,” she muses.
“Anything could happen. You
always have to have the first step,
and at least it’s that. It could be
nothing. It could be something.”
In the business for the past 24
years, she says 2014 was the worst
she has seen.
“The thing that sticks out is the
distress, and the emotional trauma
which has accumulated,” she says.
“We all want to work together, and
do a good job serving the public
and follow the rules, and suddenly
everyone is a bad guy. This is like
a clobbering to your morale.”
Furthermore, she points to the
huge stress on those drivers/owners and their wives who thought
they were set for their retirement
with their plate to count on, only
to, “have it torn down” by tenets of
the new bylaw. The TTA is awaiting the outcome of its legal action
against the City in Ontario Superior Court, alleging that in passing
the bylaw on February19, 2014,
“the City acted unreasonably, arbitrarily, and without the degree of
openness and impartiality required
of a municipal government”, jeopardizing standard plate owners’
$1.4 billion in equity.
“Everybody is worried about
the plate they bought, and their
investment,” she adds. “So many
people that planned to retire, they
can’t now because they’ve lost
money (on the plate value) and
there is no certainty about something that was supposedly locked
up. They’re actually not retiring
now. I don’t know how people recover from that.”
And then there’s the drivers who
have bought new TTL licenses and
are compelled to pay exorbitant
costs for modified wheelchair accessible vans, and the insurance.
Veteran owner Gary Walsh
deems it’s one of the worst years
ever, between the new bylaw, the
wholesale intrusion of the illegal,
but popular, Uber ridesharing app,
and the exorbitant costs faced by
drivers putting on these new accessible vans – coupled with the
City flooding the streets with another 290 of these vehicles, in time
for this summer’s 2015 PanAm
Games.
“We just got whacked, absolutely,” he says.
“The drivers are going to get increased costs, with increased competition. It’s economic disaster.
Then you’ve got the Uber X cars
in there.
“It’s very, very difficult for the
driver to make a living. Just going down King Street, you see
15 to 20 cabs in a convoy,” he
continues.”Then, they end up getting charged with overcrowding a
cab stand for $135.”
With no ruling imminent from
their law suit, Alliance spokesman
Sam Moini says, “We’re all walking on egg shells. Everyone is anxious. We hope for the best, that’s
all we can do.”
“It’s business as usual. You’ve
just got to keep going and working hard.”
However, business is, “really,
really down.”
“Drivers are suffering. Fleets
are suffering. Everybody is suffering,” he adds.
“When there are unlicensed cars
on the road, it’s going to have a
negative effect on your business.”
Lucky 7 Taxi owner Lawrence
Eisenberg says the industry has
been going downhill since 1990,
and that all of these new issues
aren’t making it any better out
there.
“This is not an industry drawing
people into it,” he observes. “Every week something new is being
thrown against the wall, and it’s
sticking. And the industry is feeling the brunt of it.”
He says the industry has been
torn apart, and, “That’s what the
City is trying to do. They want you
to be a driver, and nothing but. You
cannot get ahead.”
According to Eisenberg, in this
lethal environment, several garages have already gone under.
• see page 13
5 February 2015
Hamilton nails cab drivers with mandatory
refresher course
H
by Mike Beggs
amilton cab drivers are
riled up plenty about
having to shell out $120
for a refresher course, regardless
of their driving records.
As of January 19, all of Steeltown’s 1,200 cabbies must pass
through this course focusing on de-
fensive driving and customer service, delivered by the Taxi Academy (a private training agency
contracted by cities like Hamilton,
Markham, and Brampton). It was
originally slated to cost $125 and
include a PanAm Games primer
(“to present the city of Hamilton in
a world-class way”, while hosting
New license fees still
highest in the world
M
by John Q. Duffy
ost licensing fees in the
taxi industry are going
up for 2015, after having been relatively stagnant for
a couple of years while the latest
taxicab review was underway.
Taxicab drivers will pay more to
get new licenses. But they will pay
less to renew existing licenses.
Toronto’s cab drivers and taxicab owners still pay, arguably, the
highest initial licensing and renewal fees on the planet.
Certainly no one has been able
to point to any other jurisdiction
with higher fees for the taxicab
industry.
A new applicant to become
a taxicab driver will now pay
$648.17 to take the course, which
is actually a decrease from 2014
($661.80). This fee includes $75.71
for mandatory CPR training.
It will cost cab drivers a base fee
of $329.43 to renew, plus $219.32
if they have to take a Refresher
Course, plus $75.71 for CPR training.
In 2014 cab drivers paid a base
fee of $344.39 to renew, plus
$241.70 if they had to take the
Refresher Course, plus $75.71 for
CPR training.
Overall, this amounts to a fee
decrease of $22.38.
Standard and the new Toronto
Taxi License holders will pay the
same renewal fees $1,247.39 including the CPR fee of $75.71.
New applicants for the new
TTL plates, and transfer fees for
Standard plates, also are the same,
at $4860.83 ($4785.12 plus $75.71
for the CPR course).
This is an increase of $118.53
over the 2014 fees for Standard
plates. The TTL permits are a new
license category.
Some drivers who previously
held Ambassador permits and
transferred them to the TTL licenses in 2014, were shocked at
seeing their renewal costs rise
from the mid-$400 per year level
to over $1200 in 2015.
They say they had no inkling
they would be paying the same
fees as traditional Standard plate
holders.
Holders of Accessible taxicab
permits see new application fees
go to $490.21 from $478.07, a rise
of $12.14. Accessible renewals go
from $398.27 to $408.38, a rise of
$10.11.
Taxicab Brokers will see their
fees rise by $9.73 over 2014, to
$392.73 for a new application
from $383.00 in 2014. They go
up $6.44 over the 2014 fee, to
$264.04 for renewals in 2015.
ABUL SHAFIQULLAH
LICENSED PARALEGAL, Member of the Law Society of Upper Canada
2942 Danforth Avenue, Toronto
647-995-6401
TRAFFIC TICKETS/PARKING TICKETS
SMALL CLAIMS COURT MATTERS
LANDLORD AND TENANT BOARD MATTERS
Wishing you all seasons greetings. May the new year bring you joy and happiness.
a series of soccer games this summer), before a backlash emanated
from the industry. The City has
now dropped the price and is offering a separate, voluntary class educating drivers about the PanAms.
But these concessions weren’t
enough to appease veterans like
Hans Wienhold -- who has driven
his cab without incident since
1977. He says business is “horrible”, and the last thing drivers need
is to be out of pocket for another
round of political correctness.
“This is just too much, man,”
he says. “It’s all too easy for bureaucrats not spending their own
money. When it comes right down
to it, they’re killing a fly with a
sledgehammer.”
Ontario Taxi Workers Union
President Hahmud Ali Naimpoor
told the Hamilton Spectator soaring insurance rates have already
pushed some drivers out of the
business. The union insists the
course should only be mandatory
for drivers with poor records, and
that, “otherwise it’s a cash grab.”
John Williams of the Taxi Academy told the Spectator they are
hoping the course will, “remind
them as professionals they have
a duty to care for their passengers
and to get them to their destinations safely.” Course topics will
include preventable accidents,
hazards on the road, weather and
vehicle factors -- and an extra hour
will be devoted to the nuances of
customer service (making a good
first impression, courtesy, keeping
a clean car, etc.).
Hamilton manager of licensing and permits Al Fletcher told
the Spectator this course is timely,
given the legion of PanAm soccer fans due to hit the city in July,
and the expected road closures and
traffic jams. But, he said the new
training requirements stemmed
from a mix of resident complaints,
and by-law and Highway Traffic
Act infractions. He noted the City
receives around 300 complaints a
year pertaining to cab drivers, and
would like that number reduced as
a host city of the 2015 Games.
“Yes, a city of half a million
people with 450-plus taxis generates around 300 complaints a year.
Egad, it must be a crisis,” Wienhold says sarcastically.
He suggests if the bureaucrats
can’t identify a real crisis boast
about their commitment to reducing it, “Well, you make one up.”
Twenty-five years on the road,
Paul Morris agrees it’s onerous
and unnecessary.
“(The drivers) are not an endless well of money. We’re in tough
times,” he says.
“If my driving record was bad,
Advertisement
I’d be up before a hearing. It’s a
money grab, and the City has taken it upon itself as a P.R. thing.”
He stresses Hamilton is already
“flooded” with 460 cars for a city
of 520,000 people, and, “that’s ridiculous”.
“We’ve had so many things
thrown at us, like enhanced enforcement of the by-law,” Wienhold chimes in. “Because business is slow we’re usually sitting,
and these guys show up with their
flashlights. They will always be
able to find something. We’re like
sitting ducks for them.”
Further to the point, he suggests
Hamilton city hall simply looked
around at surrounding communities for inspiration in implementing this mandatory course.
“There’s definitely a monkey
see, monkey do attitude from everything that comes out of city hall
– ‘Brantford does it, Toronto does
it’,” he adds.
Subjected to heavy fees at the
hands of Toronto’s Municipal Licensing & Standards for decades,
long-time owner/operator Gerald
Manley likewise surmises that the
City of Hamilton has just found a
new revenue stream.
“Why do they always come after the cab industry to look politically correct?” he asks.
6 February 2015
Editorial
John Q. Duffy
Chedmount Investments Ltd.
38 Fairmount Cres. Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4L 2H4
Tel: (416) 466-2328 Fax: (416) 466-4220
Editorial
A woeful story
Lets take a look at things, shall we?
Cab drivers are telling us this past holiday season was pretty
much the worst, in terms of income, in memory. And at least some
cab brokerages are telling us their business may have been down
as much as 25 percent over the holidays.
Uber has just raised its fees to 20 percent of fares, up from their
previous 10 percent cut of the pie.
Insurance rates are going up dramatically, as they have been
for several years. You have no choice but to pay the new rates.
We’ve heard of two-driver rates for a regular shift cab going to the
$15,000 per year level.
