City’s two CAB Companies merging operations
Saskatoon’s two taxi companies are joining forces next week, but it will be business as usual for customers — for now.
Comfort Cab and United Blueline Cabs will come under one roof on Monday. The specifics of the merger are still being worked on, said Comfort Cabs operations manager Shondra Boire. The two brands will operate separately until more details about the merger are known. More information is expected this summer.
Boire said they’re merging to improve service, accessibility and efficiency.
“It doesn’t come down to cost savings or anything like that because that’s all mandated by the city. So it’s more internal service standards that we can improve on.”
Boire said she couldn’t elaborate on the “standards,” and that no jobs will be lost.
The merger has been in the works for a while, she said, adding the eventual arrival of companies like Uber and Lyft would have played a part in the decisionmaking, but the merger was in the works long before the immediate threat of transportation network companies (TNCS) in the province.
Boire said: “A lot of people call it ride-sharing. We don’t. We always knew they would be coming, it would just be a matter of what ... legislation they would have to run under.”
On Tuesday, the legislative assembly passed the Vehicles for Hire Act, which sets out how ride-sharing services will operate in Saskatchewan. The act gives municipalities control over how these services can operate through bylaws.
Karol Noe, vice-president of licensing, customer and vehicle services for Saskatchewan Government Insurance, said the Crown-owned insurance company is working on the regulations accompanying the act, which is expected to be ready by fall.
SGI is considering mandating that ride-sharing service drivers hold a Class 4 licence, the same licence taxi drivers hold.
“We just think that’s always been the standard for people transporting passengers for hire. We do want to do the best to keep our passengers safe. We think relaxing it at this time doesn’t seem like the right thing to do with our traffic safety focus in the province,” Noe said.
SGI wants to have the same requirements for ride-sharing companies that are applied to taxi and limousine companies, including vehicle inspections and criminal record checks, she said.
The act also requires ride-sharing companies to hold at least $1 million in liability insurance. SGI is taking the annual insurance rate that taxi companies are charged for full-time service, and charging ride-share companies based on a per-kilometre rate. Koe said this is because ride-share drivers operate on a more casual basis.
Increasing competition may not be the industry’s greatest challenge in Saskatoon.
Boire said the biggest challenge is an insufficient number of vehicles on the road to serve passengers.
“That’s something we’ve been advocating (for) for quite some time, that we do need some more cars. That’s why we’ve never said no to TNCS. We know that we need more cars on the road to service everyone properly. We just don’t need them all the time, so we’ve also been advocating for a flex fleet.”
A report on Saskatoon’s taxi bylaw is expected to go to city council’s transportation committee in June, the city confirmed Thursday.