Uber defence lawyer says Edmonton enforcement campaign failing in court

Edmonton’s vehicle-for-hire staff spent $1.5 million on administration and enforcement last year — issuing 278 tickets to Uber, TappCar and others — but Uber’s defence lawyer says not one of the tickets he’s seen stood up in court.

“There’s never been a conviction of an Uber driver (in Edmonton),” said lawyer Paul Moreau, who estimates he’s had or still has files for roughly 75 drivers since the new bylaw came into effect in March 2016.

Since some of those drivers have up to four tickets, he believes a large share of those 278 tickets landed on his desk.

Edmonton was the first Canadian jurisdiction to create regulations around app-based ride-sharing as an alternative to taxis. But its experience with Uber suggests it has struggled with enforcement.

The issue is heading back to City Hall Monday, with city officials aiming to increase fines and strengthen the bylaw’s language to help with enforcement.

Moreau has been working on this issue for years. Before the new bylaw regulating Uber, Moreau handled roughly 70 tickets, mostly from an undercover operation where a former police officer took rides. Those tickets were either overturned in court, withdrawn after the city let its undercover operator go, or withdrawn entirely once the new bylaw came into effect.

After the new bylaw took effect, Moreau said he handled several dozen tickets for operating without a commercial licence plate given out by Edmonton police and city bylaw officers to Uber drivers. Those were withdrawn after the court looked at the provincial legislation and said it doesn’t require a commercial licence plate for what the city calls private transportation providers.

The third batch of tickets came when bylaw officers pulled over Uber drivers and couldn’t find their registration in the city system, said Moreau, providing estimates for the number of tickets he dealt with because his files were not readily accessible. So far, the ones who have gone to court on those charges got off when Uber was able to prove it did register those drivers and sent the information to the city, he said.

It’s still unclear why the city’s records were incomplete, said Moreau. “There’s a number of these cases coming up.”

A city report heading to council’s community services committee Monday says the city handed out 278 tickets, but doesn’t list what all those tickets are for. It doesn’t say what happened to the tickets when they went to court.

Of the 278 tickets, the report says 30 tickets were for illegal street hailing, seven for failing to produce insurance papers and six for a dispatching a driver without a valid city-issued vehicle registration or driver’s licence.

Ward 6 city Coun. Scott McKeen said Sunday morning that it’s “frustrating” to hear the enforcement hasn’t been effective.

“All that council was trying to do was create an elegant solution of balance so that everyone could coexist in the vehicle-for-hire world. Now that we know this, we’ll probably have to dig back in and take another serious look at how we can regulate for-hire vehicles so that we can again try to get this balance,” McKeen said.

Officials are asking council to increase fines for Uber and TappCar drivers who accept street hails or fail to provide evidence of city registration and insurance when they’re stopped. Staff want fines increased to $1,000 on first offence, $2,000 on second offence, up from $250 now.

Officials also want to increase registration fees to cover the cost of administration and enforcement, reducing the initial fee but increasing per trip fees to 30 cents from six cents now.

Barry Mah, chief executive for TappCar, said he will be at the meeting Monday to question the rules and fines around street hails.