Your City license renewal rates have gone up once again, without a shred of justification for the higher charges. Yes, existing cab
driver renewals are down marginally. We doubt you are going to
feel a whole bunch richer, and fees overall are going up. Many,
if not most holders of the new Toronto Taxi Licenses have been
mortified to learn they are no longer getting to renew at the preferential Ambassador permit fee structure. They are now to pay what
Standard plate holders have been paying over the years. Overall,
the City will suck more money out of the industry than ever before.
(This is a surprise?)
The City is still pushing for 100 percent wheelchair accessible
taxis, at high insurance rates, high up-front, maintenance and other operating costs, and drivers have to take non-paid time to be
trained in serving the disability community. Keep in mind that the
non-ambulatory disabled are only about two percent of the population. The vast majority of people with disabilities evidently don’t
need or want wheelchair accessible cabs. The industry is telling
councillors en masse that the 100 percent accessible vehicles requirement is neither wanted nor needed, and could well lead to
financial ruin for huge numbers of people. Plus, cab drivers tell
us that the regular population doesn’t like the non-sedan vehicles.
This is one reason why your customers are going to apps like
Uber that are not playing by the same rules the rest of you have to
live with.
City councillors are hot to trot over the PanAm and Para-PanAm games coming up this summer, but if you think these games
will be a financial windfall, think again, sports fans. In city after
city around the world, these high profile mega games have proven
themselves definitively to be a bad deal for cab drivers.
You’ve no doubt seen the news stories about road closures for
the games – so getting around this city, even without the ongoing
road construction, is going to be an absolute nightmare. But cabs
are an important part of the City’s transportation infrastructure, or
so the authorities say. Well, we’d sure like to see some minimal evidence of that commitment. Not happening so far, folks, and we’re
not holding our breath.
Heck, with the crackdown on illegal parking and stopping, cab
drivers are being hassled and fined daily by police for dropping off
and picking up passengers, which by the City’s own bylaws, is perfectly legal. But do police and other authorities give a hoot? Nope.
Do you see a trend here? You and your passengers are being
totally disrespected and this alone puts the lie to any protestations
from officials that you are important to the City.
There is one ray of hope in this sorry picture. At least some City
councillors, led by Georgio Mammoliti, Frank Di Georgio and
Glenn De Baeremaeker, with assistance from Cesar Palacio, all
on the Licensing and Standards Committee, are evidently seeing
problems with at least some aspects of the recently enacted taxi
reforms.
We don’t want to read too much into what happened at the January meeting of L&S. We suggest you don’t either. All these councillors asked for were reports, not definitive staff action. But as
time progresses these modest first steps may prove to be the first
chink in the armor of the reform juggernaut.
Perhaps, just perhaps, some councillors are actually beginning
to get the message. We’ll see.
Letters to The Editor
MLS plan to eliminate
sedan taxis is absurd
T
To the editor,
he requirement for a 100
percent wheelchair accessible industry and the
elimination of sedan taxis in Toronto in ten years is a complete
disaster for the taxi business in
Toronto.
I conducted my own survey by
asking customers their opinion on
the elimination of sedan taxis in
Toronto in 10 years and the answers were: that it is madness, bizarre, craziness and so on.
The brokerages or the City can
test public opinion for themselves
and they will realise that not only
94 percent of able-bodied people
but also a majority of ambulatory
disabled people also want sedans.
Even some portion of the wheelchair accessible people with folding wheelchairs prefer and are able
to sit in sedans, while their wheelchair is stored in the trunk.
However, there is not an existing organisation which speaks for
these able-bodied and disabled cab
riders, otherwise the City would
see fierce resistance to the incredible and absurd reasoning behind
the idea of satisfy only some two
percent of cab riders at the expense
of the desires of about 98 percent
of the population..
Abdi Hilowle Hassan
Cab Owner, A-533
Uber’s fee hike
unacceptable
A
To the editor,
s predicted, we have to keep a close eye on Uber and companies like them to ensure that their cash-in rates do not exceed
an acceptable level, and that is what Uber has now done.
One of the many things that caused Hailo to be unsuccessful in our
marketplace was that they were too greedy, charging 15 percent cash-in
fees including the gratuity and now we see Uber is increasing from 10
percent to 20 percent, not including the gratuity, which in reality is just
about the same as Hailo’s rates were. • see page 17
More letters on pages 15, 16, 17 & 19
February 2015
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7 February 2015
Comment
For a reporter, this business is the best
beat in the world
E
arly every month, or even into the middle of the
month, I think I know what I’m going to write
about in this space. Then stuff happens and it
deserves comment and my plans go out the window.
Let’s start with the important things and go on to the other
matters of interest that have come op.
The important thing is one of my nephews has developed
medical problems and as I write this he is in a hospital waiting to be diagnosed. We are waiting for the results of an
MRI scan and are crossing our fingers
On a wonderful note, as I was writing this column my
cousin Lewis, who lives on a farm in the mountains of West
Virginia, called out of the blue and we chatted for well over
a half hour, bringing ourselves up to date with each other’s
lives. I, literally, haven’t spoken with him for 30 years.
When we were kids I recall playing with him and his
brother in a century-old barn, jumping into the hay, lucky
not to break out necks. Every fall I drive about 35 miles past
his farm on the way to Pinehurst, North Carolina, where I
play in a golf tournament with my antique hickory-shafted
golf clubs. For one reason or another I don’t stop by to visit.
That trip south will have to change in the future. Family is
too rare and precious to waste.
On to other matters: I do love the rumors that pervade this
industry. Late in the month I heard a hot and heavy rumor
that the Judge who is adjudicating the Toronto Taxi Alliance
case attempting to overturn at least part of the reform bylaw
was allegedly going to publish his decision on either the last
Monday or Tuesday of January. Not true and I have no idea
where these things come from. Folks, stop coming up with
these stories. Or if you hear a
rumor, put a lid on it unless
you have iron-clad proof they
are true. Which you don’t.
Also, I was working late
one night recently and I got
a call from an irate passenger
who had a run in with a cab
driver and some twit gave the
poor guy my business phone
number instead of the phone
number of the cab company.
Truly, I get two or three of
these calls a month. For some
ungodly reason these folks seem surprised that a cab driver
actually has a newspaper about their business, and that you
are capable of actually reading. Seriously. The vast majority
of you have better educations than your passengers. People
ask me, sometimes with total befuddlement, why I do what
I do, putting out a newspaper for cab drivers. I tell them this:
Many of you come to Canada at great risk to life. Or some
stranger is lobbing a mortar shell in your general direction,
or is placing a roadside bomb in your neighborhood, and it
seems like a remarkably intelligent thing to do to get the hell
out of there. You come here and are using, in some cases,
your third or fourth language, you are no longer the majority religion, you are learning a brand-new culture and way
of doing things, you are working at a tough, low-status job,
earning not nearly enough money, often supporting extended families in your home countries, but you are working,
and not sucking at the public welfare taxpayer-funded teat.
And you shouldn’t have a newspaper that cares about your
daily livelihood and business?
By the way, the vast majority of people I know outside of
the business respect you and the job you do. Sometimes I
think they hold the importance of your job in higher regard
than some of you do yourselves. I’d love to see more of you
demanding a higher standard of professionalism from the
negligent few of your less than adequate colleagues.
But what a great beat for a reporter. Sure, some of you
don’t like me, and frankly, I don’t like a (very) few of you.
But that is personality and politics, and is to be expected. On
balance, some of the nicest people I know are involved with
the cab business.
Cab drivers are some of the best rule of thumb psychologists I have ever had the privilege of meeting. You, with experience on the job, can read people very quickly and very
accurately. It is a survival trait. As a group, you are some of
the most perceptive folks I’ve ever met. I’ve been writing
about you for close to 30 years now, and yet after all this
time, once or twice a month I hear something that surprises
(and occasionally) delights me. I deal with two or three levels of government, the courts, politics up my nose, small
business success stories (and failures), technology, crime the full range of human experience happens in taxi industry.
For a reporter, this is the best beat on Earth.
I haven’t said all of this for a while and it is nice to get it
off of my chest.
Finally, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record,
this phone app phenomenon is changing the way taxis are dispatched around the world. Uber, of course, is getting the lion’s
share of the headlines lately, both good and bad, but looking
at the larger picture, it is patently
obvious to me that the old way of
doing things in the taxi business
is fast becoming ancient history.
Cab drivers and cab companies
are going to have to up their public service game considerably.
And regulators are going to
have to become a lot more flexible in how they deal with this
industry, very soon, or they will
become utterly irrelevant, if
they are not irrelevant already.
Just saying.
REAR VIEW
Who likes bureaucrats meddling in their
daily life?
To the editor,
(Editor’s note: This letter addresses recent developments in
the regulation of taxis in the City
of Hamilton, Ontario but it may
strike a familiar chord for Toronto
taxi drivers. The author is Hamilton taxi driver and libertarian
blogger Hans Wienhold. You can
read more of his commentaries at
www.blockrants.com.)
ow did I know that there
would be a mandatory
Taxi Driver Refresher
course?
Well, it’s not because I am
clairvoyant, nor is it because I am
particularly clever. I chalk it up to
H
having read the right books, decades ago, that provided me with
the simple tools required to predict
outcomes from trends.
In 2008 I made my first appearance as a member of the Taxi Advisory Committee. At that meeting
I argued, strenuously, against the
idea of coercing experienced taxi
drivers into taking a $400 training
program. It was obvious from the
start that the only people in favour
of the idea either had no personal
financial commitment to the idea
or, worse, stood to profit from it.
Using my tools of trend forecasting, I predicted, “The next
thing you know, they will be forc-
ing us to take CPR.” Committee
member, Jim Marlor, raised his
arm and indignantly exclaimed,
“That’s ridiculous!”
A year or two later, 2014 Mayoral candidate, Ejaz Butt put forward the proposal that all taxi
drivers should be forced to take
CPR training.
I advised the committee that
Ejaz had gotten the idea from me
in 2008 and that I had said it as a
joke. Everyone laughed. They got
it. Just like everyone got the Monty
Python “Cat License” joke back in
the 1970’s, which isn’t so funny to
anyone born since then. I felt some
relief at knowing the idea had been
relegated to it’s deserved status as
pure political farce. Temporarily.
