City cabbies will now face random inspections
The city will end traditional annual taxi inspections to focus instead on random roadside checks it is already using for Uber vehicles.
Councillors voted Wednesday to stop the twice-yearly, staged safety inspections previously required under city bylaw to renew taxi licences.
The surprise vote happened without the public being allowed to see the report that explained why the city should switch gears. The report was kept confidential because it talked about staffing cuts and changes, said licensing director Ken Leendertse.
Leendertse said in an interview Thursday the switch to random, roadside inspections will help make taxis safer — and level the playing field between the cab industry and ridehailing services such as Uber.
“We’ve come to believe what we see in a staged, scheduled inspection is not necessarily a true reflection of what is happening on the road,” said Leendertse.
For example, he said inspectors suspect a small number of cabbies used the same set of new snow tires to pass inspections — then put older tires back on their taxis for daily use.
In the past few years, the city has cracked down with inspection blitzes that occasionally found safety problems such as bald tires, broken security cameras, exhaust leaking into passenger areas and in one case, a broken gear shift cable secured with a shoelace.
“At a roadside check, we get a much more accurate understanding of what is actually going on in a vehicle,” said Leendertse. “And if we don’t like what we see, we can pull the vehicle off the road.”
Leendertse added his department is creating an audit process to ensure all taxis are road-checked at least once a year.
Blue Line Taxi owner Anthony Rizzuto said the change makes sense, adding staged indoor inspections by city officials seemed like “overkill” because drivers are already required to have separate annual vehicle safety-checks by a mechanic.
“I’m confident our drivers will do well (in random checks), because over the years we’ve moved more toward an owner-operated style of business. You own the vehicle, you have a reason to take care of it,” he said.
Hamilton Cab chair Jagtar Singh Chahal said the new inspection process is more fair.
“Before, there was no level playing field on this issue with Uber. We were stressed (with) micro inspections and Uber was getting a free ride. Now, cars will be checked on the road for all,” he said.