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City council’s taxi-regulating committee staggered to a sensible conclusion Friday afternoon on letting “ride-sharing” companies like Uber work in Ottawa and slashing regulations on traditional taxis.
Starting in six months. And in the meantime, nobody knows what will happen.
Mundanely, there’s still a final vote by city council next week, but the committee rejected a pivotal motion on requiring security cameras in Uber cars — which would have been an expensive barrier to new drivers, justified by concern about public safety — by a 7-3 vote. Council could reverse that but it’s not likely.
Committee chair Diane Deans argued against the cameras. “If you feel safer in a vehicle with a camera, take a cab,” she said.
Dozens of cabbies packed into city hall’s council chamber rumbled. About half of them walked out after the vote a minute later. Several of them shouted at Deans on the way.
“You should not be in that chair,” one yelled. “You are biased!”
That’s just the start.
“We will not allow anybody to beat us and then tell us not to cry,” warned their union president, Amrik Singh.
The cooler heads in that camp know that you can’t put politicians in a hostage situation and expect that they’ll do what you want. But drivers blocked the Airport Parkway and the main entrance to Carleton University in protest of hiked fees to pick up at the airport last year. It’s not hard to do.
A couple thousand drivers are contemplating the loss of a livelihood that was supposed to be hard but reliable. Some spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on taxi plates that are now all but worthless.
“I will do everything that is in my legal power,” Singh promised. Slow-driving protests, even blockades, don’t have to be criminal. At this point, what do they have to lose?
Coventry Connections, meanwhile, will look at reorganizing into the same category of company as Uber, rather than as a taxi company, said its president, Hanif Patni. Coventry is the umbrella company that dispatches nearly all of Ottawa’s cabs, whatever brand might be on the car.
Patni personally controls Blue Line, Coventry’s biggest component, and presciently divested it of the plates it owned when he took it over a decade ago. But he’s now facing an attack on two fronts, as the owner of an individual cab company and one that provides services to a bunch of them.
“It is very disappointing not to be treated fairly,” he said.
Maybe his company can reform into a local Uber competitor. But a robust traditional taxi fleet is supposed to still be the foundation of the rides-for-money industry here, the only option for people looking to hail a vehicle on the street, the only option for people paying cash, the only option for people who want cameras for their own protection, the main option for people who use wheelchairs.
Here’s another uncertainty: What will Uber do between now and Sept. 30?
The company barged into Ottawa in fall 2014, doing what it pleased and paying the fines racked up by its drivers who’ve been caught breaking the existing taxi bylaw. Let’s not pretend that it could have got the city’s attention any other way, but multiple councillors felt Friday like they were holding their noses as they voted for rules that will let the company operate here legally.
They wanted a promise that, until the rules kick in, bylaw officers won’t add to the nearly 200 charges they’ve laid against Uber drivers so far. Nobody will give it to them.
Chris Schafer, Uber’s manager of policy, spoke to the committee on Thursday morning and said that although Uber’s managers are talking about taking a break here, anything definitive is “above my pay grade.” The guy whose pay grade it’s at, Uber Canada boss Ian Black, caught a plane to Toronto before his much-later speaking slot came up Thursday evening and wasn’t there to answer any questions.
Councillors want a pound of flesh from somebody.
Now that Uber is largely getting its way, it might want to tone things down. But it also has a relationship with the 2,000 drivers and 100,000 riders it claims are on its rosters here. “Sorry, we’ll be back in September” isn’t good business.
The company maintained silence on its plans Friday afternoon.
This is all far from over.
dreevely@postmedia.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
Starting in six months. And in the meantime, nobody knows what will happen.
Mundanely, there’s still a final vote by city council next week, but the committee rejected a pivotal motion on requiring security cameras in Uber cars — which would have been an expensive barrier to new drivers, justified by concern about public safety — by a 7-3 vote. Council could reverse that but it’s not likely.
Committee chair Diane Deans argued against the cameras. “If you feel safer in a vehicle with a camera, take a cab,” she said.
Dozens of cabbies packed into city hall’s council chamber rumbled. About half of them walked out after the vote a minute later. Several of them shouted at Deans on the way.
“You should not be in that chair,” one yelled. “You are biased!”
That’s just the start.
“We will not allow anybody to beat us and then tell us not to cry,” warned their union president, Amrik Singh.
The cooler heads in that camp know that you can’t put politicians in a hostage situation and expect that they’ll do what you want. But drivers blocked the Airport Parkway and the main entrance to Carleton University in protest of hiked fees to pick up at the airport last year. It’s not hard to do.
A couple thousand drivers are contemplating the loss of a livelihood that was supposed to be hard but reliable. Some spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on taxi plates that are now all but worthless.
“I will do everything that is in my legal power,” Singh promised. Slow-driving protests, even blockades, don’t have to be criminal. At this point, what do they have to lose?
Coventry Connections, meanwhile, will look at reorganizing into the same category of company as Uber, rather than as a taxi company, said its president, Hanif Patni. Coventry is the umbrella company that dispatches nearly all of Ottawa’s cabs, whatever brand might be on the car.
Patni personally controls Blue Line, Coventry’s biggest component, and presciently divested it of the plates it owned when he took it over a decade ago. But he’s now facing an attack on two fronts, as the owner of an individual cab company and one that provides services to a bunch of them.
“It is very disappointing not to be treated fairly,” he said.
Maybe his company can reform into a local Uber competitor. But a robust traditional taxi fleet is supposed to still be the foundation of the rides-for-money industry here, the only option for people looking to hail a vehicle on the street, the only option for people paying cash, the only option for people who want cameras for their own protection, the main option for people who use wheelchairs.
Here’s another uncertainty: What will Uber do between now and Sept. 30?
The company barged into Ottawa in fall 2014, doing what it pleased and paying the fines racked up by its drivers who’ve been caught breaking the existing taxi bylaw. Let’s not pretend that it could have got the city’s attention any other way, but multiple councillors felt Friday like they were holding their noses as they voted for rules that will let the company operate here legally.
They wanted a promise that, until the rules kick in, bylaw officers won’t add to the nearly 200 charges they’ve laid against Uber drivers so far. Nobody will give it to them.
Chris Schafer, Uber’s manager of policy, spoke to the committee on Thursday morning and said that although Uber’s managers are talking about taking a break here, anything definitive is “above my pay grade.” The guy whose pay grade it’s at, Uber Canada boss Ian Black, caught a plane to Toronto before his much-later speaking slot came up Thursday evening and wasn’t there to answer any questions.
Councillors want a pound of flesh from somebody.
Now that Uber is largely getting its way, it might want to tone things down. But it also has a relationship with the 2,000 drivers and 100,000 riders it claims are on its rosters here. “Sorry, we’ll be back in September” isn’t good business.
The company maintained silence on its plans Friday afternoon.
This is all far from over.
dreevely@postmedia.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