Fast forward to 2015 and see
what is now a component of the
new taxi driver [toilet] training
program.
Sure enough, it weeded it’s way
into the curriculum. It comes as
absolutely no surprise to me.
What are the odds that a taxi
driver will need to know CPR? I
have been in this business since
1977. I could have used the knowledge back in 1979. That was when
someone threw a beer bottle at
my head. The blood came out in
buckets. Funny thing was, it was
one of the troublemakers that tried
to administer first aid to me. It
was nothing that thirteen stitches
couldn’t fix. I learned something
about taxi driving that night.
“Governments never learn.
Only people learn” – Milton Friedman.
Other than that, in a span of 37
years I have not encountered a
single incident where a knowledge
of CPR might have been required.
Not one.
Nor have I ever been called
upon to assist in the delivery of a
baby. But I would not be surprised
if that also becomes part of the Taxi
Academy’s “training program.”
• see page 13
8 February 2015
City’s disgraceful property grab warrants
radical action
R
ecently, in connection
with another writing
project of mine, I have
been doing some research into
a long-ago federal government
property grab in New Brunswick that seems to me to be relevant to the situation in which
Toronto taxi plate owners now
find themselves.
In 1969, the federal government, with the cooperation of the
Province of New Brunswick, determined to expropriate the land of
228 Acadian families for the purpose of creating Kouchibouguac
National Park, on New Brunswick’s east coast across the Strait
Serving the Greater Toronto Area
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Call Kuldip Khabra at 416-241-4700
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of Northumberland from Prince
Edward Island. The residents were
subjected to forced buyouts that
they did not want at less than generous prices. Mostly fishermen,
they were also losing their sources
of income.
Where others resignedly gave
up land that had been in their
families for generations, Jackie
Vautour - the father of nine children - refused to sell or to leave.
When the sheriff and the police
came to his place with a warrant,
according to a New Brunswicker
I know, Vautour told them, “This
is my land. Come one step closer
and I’m going to shoot you.” That
worked for a while.
But, somehow, in 1976, an eviction warrant caught Vautour not
at home and his house was then
legally bull-dozed to the ground.
Jackie and his family were moved
to a motel, where for a time the
provincial government paid their
rent. Then that stopped. Armed
and ready to resist, in March 1977,
Jackie had to be tear-gassed out of
the motel.
Still, Jackie Vautour - “the Louis Riel of the East” - fought on, his
strength and determination now
motivating others to challenge
the rightness of the expropriation. There were lost court battles,
clashes with the police, and two
TAXI DRIVERS
please ask for
MICHELLE TORREALBA
Fleet Manager
cell 647-462-4992
phone 905-625-3420 ext. 225
email [email protected]
“riots” of the resisters.
Then, in July, 1978, Jackie
Vautour and his family went back
vious plate grab survive it, if the
press was forced to air the story
thoroughly?
TheBystander
by Peter McSherry
to live unmolested in a cabin in
Kouchibouguac National Park,
where they are said to reside to
this day.
Eventually, the federal government had to set up a commission
of inquiry that assigned blame to
the self-same government, and
$1,600,000 was paid as further
compensation to those who had
been so wrongly expropriated for
an inadequate social benefit. As
well, Jackie Vautour, who has become the subject of a film, a stage
play and a folk song, changed government policy: No longer does
the Government of Canada expropriate privately-owned land in
populated areas for the purpose of
creating public parks.
Why did the government give
in?
Surely it was because of politically-damaging publicity that was
costing the feds more than the expropriation was worth. My New
Brunswick friend, working in the
Northwest Territories at the time,
saw Jackie Vautour, gun in hand,
on national television 3,000 miles
away.
So how does this matter to the
Toronto taxi plate owners and their
present problem?
Well, at this juncture, it can
only matter if Justice D.G. Stinson’s awaited decision makes it
necessary for the City government
to do its “reforms” over again.
Then, I suggest, that the industry
and especially the taxi plate owners ought to let their hair down
and redo their reaction to this obviously- wrongful billion-dollar
property grab.
A year ago almost to the day, I
got myself on television merely by
“getting mad” and yelling at the
L&S Committee. Before and after
that, three daily newspapers would
not buy any of the several stories
I tried to sell them - because, in
my view, in the age of the Internet, they are now to a great extent
dependent on fat City advertising. But, even so, what if 500 or
1,000 plate owners got similarly
mad in the Council Chamber all at
once? How would the City refute
that? How could the press ignore
it? And how would their very ob-
Just sitting there and taking it,
as was done on February 19 last,
makes no sense at all to me. Why
bother going there at all? Defeat is
certain.
For the wronged plate holders,
a political solution to this problem
is far quicker and far cheaper than
a legal solution. Rely solely on the
lawyers and you’ll probably win
- 15 or 20 years from now and at
considerable cost. The politicians
are living in a glass house. Truth is
what they can’t stand. Let’s throw
some truth at them - all of us together at their next meeting of enactment.
Incredibly, as I believe I have
been reliably informed, the City’s
own lawyers have advised them
that what they have in the “reforms” is a losing law suit. Yet
they went on with the “reforms”
anyway. Why? Because they have
mismanaged this City so badly that
they are casting about for weaklings to exploit for new sources of
income, right and wrong no matter.
Don’t be a weakling. Don’t permit
them to steal from you, your family, or any of your 3,500 front-line
allies as if it is their right. It isn’t.
That right was given away when
the City promised you a legal asset - a piece of private property as was done in beginning drivers’
classes from the mid-1960s till
1993.
Peter McSherry is a taxi driver
of 42 years experience and
the author of three published
books, including Mean Streets:
Confessions of a Nighttime Taxi
Driver. He can be reached at
[email protected].
9 February 2015
‘It’s like working for the City, minus benefits’
• from page 2
fair and reasonable legislation, to,
“micromanaging the industry, with
the only true focus being licensing
revenues” (which now amount to
more than $11-million per year).
And he argues, “the treatment of
the industry’s membership mirrors one of being an employee
but without the benefits, while the
City contends that the industry is
still self-employed and entrepreneurial by nature.”
At this point, he says, “The City
of Toronto is well-known for enacting unnecessary and debilitating taxi by-laws.”
“And the adoption of by-laws
stemming from the latest taxi reformation has this industry going to
hell in a handbasket’,” he adds.
In Manley’s experience, “the
City has never sat down with the
intention of enacting responsible
legislation, but always attends
meetings with hidden and pre-set
agendae, where they end up listening to our membership but have no
desire of actually hearing what we
say.”
“The industry has become a
social employment welfare net
with stifling by-laws that cannot
be found in any other City license
that is issued, which is now keep-
ing prospective long-term investors, and drivers away from the
industry,” he continues.
Further to the point, he warns
that the current membership will
have, “no other alternative but to
go underground to financially survive and support their families”,
and that this evolution has already begun and will escalate very
quickly in ensuing months.
“The enactment of non-discriminatory, and righteous legislation
at these government levels is only
a dream, a rumour, and not part of
our industry’s every day reality,”
he states.
But while these two levels of
government make up the bulk
of Manley’s industry devouring
Beast, he says it also includes Taxi
Brokerages, Fleets, and Agents,
insurance companies, and other
encroaching forces like the Uber
taxi app.
According to Manley, the function of taxi brokerages is to be a
call centre for dispatching taxi
orders, nothing more and nothing
less. But he suggests, “they are
involved in a lot more than that”,
adding cash-in fees to their monthly brokerage fees, for example.
Similarly, he suggests monthly
lease prices should be all-inclu-
sive, but the garages add on cashin fees (which include debit cards,
credit cards, taxi chits, and corporate accounts, ranging from 7 to 12
percent on each transaction).
He observes that, “With the irresponsible issuance by the City of
unnecessary licenses where there
is no business, you would think
that the fleet costs would somewhat stabilize, but in fact they
have dramatically increased over
the years.”
He cites insurance as a grave
bone of contention, noting that
premiums are going up yet again –
by 20 to 35 percent – in imminent
renewals.
“The insurance industry has
taken unfair advantage of our industry, almost since its inception,
with rates that are not only unfair
but also calculated on the wrong
price,” he asserts.
He explains that, by legal statute, taxis are not commercial motor vehicles, yet insurance companies predicate their premiums as
if taxis are commercial vehicles.
And because of the way they are
categorized by insurance companies, cab drivers fall outside the
provincial regulation that oversees
that the general public is protected
from exorbitant rates.
“This needs to be addressed, so
that there is a level of fairness in
place for all people when seeking
vehicle insurance in this province,” he adds.
With the Insurance Act under
review this year, he contacted the
Ministry with such concerns – and
met with a “typical” lack of interest.
In Manley’s estimation, Uber
appears to be, “the flavour of the
month for unloading on, to the
point it was the sole cause of the
problems in the taxi industry.”
But while there is, “no dispute
that some of Uber’s business models are questioned and do have a
negative effect on the taxi industry
worldwide”, he supports its cutting-edge technology, and stresses
that the app provider is just one
small part of the beast. However,
he’s critical of Uber’s recent move
upping cash-in fees from 10 to 20
percent, suggesting that it was the
“greediness” of the rival Hailo app
(charging 15 percent) which led to
its exit from the Toronto industry.
Washington, D.C. will launch
its own taxi app by March 2015,
which he believes will be a serious
threat to companies such as Uber.
However he says such a citymandated app raises several ques-
tions. “Since Uber pays no licensing fees, would the 7,000 members
of Washington’s taxi industry be
exempt as well?” he asks. “And
does the City-owned app cross the
line between self-employed dedicated contractors and make the
drivers employees?”
Alternatively, he suggests the
New York City model could be
adopted, where they supply the
phone with one singular app,
which is to order a taxicab when
authorized or required.
In the Conclusion of his letter,
Manley opines, “The people that
suffer the most from the heads of
this monster are, of course, the taxi
drivers,”
“The drivers make up 80 percent of the industry without any
knowledgeable or responsible representation that should be in place
to protect their interests, and if
they would only join together they
would have the power to enact
change,” he continues. “Without
them driving the taxicabs and paying those shift and cash-in fees, the
monster quickly dies and change
would have to be made.”
