Uber to Resume in Calgary December 6 2016

[northcrunk]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

I still don't understand why the city limits taxi licences. There shouldn't be a limit to how many licenses they put out. Do they regulate how many restaurant licences or pub licences they put out? I highly doubt it. So why is the city so protective of taxi companies? That's the issue that rubs me the wrong way with city hall's position in all of this.

Taxi companies probably donate more to the politicians. The civil politics process is easy to corrupt. I don't believe there are any campaign donation limits and if the candidate doesn't spend it all they get to keep in in their bank accounts. Pretty sleezy.

[pylon]

Originally Posted by peter12

People care about the drivers because in most cases they are new Canadians struggling to make ends meet, and take care of their families.

Why should I give a crap about that? Being an immigrant is zero excuse for providing garbage service when someone else can do it better and cheaper. If anything, the cab industry should be taking this as a wake up call to completely dismantle and rebuild their business model. And maybe part of that would be creating working conditions and a stigma that attract people that aren't just doing the job out of utter desperation.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

I still don't understand why the city limits taxi licences. There shouldn't be a limit to how many licenses they put out. Do they regulate how many restaurant licences or pub licences they put out? I highly doubt it. So why is the city so protective of taxi companies? That's the issue that rubs me the wrong way with city hall's position in all of this.

It was felt that in order to maintain a standard of quality, you had to ensure that cab drivers could earn a decent full-time living. And to ensure cab drivers could earn a decent, full-time living, you needed to limit the number of licenses.

The problem is that demand for cabs varies dramatically by day and time of day. There's probably 8x greater demand for cabs at 1:00 am on a Saturday night than there is at 2 pm on a Wednesday afternoon. And demand spikes seasonally during the Christmas season. So a fixed number of full-time cab drivers doesn't really make any sense, especially in a young, fairly affluent city like Calgary where people go out a lot. The city tried to tweak the licensing system to increase the number of part-time licenses, but it was too little, too late.

I honestly don't think it's corruption. Rather, we had an outdated and inflexible system and the people who could change it didn't have the imagination or boldness to evolve. They overestimated the difficulty in sorting out the matter of existing licensing, and vastly underestimated the groundswell of public rage over the issue. Now it's out of their hands.

[VladtheImpaler]

Originally Posted by pylon

Why should I give a crap about that? Being an immigrant is zero excuse for providing garbage service when someone else can do it better and cheaper. If anything, the cab industry should be taking this as a wake up call to completely dismantle and rebuild their business model. And maybe part of that would be creating working conditions and a stigma that attract people that aren't just doing the job out of utter desperation.

Just because I want new immigrants to do well does not mean I want to be in a car with someone who doesn't know how to drive, does not not know how to get where I want to go, cannot communicate with and has BO. Not to mention, most of whom I do not trust enough to have Mrs. Impaler take a cab by herself.

[calgaryblood]

Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler

Just because I want new immigrants to do well does not mean I want to be in a car with someone who doesn't know how to drive, does not not know how to get where I want to go, cannot communicate with and has BO. Not to mention, most of whom I do not trust enough to have Mrs. Impaler take a cab by herself.

Why wouldn't you trust your wife taking a cab? Don't trust your wife or the cab driver? Has there been any charges or complaints brought upon taxi drivers in Calgary for sexual harassment or otherwise that you know about or are you just being ignorant?

The BO I agree with, though.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by calgaryblood

Has there been any charges or complaints brought upon taxi drivers in Calgary for sexual harassment or otherwise that you know about or are you just being ignorant?

I thought there was another case more recent than this- I could be wrong.
http://globalnews.ca/news/1806965/ca...exual-assault/

[KTrain]

Originally Posted by Muffins

The taxi companies have a lot of pull in city hall, that's why.

How do they have pull? I've heard this numerous times and I don't understand how an industry like this could have any pull?

[Locke]

Originally Posted by KTrain

How do they have pull? I've heard this numerous times and I don't understand how an industry like this could have any pull?

Thats whats so insane about it!

They shouldnt, but they very clearly do.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Locke

Thats whats so insane about it!

They shouldnt, but they very clearly do.

