Calgarians happier with cabs but use them less, city hears
Calgary’s taxi industry may be struggling, but market competition from ride-sharing companies continues to keep customers happy.
The Livery Transport Advisory Committee’s annual report showed customer satisfaction with cab companies was up in 2016, but the overall number of rides per year continues to drop.
Naeem Chaudhry, spokesman with the Calgary Accessible Cab Driver Association, said the trend is largely due to the lagging economy and the introduction of Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) such as Uber and TappCar to city streets.
“Of course (TNCs) are also taking the same business,” Chaudhry said. “So now we can see — especially the drivers who are full-time — they are facing some challenges to survive.”
Since giving the green light to TNCs last April, council has approved operations for seven licensed ride-share companies and issued 1,500 Transportation Network Driver’s Licences. Chaudhry said the added competition from TNCs has hurt cab companies’ bottom line, but customers are reaping the benefits in lower fares and better service.
“It’s no doubt that the TNCs made a shift in the market, but Car2Go also made a deep shift in the market,” said Coun. Shane Keating, chair of the city’s transportation committee. “Every time you give another service, it’s beneficial to both the city and the people that are using the service.”
Chaudhry said all cab companies in Calgary dropped their rates last year to better position themselves to compete with TNCs, some by as much as 20 per cent.
“The monopoly is not in the good favour of the customers,” Chaudhry said. “Since more companies are coming … (customers) are going to get better service just because of the competition.”
According to the report, there was a total of 7,022,090 taxi trips last year, down by more than 400,000 from 2015, and by more than a million from 2014. The report also showed 63 per cent of Calgarians used taxi services last year, down from 68 per cent in 2015.
Despite fewer trips, an additional 222 taxi plate licences were approved last year, bringing the number of plates to one cab for every 657 Calgarians.
Rider satisfaction is on an upward trend at 85 per cent last year, with post-Stampede satisfaction rising to 87 per cent and postholiday satisfaction up to 90 per cent. The report found 1,333 “taxi concern” service requests were submitted to 311 last year. Of the complaints, 478 resulted in warnings, 12 in summonses and 49 in licence suspensions or revocations.
Even with annual numbers down, the report showed the monthly number of rides increased by more than 70,000 between December 2016 and February 2017 compared with the previous year. And revenue was up more than $200,000 last month from February 2016. But Chaudhry said those numbers could drop as temperatures start to rise.
“Since the weather was cold the last few months, that was a great help to the drivers, they were happy and they were doing OK. But since now the change … you’re going to see a drop in the amount of trips.”