And he asserts that, “If the taxi
industry was removed from the
transportation grid for just a few
• see page 10
10 February 2015
Scarboro City Taxi
fetes Operator Of
The Year
Scarborough City Taxi president Rachhpal (Paul) Singh
and his daughter Gurjeet Dhillon present the Operator
of the Year award to Singaraja Nimalaraj at a company
celebration held December 30, 2014.
Some of the Scarborough City team,
from left: Farid, Sonya, Harvi, Asif,
Abdul, Yash, Lincoln, Krisraj, Nadeem,
Sankar, Juggie, Fida, Sharif, Rachhpal,
Haroon and Mr. Ragu.
BAIRD
MACGREGOR
BAIRD
MACGREGOR
INSURANCE
LP
INSURANCEBROKERS
BROKERS LP
Industry must take
radical action
• from page 9
days, it would create chaos and
force the City to come to the table
and negotiate fair by-laws for everyone in the industry.”
He lays out several other industry options: park the taxicabs;
demonstrate en masse; have the
entire membership contact all City
and Provincial elected officials; let
the City carry on with what has the
appearance of being deregulation;
refuse to pay annual license fees;
or go totally underground.
“If the taxi industry does not
become unified and go forward as
one voice, government will con-
tinue to divide and conquer as they
have always done,” he comments.
“Democracy is alleged to contain guarantees that lead to justice
and equality for all, but only a cursory look into the laws governing
the Toronto taxi industry shows
fairness has never been attainable
for our membership, no matter
how hard we try, or how many
meetings we attend with the Province, or the City.”
When asked if his comprehensive
8-page letter might sway MPP’s
and Councillors this time around,
Manley answers, “No”, in a word.
But he says, “You have to try.”
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11 February 2015
PointofView
Time to focus on what’s best for the industry
O
by Louis M. Seta
ne of the features of
the conclusion of the
taxi reform was a feeling that the cab industry had a
direction and purpose. Unfortunately this does not seem to be
the case. Despite the new bylaw
being passed, brokerages and
plate owners are still challenging them and are spending vast
amounts of money to maintain
their control of the industry.
The brokers and plate owners
are challenging the City while putting pressure on the City to stop
virtual apps from operating in the
City. All in all this is an attempt to
return to the status quo that existed
some 20 years ago without taking
into account technological changes and the City of Toronto’s flooding of the market place with plates.
The end result is uncertain at this
time. One factor remains certain
though and that is one cannot put
the genie back into the bottle.
The Uber users for example are
very happy with their service and
also the method of delivery. This
will not change. When journalists
in the established papers like the
Globe and Mail praise the ease
of taxi service using Uber and
the Mayor of the City states support you can be sure that sooner or
later the MLS has to re-evaluate
its position and seek a more even
handed approach. The MLS has
had no problem in the past dealing with the major brokerages and
passing bylaws to the brokerages
advantage and so they should also
deal with Uber, come to a compromise and allow Uber to provide
the convenient service that they
now provide. If the MLS doesn’t,
the app service will not disappear,
it will just be driven underground
and thus totally out of the control
out the MLS.
Within a few years 100 percent
of all cellular phone users will be
operating smart phones and will
have data functionality. This means
the ease of using virtual features
like Uber will increase not decrease. The existing dispatch companies remind me of the Sabots
(workers who made wooden shoes
by hand and were replaced by machines) who fought change during
the industrial revolution in France
and eventually lost. Incidentally
the word sabotage is derived from
the actions of the Sabots.
Change is one of those things
people end up begrudgingly accepting. Unfortunately change is
inevitable and once one accepts
that then competition becomes
clearer and easier. If the existing brokerages don’t change their
business plan and public service
they will be swept aside by the
change in demand.
By the same token it wouldn’t
hurt Uber’s position if they negotiated with the City. However this is
up to them. Considering the massive push back Uber is getting all
over the world from existing brokerages, one can see the huge threat
to the old system Uber is providing. Ultimately Uber or some other
virtual app company will sweep
the current brokerages away.
The economics of removing dispatchers and call centers and the
fairness of the closest car getting
the order is indisputable. Using
GPS to dispatch provides faster
service and this in turn generates
increased use of cabs. Perhaps this
could even help reduce the number of vehicles on the road as more
and more customers use the virtual
app dispatch system.
I have Uber on my smart phone
and one of the biggest complaints
I have about Uber is that the ease
of use makes customers take more
cabs. One of the biggest complaints I have from my street pickups is the large number of cabs
that operate the streets of Toronto
who refuse to take Debit or Credit
cards for payment. Interestingly
the MLS has had this issue on their
agenda for years and still refuse to
enforce or mandate point-of-sale
machines. Apparently the concept
to serve the public seems to elude
the MLS. This ease of payment issue is another reason why many
people call Uber.
Even though most of the major
brokerages advertise card payment
in their cars, on the street level
drivers often refuse card payment,
mostly due to the high percentage
of loss the driver faces at the cash
in of their charges. Of course if
every driver operated his/her own
POS machine this problem would
disappear BUT the brokerages insist that all their dispatched cabs
operate machines they provide
thus generating more revenue for
the brokerage. Uber on the other
hand charges a flat percentage for
their dispatch service including the
cost of using a card, making Uber
expenses much more reasonable.
All in all the industry is on the
cusp of changes which will in the
end remodel the cab industry as
we know it. Customers do not care
about who is licensed and who is
not. This is evident everyday as
customers get into out-of-town
and unlicensed cars without giving
a second thought as to what City, if
any, they operate from. Unlicensed
black cars operate daily from every Hotel in the City. At 900 Bay
Street one can see out-of-town and
unlicensed black cars transporting
government employees on a daily
basis and illegally parking with
the tacit consent of Toronto police
who leave them alone, meanwhile
ticketing the licensed Toronto cab
that has pulled in behind them.
The MLS allows the gypsy cabs
to operate with impunity yet issues
multiple tickets for the same offense to licensed cab drivers.
Personally I feel looking after
the well-being of some 15,000
shift drivers should be the City’s
highest priority. Stop excess ticketing and the financial gouging
they get from fleet operators, brokerages and the MLS. These shift
drivers now face annual license
fees in excess of $600 a year, arguably the highest license fees in
the world. I thought that license
fees in Canada should be based on
a cost recovery basis. Apparently
the MLS can do whatever it wants
and without having to justify its
fees to anyone. What happens to
all the excess revenue the MLS
generates at these license rates.
Ambassador operators are facing a
40 percent increase in their annual
license fees this year. Why? Why
is the plate transfer fee in excess
of $4,000 for a simple computer
entry? The time for MLS accountability has arrived. Unfortunately,
everyone’s attention is focused on
their own self-interests rather than
the industry’s interests. I believe
this is something to think about.
Enjoy Valentine’s Day and
Family day and have a Happy
Chinese New Year
(Koong Hei Fatt Choy)
Louis M. Seta, Cab Driver
License/Plate
Financing
Now Medallion Financial makes
it possible for you to own a plate
with as little as 20% down.
Refinancing also available
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150 Ferrand Dr. , Suite 501, Toronto
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12 February 2015
Oakville cabbie charged with DUI
A
by Mike Beggs
n Oakville taxi driver
faces DUI-related charges, after he was discovered asleep at the wheel of his
still-running taxi, which had run
into a parked car in a plaza.
According to Halton Regional
Police, they responded to a 911
call at about 8 p.m. on January 7
pertaining to a collision between
a taxi and another car sitting outside a fast food restaurant at Upper
Middle Rd. and Eighth Line.
When they arrived the cab was
still in drive. The rear tires were
blown and shooting off sparks as
they continued to spin. The cabby
was discovered out cold in the
driver’s seat, but woke up when
officers smashed the front passenger window to unlock the door and
assist him out of the cab.
He was taken to hospital as a
precaution, before being held in
police custody for a bail hearing.
Sgt. Chantal Corner told The
Toronto Sun, to all appearances,
the driver had passed out with the
car still in drive and his foot on the
accelerator, “so the taxi rolled forward and hit a parked vehicle.”
The parked car had only minor
damages, because the Halton Taxi
cab was moving so slowly.
Mohammed Tariq of Oakville,
56, is charged with driving while
his ability was impaired, and driving with more than 80 mg. of alcohol in his blood.
Boston taxi drivers sue city over services
like Uber
The Associated Press
January 19, 2015 – A group of
Boston taxi drivers is suing that
city saying officials have violated
their rights by allowing online
ride-hailing services such as Uber
and Lyft to operate without following the same rules taxis do.
The Boston Globe reports the
lawsuit filed in federal court Friday accuses the city of destroying
the value of the medallions taxis
must buy to operate, and asks unspecified monetary damages.
A city spokeswoman said officials hadn’t received the complaint
Friday and officials will review it.
A city advisory commission has
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been examining the regulations.
The lawsuit also challenges
proposed state rules to have the
Department of Public Utilities
regulate ride-hailing services as
“transportation network companies.”
The legislature hasn’t approved
the proposal. The lawsuit asks a
judge to stop the state from enacting it.
The lawsuit comes on the heels
of recent charges against a driver
for the ride-sharing service Uber
who was charged with kidnapping
and sexually assaulting a passenger in Chicago.
Cook County prosecutors say
46-year-old Adnan Nafasat of suburban Villa Park overpowered and
choked a 21-year-old passenger
during a July 31 attack.
Assistant State’s Attorney Jennifer Cooper said at a bond hearing
Wednesday that Nafasat refused
the man’s pleas to take him home.
The driver’s attorney, Carey
Crimmins, said in court that Nafasat owns a business and drives to
supplement his income.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports
that Nafasat was ordered held in
lieu of $150,000 bail.
Uber spokeswoman Jennifer
Mullin says the company has removed Nafasat from its platform
and is assisting investigators.
It was the second time in two
weeks that a driver was charged
with assaulting an Uber passenger
in Chicago.
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13 February 2015
Industry in tortured limbo awaiting
what’s next
• from page 4
“These garages can’t compete
anymore,” he adds. “Small business is almost a thing of the past.”