Perhaps it is all the late night cab rides for the drunken Nenshi-ites the basement of Chicken on The Way to Silly Hall.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by KTrain

How do they have pull? I've heard this numerous times and I don't understand how an industry like this could have any pull?

Go look up the campaign donors list for the candidates in municipal elections. It's a lot of home builders, developers, and the cab companies.

[Peanut]

I find it a bit crazy that people are in here blaming Nenshi for the insurance problem that Uber has. Limiting the taxi licenses, ok, the City is fair game on that.

But AFAIK insurance is provincially regulated not municipally. It's not Nenshi's jurisdiction to just "change insurance regulation" in order to help Uber operate legally in the province.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Peanut

I find it a bit crazy that people are in here blaming Nenshi for the insurance problem that Uber has. Limiting the taxi licenses, ok, the city is fair game on that.

But AFAIK insurance is provincially regulated not municipally. It's not Nenshi's jurisdiction to just "change insurance regulation".

Does the City not hold the Livery licenses and thud set the required insurance standards?

I'm honestly asking, I thought every city was in charge of their own requirements.

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by Locke

Does the City not hold the Livery licenses and thud set the required insurance standards?

I'm honestly asking, I thought every city was in charge of their own requirements.

Even if Calgary allows personal insurance to be used for driving for hire, you'll still need the insurance companies to agree to pay out for claims.

[Superflyer]

Originally Posted by getbak

Go look up the campaign donors list for the candidates in municipal elections. It's a lot of home builders, developers, and the cab companies.

This is one thing that I was thinking of. The issue of not allowing a competitor to the taxi commission really reminds me of the secondary suite issue. Both items are before counsel and have been for a couple years now. They keep saying they are making progress and talking about it a lot but really nothing ever changes.
Now if you look at two groups of companies who donate a lot of money to the mayor\counsel it is the same ones that get the most out of these issues not passing. It is more or less known that the home builders have some of counsel in their pockets and now it is really looking more and more like the taxi commission is the same.

[Peanut]

Originally Posted by Locke

Does the City not hold the Livery licenses and thud set the required insurance standards?

I'm honestly asking, I thought every city was in charge of their own requirements.

I'm sure there must be an insurance broker or two floating around here who could help us. I quickly Googled and found this:

http://www.ibc.ca/ab/auto/auto-insurance

It's all referring to "Alberta" and "Alberta requirements". It doesn't allude to any specific differences between jurisdictions, like edmonton having different insurance requirements or insurance availability than any other locations in the province. If that makes sense.

I could do more regulatory digging for you but I'm on maternity leave and... that's too close to my *real* work for me to be bothered.

[GGG]

I think everyone would be on the cities side if they ended the cartel on the dispatch systems and ended the cartel of licences.

It doesn't have to be uber. It doesn't have to be ride share. There just needs to be a sufficient number of vehicles. This is where the city has failed. Independent of uber the city has not solved the problem and denies there is a problem.

It shouldn't take a private company breaking the law to enact change to something that is clearly broken. The city has failed to serve its citizens in regards to the taxi industry. Whether or not uber has proper insurance is a red herring to the real issue of why hasn't the cab cartel been broken.

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by pylon

Why should I give a crap about that? Being an immigrant is zero excuse for providing garbage service when someone else can do it better and cheaper. If anything, the cab industry should be taking this as a wake up call to completely dismantle and rebuild their business model. And maybe part of that would be creating working conditions and a stigma that attract people that aren't just doing the job out of utter desperation.

[fundmark19]

Originally Posted by accord1999

Even if Calgary allows personal insurance to be used for driving for hire, you'll still need the insurance companies to agree to pay out for claims.

Intact is already working with Uber to get everything approved. Unfortunately it lies in the hands of the government to approve the sale of this insurance to the consumer.

http://www.bnn.ca/News/2015/10/14/In...s-covered.aspx

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

The problem is that demand for cabs varies dramatically by day and time of day. There's probably 8x greater demand for cabs at 1:00 am on a Saturday night than there is at 2 pm on a Wednesday afternoon.

Yet amazingly, there's still a lineup of a hundred taxis at the airport at 1am on a Saturday.

[craigwd]

Are the drivers classified as employees of Uber or are they independent contractors?

If they are contractors how many don't pay tax on the income?