“Where are they going? They’re
getting out of the business.
They’ve had enough.”
A member of the Drivers On
The Waiting List legal action,
retired Ambassador Martin CehSeremet says the Review and subsequent bylaw were, “definitely
disastrous”.
After 47 years on the road, CehSeremet gave it up because of
physical complications resulting
from spinal surgery. (He lost a foot
and now walks with a prosthetic
device).
“I’m just waiting to see what’s
going to happen. I have to keep
that car on the road, to see how the
industry is going to be,” he tells
Taxi News.
(But) I will not lease out my
Ambassador,” he says bitterly. “I
will not contribute to Denzil Min-
nan-Wong’s or anyone’s feeling
at city hall that they’re doing the
right thing. I’m not going to give
them the satisfaction. My car is sitting at home.”
So, like seemingly every other
senior member of the industry, this
71-year-old is waiting in limbo.
Except unlike his peers with a
plate, after so many years of driving he feels he was duped out of
a Standard issue, with the 1998
introduction of the Ambassador
program.
“It’s a disgrace. When anybody
in the industry tells me I’m an Ambassador, I’m just about to puke,”
he says, “because I’m an Ambassador after all those years in the
industry.”
What’s more he deems the
City’s proclamation that Ambassadors provide a higher standard
of service to the riding public, “a
total farce”.
He has much the same opinion
of the Taxi Industry Review Final
Report, and new Bylaw.
“The whole thing, it’s b.s.,” he
adds. “They’re sitting in a chamber discussing things, and the next
morning they walk out and make
up whatever they feel like. It was
45 Councillors versus 22. They followed like ducks on the highway.”
“Basically, they don’t have any
idea about our industry or transportation. If they did we would
have bi-ways, and bi-highways
built a long time ago. And we
wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in.”
In the industry since 1973, City
Taxi owner Avtar Sekhon agrees,
“It’s very bad, now.”
“It is disastrous, because Uber
has taken a (lot of) the business
away. 2014 was a disaster, and
will 2015 be any better? I couldn’t
say.”
Aside from its application for
a court injunction, he claims the
City is “doing nothing” to protect
the licensed taxis from Uber, and
Uber X.
“When is the (injunction) going
to come up, maybe 2025?” he asks
sarcastically.
“The City should give the power
to the inspectors to stop, inspect,
and impound the vehicle – for one
month, not seven days. Let them
feel a little heat… If it happens to
a couple of guys with Uber, they
will get the message.
“Does Uber operate in Mississauga? No, Uber is trying. But
they’re tough out there. They don’t
let it happen.”
A TTA member, Sekhon says
it’s very tough dealing with city
hall because, “Every time we tell
them something, they do what
they want to do.”
Like putting 290 more Accessibles on the overcrowded roads this
year, and mandating 100 percent
on-demand accessible taxi service
by 2024.
“In 2024, everybody is going to
be crippled?” he asks.
And Sekhon says educating the
riding public about the perils of
using Uber X and other taxi industry issues, is an uphill battle.
“Nobody listens to us. This is a
big problem.”
Uber’s success as an illegal has
prompted more than a few licensed
drivers to consider, or actually go,
underground, avoiding all of the
City’s punitive licensing fees and
restrictions.
“(It’s like) nobody cares about
the rules in the regulated system.
There’s all of this illegal, parallel
system outside it,” Hubbard comments.
“It’s actually the first time we’re
seeing things have actually lost all
control. The Mayor said this isn’t
the Wild West. Yeah, it is.”
“But I think there’s a bigger picture,” she adds. “because a couple
of provincial Private Member’s
Bills have been put forward, and
the larger problem is bandit cabs.
There are a lot more illegals than
Uber.”
Bureaucrats very good at spending other people’s money
• from page 7
“In a bureaucratic system, useless work drives out useful work”
– Milton Friedman.
What I have experienced in my
taxi career is a lot of people who
were mentally ill and/or drunk/
drugged out or going through
other crises... like death of loved
ones. Yet I see no modules in the
training program for crisis or addiction counseling. Maybe that’s
because the proponents of this
mandatory “refresher” program
don’t have a clue about the realities of the business? Nor the relative probabilities that any specific
sort of “training” might come in
handy at any time. (I can hear it
now, “But if it saves one life then
it’s worth it. Yeah right. Here’s my
answer to that. If the bylaw were
to be amended to prohibit taxicabs
from moving, the odds of a fatality
from a collision would be reduced
to zero. Therefore, all taxicabs
should remain stationary at all
times. Which is almost the current
reality. Sound ridiculous? Just go
back to mandatory CPR, above.
If it saves one life then there is no
limit to the amount of other people’s money that should be spent
by government officials and their
private contractors.)
You decide.
Just sayin’.
How did I do it, you ask?
Here are just a few items to
whet your whistle:
“The key characteristics of
bureaucrats are these: first, they
spend other people’s money; second, they have a bottom line, a
proof of success, that is very distant and difficult to define. Under
those conditions, a major incentive
for every bureaucrat is to become
more powerful --and this is true
whether the bureaucrat is dominated by broad and unselfish interests
or by narrow and selfish interests.
In either case, being more powerful will enable the bureaucrat to
pursue those interests more effectively. In most cases, the way for a
bureaucrat to become more powerful is to have more people under
his or her control – to expand the
scope of whatever piece of the gigantic governmental structure is
that bureaucrat’s domain” – from
“The Tyranny of the Status Quo”,
by Milton and Rose Friedman
(copyright 1984, 1983).
When I first got my taxi license
in 1977, I had to fill out a form and
pay $10.
A decade, or so, later, I had to
pay $28 and write some ridiculous
test, which was about as challenging as answering a skill testing
question for a free hamburger.
Fast forward another twenty
years and I had to pay $400, for a
“course” showing fish market videos just to keep my cab driver’s
license.
Now, new drivers have to take
an eight day course and fork over
about $700 for government permission to be a taxi driver.
Definition: Mission Creep –
“the gradual broadening of the
original objectives of a mission or
organization.”
I think it was Mark Steyn who
wrote, “the bigger the government
gets, the smaller the people get.”
I think he is right.
And as government grows, political power takes an increasingly
prominent role in all of our lives.
It comes down to the freedom to
make our own choices vs. someone else making decisions for us.
Which do you like better?
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14 February 2015
TLT grants license despite fatal accident
M
by Colin Duffy
irza Bilal will be granted a taxicab driver’s
license, despite being
responsible for an accident that
killed two people and injured
others in 2008.
He was helping his friend move
to a residence in Saskatchewan
when the accident occurred. He
was driving at night on a two-lane
highway and attempted to pass
someone ahead of him. He failed
to successfully pass, and despite
attempting to swerve away, hit an
oncoming vehicle. Two people in
the other vehicle were killed, and
another suffered serious injury.
The two passengers in his own
vehicle were also injured, but released from hospital in a “a few
days”. Bilal fell into a coma for
four days, and suffered lasting injury as a result of the event. He
has no direct recollection of that
night and only knows what he
was told by others later.
Bilal said: “My blood boils
every time I think of it.” When
asked about this, he clarified that
he was angry at himself about the
suffering he caused to others, the
suffering he caused to himself,
and the damage that his mistake
caused to his life.
He was convicted of two counts
of dangerous operation of a motor
vehicle causing death, and one
count of dangerous operation of
a vehicle causing bodily harm.
He was sentenced to 16 months
in prison, but served only 11
months. He was also prohibited
from driving for three years.
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Bilal was licensed as a taxicab
driver from 2005 to 2008, but his
license was revoked after the accident.
Bilal told the Tribunal that he
has worked as a security guard,
but was on leave at the time of the
hearing because long hours standing in the cold caused pain in his
knee and ankle, which were injured in the crash in 2008. When
asked if he expects that his injuries will prevent him from working as a taxicab driver, he told the
Tribunal that it is a combination of
standing and being in the cold that
causes the pain, and he doesn’t expect that to be a problem.
When asked about other job
prospects, he told the Tribunal that
every job he has looked into is either physically strenuous enough
that it aggravates his injuries, or he
would be prevented from working
by his criminal record.
Bilal testified that he suffered
PTSD as a result of the accident,
but with therapy it has improved.
When asked, he claimed that it
wouldn’t be a problem for him as
a taxicab driver. He has a wife and
15-month old son in Pakistan. He
sends money to Pakistan both to
support them and to pay medical
bills for his son, who has a congenital heart defect.
He is driving again, and has
had a clean driving record since
his Ontario driver’s license was
reinstated. He drives two or three
times a week using a friend’s car,
on his friend’s insurance.
The City lawyer took “no po-
sition” on whether the Tribunal
should grant the license.
Bilal was granted a license but
will be on probation for five years.
At each of the next five renewals he must, at his own expense,
provide Municipal Licensing &
Standards with an updated copy
of his criminal record and driving record. He must inform them
of any new charges or convictions
under the City of Toronto bylaw,
Highway Traffic Act, or criminal
code. He has two outstanding fines
from bylaw convictions when he
worked as a driver before, and he
must provide proof that those are
paid in full before he receives his
license.
The Tribunal told him that they
were giving him a second chance,
and he responded by saying: “Thank
you. I won’t breach that trust.”
The Tribunal chair was Anna
Walsh, with Ted Yao and Moira
Calderwood also on the panel.
Taxicab driver Gezae Wureta
was allowed to stay on the list of
taxicab drivers on the waiting list
for a new taxi plate despite being
unable to drive a taxicab for years.
Wureta fell asleep at the wheel
on the highway in 2004, and suffered an accident as a result. No
others were hurt in the accident.
Wureta felt at the time that he suffered only minimal injury. However, after the accident he later
suffered depression. After a brain
scan, a tumour was found behind
his left eye. The tumour was removed in March of 2010, but after the surgery he suffered a loss
of vision that prevented him from
driving a taxicab.
In order to remain on the list, a
person must work full-time as a
taxicab driver without a significant
interruption. There is a provision
for someone who is unable to work
as a taxicab driver for reasons of
illness, and Wureta has provided
the Tribunal with documents from
his doctor noting that he was unable to work for each year, 2010,
2011, 2012, and 2013.
When asked if there’s any hope
of his vision improving, he responded “God willing, it will”
but there are no signs of improvement yet. His doctor did not say
that Wureta’s vision would never
improve, but didn’t indicate that it
was only temporary.
Wureta still has a provincial
driver’s license and is a licensed
taxicab driver, despite a doctor
saying that he is unable to drive.
It’s unclear how he qualified for
either license with his vision problems, and the Tribunal members
were confused as to how this could
be the case. Wureta does not drive
a car at all.
Wureta will have to come back
before the Tribunal to see if he
will be removed from the list for
his lack of driving over the 2014
period. Tribunal member Ted Yao
asked if it would be possible to
extend the Tribunal’s decision to
the current date, but City lawyer
David Gourlay asked that they not
do this because he had not investigated and prepared a case for the
more recent period.
License needed to have license?
• from page 2
Palacio states, “The Bylaw includes a license requirement for
over 60 types of businesses, some
of which are an empty, meaningless requirement because the Bylaw contains no other significant
accompanying standards –specifically for those who hold such a license. In other words: a license is
essentially required merely for the
sake of having a license.”
His motion says, “This also
creates a false sense of security
among the public who may assume
that the holder of such licenses are
held to significant standards, which
they often are not.”
He further states, “The Bylaw
includes a license requirement for
many professions that are now
more strictly professionally or Provincially regulated, making the requirement for a municipal business
license redundant.”
Palacio further says, “The Bylaw’s onerous regulatory regime is
not flexible, nor conducive to efficient and effective business practices that allow easy access to use
existing technologies to apply for
or renew business licenses online,
which must be considered.”
Approved by the committee,
staff was asked to come up with
recommendations on a comprehensive framework review no later
than the 2nd quarter of 2015 and
produce a final report by the 4th
quarter of 2015.
As part of the review, MLS is to
“ensure that the City’s regulatory
regime accurately reflects the current business environment. Specifically, to streamline processes,
encourage the use of technology
to make it easier for businesses to
operate in Toronto.”
The day started with a review
of MLS operations and responsi-
bilities from Executive Director
Tracey Cook.
Among other things, she informed L&S that of all the taxi
reform directives arising from the
reform package vote of February
2014, 16 are left to be implemented, in whole or part.
Questions from committee
members relating to MLS enforcement operations against one or
more app based companies now
operating in Toronto were at first
ruled to be suitable only for an in
camera (secret) session, as they
dealt with matters before the courts
and were subject to lawyer client
privilege.
Because, apparently, committee
members were running short on
time, this in camera session was
not held, and councillors could
get the information they sought in
other, non-public meetings.
15 February 2015
Letters to The Editor
New taxi app in Ottawa promotes city’s
licensed cabs
To the editor,
(Editor’s note: This letter is a press
release for the new Ottawa Taxi
App.)
ith unregulated cars
for hire applying
surge pricing when
demand is high, taxi companies
want to remind people that by
choosing regulated, legal taxi
services, you will avoid confusing increases in prices when trying to reach your destination.
Using the Ottawa Taxi App
guarantees that you will be protected from surge pricing during
all seasons, which is especially
important in Ottawa’s bone-chilling cold winters. It’s free and gives
access to Blue Line, Capital, WestWay, and DJ’s Taxi. All taxis have
certified meters, are inspected
yearly and are sealed by the City,
so they cannot be tampered with.
The price you pay today will be
the same price you pay tomorrow.
The app can be easily downloaded
on your smartphone, and allows
convenient taxi scheduling at the
touch of your fingertips.
“We have seen an abundance of
W
complaints from passengers dealing with unregulated cars for hire
who claim they’ve had drivers
cancel on them, only to discover
moments later that surge pricing
is in effect when they re-book a
ride”, says Daniel Coates, Manager of Marketing and Communications for the Ottawa Taxi App.
“Many of these passengers believe
the drivers have purposefully cancelled their less lucrative rides in
order to take advantage of prices
that are four, six, even eight times
the regular fare which are applied
to subsequent customers.”
After their introduction to the
City of Ottawa back in October,
there continue to be numerous
problems with these illegal ride
providers who ignore taxi regulations, which has resulted in several
of them facing legal repercussions.
This issue of surge pricing has
caught many people off-guard, and
is causing a lot of anger. As many
passengers have come to learn,
keeping an eye on pricing during
holiday and peak times is a must,
as some unlicensed drivers are using tricks to squeeze more cash out
For your convenience, book or
reserve a ride with one of Ottawa’s
taxi companies by downloading
the app here: http://ottawataxiapp.
com. Avoid unwanted surprises
and get a quote of your trip prior
to booking.
With the Ottawa Taxi App you
can easily get a fare estimate by
entering the address of your pickup and final destination. Then, as
of their riders’ wallets.
“People hate being surprised
by huge price increases. Our customers trust us to be straight with
them. We’re proud to say that the
Ottawa Taxi Apps allow our clientele full transparency when booking a taxi, which means that there
is no surge pricing, guaranteed,”
says Coates.
As reported by the Ottawa Citizen, on New Year’s Eve, a passenger using an unregulated car
for hire service in Ottawa was
shocked to find that her fare going from Elmvale to Centretown
cost an outrageous $184.43. This
has long been an issue for cities
that have been introduced to unregulated cars for hire. In Sydney,
Australia, users have reported
prices skyrocketing to 400 percent
of the usual fare. One woman in
New York City discovered that her
fare amounted to $293 for what
was supposed to be a 4.8-mile trip.
While she dozed off, her driver
decided to zigzag his way around
the city stretching the trip to 14.51
miles at a surge price of 2.8 times
the normal fare.
soon as you book your taxi, you’ll
receive a confirmation number and
you’ll actually be able to see the
location of your taxi on a map. The
app is available to download for
free at the App Store or on Google
Play. If you’re a Blackberry user,
you can create a shortcut icon on
your device via the web browser
for easy access to this website and
scheduling system.
Vehicle inspection
schedule
N
To the editor,
o doubt many of
our members will
have forgotten that
they no longer receive notice as to when their vehicle
inspections take place as it
is now posted on-line. The
first inspection dates have
been posted and can be
found on www.toronto.ca/
vehicleinspections.
Gerry Manley
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16 February 2015
Letters to The Editor
New group wants to clean up taxi industry
‘trauma’
T
To the editor,
rauma is defined as a type
of damage that occurs as
a result of a severely distressing event. Trauma, which
means “wound” in Greek, is often the result of an overwhelming amount of stress that exceeds
one’s ability to cope with that
experience. A traumatic event
involves one experience, or repeating events with the sense of
being overwhelmed as the person struggles to cope with the
immediate circumstances, eventually leading to serious, longterm negative consequences, often overlooked by professionals.
Trauma can be caused by a wide
variety of events, but there are
a few common aspects. There
is frequently a violation of the
person’s familiar ideas about the
world and of their human rights,
putting the person in a state of
extreme confusion and insecurity. This is also seen when institutions that are depended upon
for survival, violate or betray
the person in some unforeseen
way.
Psychologically traumatic experiences often involve situations
that threaten one’s survival and
sense of security. Typical causes
and dangers of trauma include
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harassment, embarrassment, employment discrimination, police
unfairness, bullying, and indoctrination. Being the victim of, or
the witnessing of, any of the above
is included. Long-term exposure
to situations is extreme abuse but
milder forms of abuse still generate trauma, or wounds, or “DAMAGE”.
At first glance the above may
seem far removed from the taxi
world. A second look clearly indicates that all the above easily applies to the taxi drivers; taxi
companies large and small; City
officials including council and
MLS and the rules and regulations
currently in place and the fees related thereto. In short – THE TAXI
INDUSTRY IN TORONTO IS A
MESS!!
There are a lot of illegitimate,
no, truthfully, illegal abuses of
the system. There are drivers who
are on welfare who claim to be
separated so that they and/or their
spouses can obtain social assistance. They are happy to make a
few extra bucks, which they do not
report, in addition to the welfare.
There are “bandits”, drivers who
take money out of the pockets of
legitimate drivers.
There are insurance issues: legitimacy – is there actual coverage; how much coverage; the type
of coverage – the policy riders; the
real cost of the policy.
Garage issues: company connections real or otherwise with
repair shops both mechanical and
body; the cost of using cars; the
cost of replacement cars while repairs are being made; the time factor of repairs; the cost of repairs.
Fringe benefits: a field of complexity itself.
Associations: they should all
be totally transparent; members
should have the right to know the
number of membership; members
should have the right to know the
charter or constitution; transparency should include financial statements.
Government: it is obvious that
much of the rules and regulations
in place at the current time simply
are just not practical. They make
life difficult for the honest driver
and, indeed, make it difficult to
be honest. It is obvious that many
of these regulations are made by
people who are sitting in “ivory offices” and have little or no knowledge or personal experience on the
street where the drivers try to make
a living and support their families.
The same applies to the fees that
go along with the regulatory bodies. The fees for registration and
renewal are simply nothing but a
“cash cow”, to be honest, a “cash
grab”, not withstanding anything
the City councillors or MLS may
offer as justification. The foregoing encourages the honest driver
to opt out of the system. All taxis
being wheelchair accessible is an
example of well meaning administrators not knowing what they
are doing. It is a good ideal meant
to benefit the public but actually
makes life more difficult for the
public as well as the drivers. This
vein of discussion includes the fact
that the “consultation process” has
resulted in the implementation and
completion of nothing!!! The “Advisory Committee” is totally ineffective. How can it be otherwise
when no drivers are included!!!
ABC Ambassador Services Inc.
is trying to do something about it.
ABC is attempting to establish an
association to address these issues
in an open and forthright manner. ABC wants to see an industry
where drivers can make a decent
living, including income from vehicles and licenses even when the
owners are not on the road themselves. ABC would like to see that
drivers are not exploited. ABC
wants a shared profit association.
That can happen only where there
is full transparency. This is the
way that all drivers who are legitimate can benefit. ABC wants an
association that will fight bandit
drivers who take the food out of
the mouths of legitimate drivers
who pay to maintain their vehicles
as officially required and pay their
fees as required. ABC is willing
to take on the bureaucratic system
but cannot do it without an association. There is strength in numbers.
There is too much fragmentation
as the Toronto taxi world exists
today. ABC is willing to join with
any existing association to achieve
these goals as long as that association is transparent. ABC would
appreciate your feedback. Please
contact us at 647–887–9204.
Mohammed Hakimzadah
Best Tech Auto 371 Bering Ave.
L&S
MEETING
SCHEDULE 2015
The following is the list of scheduled meetings of
the Licensing and Standards Committee for 2015.
February no meeting scheduled
Tuesday, March 24 - 9:30am August no meeting scheduled
Tuesday, April 21 - 9:30am Friday, Sept. 18 - 9:30am
Monday, May 25 - 9:30am Monday, October 19 - 9:30am
Thursday, June 25 - 9:30am Thursday, Nov. 26 - 9:30am
July no meeting scheduled
December no meeting scheduled
Committee members are: Cesar Palacio (Chair),
Glenn De Baeremaeker, Jim Karygiannis (Vice-Chair),
Giorgio Mammoliti and Josh Matlow.
MEETINGS IN COMMITTEE ROOM 1
Secretariat Contact: Dela Ting, 10th floor, West Tower, City Hall
100 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON M5H 2N2
email: [email protected], or by phone at 416-397-4592 or by fax at 416-392-1879
Make Uber play by the rules
T
To the editor,
his
letter
concerns
UBER’S illegal competition with GTA brokerages. Let us define the job of
UBER in the taxi business: it
provides a connection of passengers with licensed taxis and or
civilian cars alike to transport
passengers from place to place.
This service is provided traditionally by brokerages which
use only licensed taxis unlike
UBER masquerading as a technology company and operating
in breach and above the City’s
taxi transportation bylaws and
regulations.
UBER hires licensed taxis and
unlicensed cars as taxis alike, but
the latter have no commercial insurance, no monitoring cameras,
no municipal vehicle inspections
as a taxi. Unlike the taxi industry
paying millions to the City, UBER
pays nothing and hires unlicensed
drivers who operate without police
criminal record checks and are
who are untrained by the City as
taxi drivers.
This is a clear violation of existing bylaws and regulations. The
GTA municipalities are yet to offer
any explanation as to the lack of
enforcement of their own bylaws
and regulations. The logical solution would be to convert UBER
into a licensed brokerage that uses
licensed taxis and drivers to sustain fair competition with other
brokerages. If they were to refuse,
as they did all over the world, then
the City has to take adequate measures to stop their operations as
a taxi brokerage in Toronto . To
meet current customer demands
and happiness, we as the taxi industry must modernise the dispatch system, the GTA municipalities can mandate new dispatch
systems equivalent to ones used by
UBER and similar companies. In
summary, all the GTA cities have
to enforce their own existing taxi
bylaws, and UBER will be pressed
to play by the rules.
Abdi Hilowle Hassan,
Cab Owner, A-533
Letters to The Editor
17 February 2015
Uber consumers beginning to see shortcomings
• from page 6
These companies fail to realize
that most of our taxicabs are involved in licensed brokerages and
paying fees for that service already
and we only use companies like
Uber and Hailo as an additional
source of income as long as their
service remains cost effective. Ten
percent we can live with, 20 percent is unacceptable.
Although I support Uber’s
technology and their fight against
unfair regulations, I do not support their obvious plans to extort
additional cash-in rates from taxi
drivers in the City of Toronto.
They are obviously feeling secure
that they are the only game in town
and have used the industry to build
their customer base and now is the
time to begin to capitalize on that
position and gouge our membership to maximize their profits.
After 42 years in the Toronto
taxicab industry, I have a feeling
our membership will be telling
Uber, as they did Hailo, that 20
percent, like Hailo’s 15 percent,
is unacceptable and if you do not
hold the line on the 10 percent
cash-in fee, your customer base
will quickly erode as there will not
be legally licensed taxicabs to service that customer base.
If you believe that Uber X and
their Black Car Service will pick
up the slack, you had better think
again. Uber’s consumers are beginning to see the short comings
of these two business models and
are shifting back to the licensed
taxis for the security of knowing
they are insured for 2 Million dollars and their vehicles are safety
checked semi-annually, unlike the
Uber X and Black Car services,
and if the taxicabs are not available, then Uber will be going down
the same road as Hailo, which was
right out of town.
My advice to all of the City of
Toronto’s taxicab industry membership is to stop servicing Uber
consumers like I will be and remove their App from your phone
until Uber reins in their greed and
puts their cash-in fees back to 10
percent or less. I challenge Uber
to prove the increase is a necessary step to help ensure their longterm sustainability and not just an
unjustified increase in their profitability.
Gerry Manley
Monster proposed taxi owners’ fee
surpasses even Toronto’s
To the editor,
(Editor’s note: This is an open letter to the
Mayor & Members of Council of the Town
of Oakville.)
hat the Town stands poised to implement a fee of $1,869 for renewing a taxi owner’s licence; a fee
$1,247 higher
than the average of Toronto, ($1,249);
Burlington, ($650); Hamilton, ($529);
Milton, ($468); Mississauga, ($438); and
Brampton, ($396), is both egregiously unjust, and, at the same time, makes a mockery of the guiding principle behind Livable
Oakville.
A village, town or city is only as livable
as the treatment accorded those most vul-
T
nerable. Clearly, members of Oakville’s
taxi industry are vulnerable, given their
net earnings fall below Ontario’s minimum
wage standards.
As well as vulnerable, cab owners are
powerless, seeing as if the fee in question is
not paid, for whatever reason, their operating licence will not be renewed - effectively
stripping away their livelihoods.
Arguably, the Town exercises considerable power over its taxi industry. By electing to implement a fee that imposes a severe
hardship on plate holders; a fee substantially higher than that charged by surrounding municipalities, a fee, in all likelihood,
higher than that charged by any jurisdiction
in Canada, the Town stands guilty of abuse
of power. In doing so, it demonstrates utter
disregard for hardworking cabbies, most of
whom work six and seven days a week for
net earnings that are marginal at best.
As well as showing complete disregard,
the fee in question serves to further marginalize those affected, given the sheer amount
being charged. Bad enough quality family
time is sacrificed by virtue of long hours behind the wheel under normal circumstances.
Worse such a state of affairs is exacerbated
by the Town’s unwillingness to treat its cabbies fairly.
Until and unless Livable Oakville includes members of the taxi industry, the
term is meaningless.
Peter Pellier
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18 February 2015
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TLPA protests governor’s
move to legalize ‘ridesharing’
To the editor,
(Editor’s note: This letter is a press
release issued by Who’s Driving
You, a public awareness campaign
launched by the Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Association.)
ess than a month after an
Uber driver was charged
with kidnapping and raping a woman—and one year
to the day that a six-year-old
California girl was killed by
an uberX driver—the outgoing
governor of Massachusetts is
putting the public at risk by orchestrating an 11th hour push to
legalize so-called “ridesharing”
services across the Commonwealth.
Gov. Deval Patrick will leave
office on Jan. 8, but not before he
ensures that dangerous and currently illegal taxi services of companies such as Uber and Lyft are
legitimized by placing them under
the control of the Department of
Public Utilities. The move was
expected to be finalized in a hastily called public hearing on New
Year’s Eve in front of the Department of Transportation.
Patrick’s push comes several
months after his former campaign
strategist David Plouffe, who was
also a close advisor to President
Obama, became a top executive at
Uber. That relationship has fueled
speculation in the Boston media
that the governor is angling for a
job with the multi-billion dollar
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by drivers, the death of an innocent child—the list goes on and
on,” said Mike Fogarty, the president of the TLPA who also runs a
limousine operation in Massachusetts. “This is not how Governor
Patrick should use his power to
protect public safety. He’s favoring the profits of a corporation
over common sense safety. It’s an
absolutely shameful way to leave
office.”
The spokesperson for a local
Massachusetts group of taxicab
companies opposed to Uber, Stephen Regan, said that “Patrick
has elevated government complacency to government complicity.”
He also said the last-minute push
“strips every Mayor and Town
Manager in Massachusetts of their
current power under state law to
regulate companies such as Uber
and Lyft.”
ABOUT US:
‘Who’s Driving You?’ is a public safety campaign designed to
educate the public about the dangers of unlicensed transportation
companies. It is an initiative of the
Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Association, an international
non-profit trade association whose
membership consists of 1,100 licensed transportation companies.
For more information, visit www.
WhosDrivingYou.org, follow us
on Twitter (@WhosDrivingYou)
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corporation.
Local transportation companies
as well as the New England Livery
Association, the National Limousine Association and the national
Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit
Association (TLPA) sent a letter to
Patrick asking him to postpone the
ill-timed hearing. The governor
refused.
The groups all point out that
the proposed regulations would
not require background checks of
drivers conducted by law enforcement entities. The proposal would
also allow so-called “ridesharing”
drivers to operate vehicles with
personal license plates, as opposed
to designated commercial livery
plates that identify for-hire vehicles. This would create even more
dangers for passengers who could
unwittingly step into the wrong
vehicle without proper markings.
Shockingly, the proposed rules
also do not require drivers for the
companies to carry primary commercial automobile liability insurance coverage, something that
would have covered the family of
Sophia Liu, a 6-year-old girl killed
in a crosswalk by an Uber driver
last New Year’s Eve in San Francisco. Uber continues to say it is
blameless in the accident and has
yet to pay a penny to the family.
“Just look at the allegations
against Uber drivers around the
country and the world: rape charges, assault charges, kidnappings
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19 February 2015
Letters to The Editor
This mythological princess took heroic fall
or dry deposit of acidic substances
on the surface of the Earth. Smelters, coal-burning power plants and
automobiles, trucks, and buses are
the main sources of sulphur and
nitrogen emissions, which become
1. What is the legend of
northern Ontario’s Kakabeka
Falls? The legend tells of Greenmantle, an Ojibway princess and
the daughter of a chief, who, when
captured by a Sioux war party,
CANADA
PAST & PRESENT
by Jack “The Bear” Malone
lulled her captors into believing
she would save herself by guiding
the Sioux to the stronghold of her
people in the country to the north.
Instead, she guided their canoes
down the mighty Kaministiquia
River and over the 40-metre-high
Kakabeka Falls, killing all of the
Sioux war party and perishing herself in the process. Kakabeka Falls
- “the Niagara of the North” - is
about 32 kilometres west of Thunder Bay, Ontario, and near to the
Trans-Canada Highway.
2. In the 1970s, what were
Canadians told had caused
more than 14,000 Canadian
lakes to go fishless? This was
and is acid rain, which is the wet
airbourne and then are liquified
by mixing with water in clouds
above the Earth’s surface. Thus,
there is acid rain, which kills not
only lakes but many forms of life
on Earth. It seems to be that acidic
pollution caused by our way of life
is killing our water, our lakes, our
land and, ultimately, ourselves.
3. What were the causes of
the Metis uprising at Red
River in 1869-1870? Who, on
March 4, 1870, was executed by
the Metis provisional government,
of which Louis Riel was the head?
Why did this happen? In the late
1860s, the Metis at Red River
(Winnipeg after 1873) knew that
big changes were upon them and
that their old ways were about to
end. As they could see, the buffalo,
long a staple of their way-of-life,
were almost gone; there was no
longer a huge European demand
for beaver pelts; and their prairie
freighting business, which relied
on oxen-powered Red River carts,
would soon be made redundant
by steam power. The Hudson’s
Bay Company, which had administered the District of Assiniboia
through a puppet council, was in
the process of selling Rupert’s
Land to the newly-created Dominion of Canada, such that the Red
River Settlement and its people
were being sold too. Canada was
about to annex the settlement to
itself, and there was no guarantee
that Metis’ claims to their lands
would be recognized. There was,
too, the possibility that the United
States, which had allowed several
recent Fenian invasions of British
North America, might step in by
force and do the same - or worse.
There was a Canada Party and an
American Party at Red River in
the late 1860s - land speculators
and their minions mostly. In the
fall of 1869, Louis Riel, aged 25,
educated, as very few Metis were,
fluent in French, English and Cree,
as few Metis were, with substantial armed support among his own
people, who were still the majority
at Red River and its environs, assumed leadership of a self-styled
Metis provisional government.
Riel became “The President.” He
and his like-minded Metis supporters hoped to negotiate their
way into Canada - and they imprisoned by force some of the
Canada Party who had tried to
take up arms against them. Five
of the opposition were sentenced
to death by a court of the provisional government. Four would
be spared, one was not. The difference may have been the degree
of obnoxiousness of Tom Scott, an
angry, belligerent, Irish-born Orangeman from Ontario, who was
convicted of treason against the
provisional government on March
3, 1870, and executed by firing
squad the following day. News
of Scott’s execution appeared in
Ontario newspapers on March 26,
causing a wave of anger and resentment. The Macdonald government dispatched a military force to
Red River soon after. Riel and the
Metis provisional government, realizing they had no chance against
such a contingent, escaped across
the American border. In the 1870s
and 1880s, in Orange Ontario,
Tom Scott was “the Martyr of Red
River” and his last frightened cry,
“This is cold-blooded murder,”
would be repeated again and again
among Orangemen and their sympathizers for decades. Tom Scott’s
execution angered much of Ontario against Louis Riel, irrevocably,
to the extent that it was often later
said to be the underlying political
reason why Riel had to hang for
his later part in the North-West
Rebellion of 1885.
4. What to French-Quebecers
is “joual”? Joual is an urban dialect of the French language that is
considered “lower-class” French.
The dialect incorporates English
words, slang words, mispronunciations, and often leaves out words
and syllables.
être tiguidou
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E
NEW AND USED AUTO PARTS FOR TAXIS
Lights ★ Doors ★ Quarter Panels ★ Trunks & more
★ Front brakes for taxis - $40
★ Rear brakes - $40
★ Oil Change - $30 (Castrol oil)
★ New and Used Tires
★ We do D.O.T.’S
★ Mechanical Repairs, Parts, and Body Work
CALL
TODAY
Open 8:00 am to 8:00 pm
416-686-5788
20 February 2015
WE HAVE THE
BUSINESS
NOW WE NEED THE CARS!
JOIN CO-OP CABS OR CROWN TAXI YOUR CHOICE
WHEEL-TRANS
SEDAN CONTRACT
WHEEL-TRANS
ACCESSIBLE
CONTRACT
NUMEROUS
CORPORATE
ACCOUNTS
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LOOKING FOR A CAR TO DRIVE?
CO-OP CABS FLEET GARAGES
EAST
ANS GARAGE
9 Dibble St.
Toronto, ON M4M 2E7
Nirmal Malhi or
Jatinger Singh
Tel: 416-463-9917
Tel: 416-779-9917
Fax: 416-463-1016
Email: [email protected]
STOHOS TAXI RENTALS
1001 Queen St. E
Toronto, ON M4M 1K2
George Stohos
Tel: 416-462-0888
Fax: 416-462-9065
Email:
[email protected]
ANGELO’S TAXI SOLID ONE
863 Eastern Ave. Rear Unit
Toronto, ON M4L 1A2
Nick or Penny
Tel: 416-955-9806
Tel: 416-955-9817
Fax: 416-955-9817
Tula - Tel: 416-955-9806
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.solidone.ca
VIRK AUTO
1355 Gerrard St. E.
Toronto, ON M4L 1Y8
Jahan Cell: 416-624-7449
Mohammad Cell: 416-371-1138
Asif Mohammad
Cell: 416-520-3342
CROWN TAXI FLEET GARAGES
WEST
SULTAN
800 Danforth Rd. Scarborough,
ON M1K 1H2 Tel: 416-471-9535
PUNJAB AUTO SERVICES
759 Eastern Ave.
Toronto, ON M4M 1E9
Shabbir Cell: 416-465-3106
NTC TAXI
318 Greenwood Ave.
Toronto, ON M4L 2R8
Rajai Tel: 416-582-3611
Nasser Cell: 416-871-0464
Fax: 416-273-1871
Email: [email protected]
All IN ONE AUTO SERVICE LTD.
807 Danforth Rd.
Scarborough, ON M1K 1H3
Sri Ramalingham
Cell: 416-265-4006
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.allinonelimo.ca
DOWNTOWN
NABI AHMAD BABAR
382 Sherbourne St.
Toronto, ON M4X 1K2
Office: 416-425-7070
Cell: 416-824-5323
QUALITY CARS
1526 Keele St.
Toronto, ON M6N 3E9
Noor Saeed
Office: 416-782-2200
Cell: 416-456-5050
Fax: 416-782-2200
MIRZA TRANSPORTATION
282 Geary Ave. Toronto, ON
M6H 2C5
Mirza or Ashraf
Office: 416-530-1316
Mirza Cell: 416-836-4749
Email: [email protected]
PRIME TAXI
c/o Jutt Motors
1000 Weston Rd.
Toronto, ON M6N 3S1
Mohammad Arshad,
Najeez Wariach
Office: 416-531-4200
Fax: 416-762-4949
Email: [email protected]
HUI-BIN LOO
15 Florence St.
Toronto, ON M6K 1P4
Hui-Bin Loo
Office: 647-895-6876
BK AUTO SERVICES
1750 Keele St.
Toronto, ON M6M 3W8
Kabir Bozul or Rita Khan
Office: 416-654-3333
Fax: 416-651-7933
Kabir Bozul Cell: 416-573-4275
STAR AUTOMATIC
TRANSMISSION
1102 Ossington Av.
Toronto, ON M6G 3W1
Vito Office: 416-539-8906
Fax: 416-539-8997
NORTHLAND TAXI
2 Thorncliffe Pk. Dr. Unit #42
Toronto, ON M4H 1H2
Office: Tel: 416-421-8899
Fax: 416-421-3520
CHECK OUT OUR NEW UPDATED APP
CHECKER CAB
1655 Dupont St., #303
Toronto, ON M6P 3T1
Danny Office: 416-504-0064
Fax: 416-504-0064
Email: [email protected]
MOHAMMAD
SIDDIQUE
T: 416-894-1961
GLENDOWER TAXI
2775 Birchmount Rd.
Toronto, ON M1W 2C7
Office: 416-293-7907
Fax: 416-293-6654
TOTAL TAXI
3561 Danforth Ave.
Toronto, ON M1L 1E3
Office: 416-822-6625
Email:
[email protected]
LOO TAXI
1220 Dupont St.
Toronto, ON M6H 2A4
Office: 647-895-6876
ZULFIQAR ALI
Office: 647-686-6928
Email: [email protected]
HPM TAXI
14 Thora Rd.
Toronto, ON M1L 2P8
Office: 416-690-8641
Email: [email protected]
PARAM TAXI FLEET
1086 Midland Ave.
Toronto, ON M1K 4G9
T: 416-751-9392
C: 647-716-9392
AZ TAXI
1364 Kingston Rd.
Toronto, ON M1N 1C8
Office: 416-894-8972
Office: 647-898-7262
Fax: 416-629-8180
Email: [email protected]
SURMA MOTORS
Office: 416-845-0541
MANVILLE AUTO
140 Manville Rd. Toronto, ON
M1L 4J5
Office: 416-288-9722
Fax: 416-288-8982
Email: [email protected]
BITU TAXI
170 Nantucket Blvd. Unit #3
Toronto, ON M1P 4R6
Office: 416-751-1313
CONNAUGHT AUTO
801 Danforth Rd.
Toronto, ON M1K 1H1
Office: 416-820-5039
Email: [email protected]
GHULAM MUSTAFA
Office: 647-706-2625
S.M. AUTO
296 Brock Ave.
Toronto, ON M6K 2M4
Office: 416-516-8181
AHMED BULBUL
Office: 647-834-7707
CO-OP CABS 130 Rivalda Rd. Toronto.
CROWN TAXI 789 Warden Ave. Toronto.