AS POLITICIANS ENDLESSLY PLAN, RIDE-SHARING SERVICES MOVE IN
The legislature committee charged with easing B.C.’s long-delayed transition to ride-hailing services was just getting down to work this week when confronted with evidence that the concept is already here — albeit illegally.
It happened Monday morning as the hearings got underway in Vancouver. Committee members were still digesting a briefing from provincial regulators on the myriad obstacles that must be navigated before setting up a legitimate ride-hailing operation in B.C.: a halfdozen provincial statutes, municipal regulations, licences, permits, inspections, approval of fleets and vehicles and drivers, considerations of safety and the environment and geography, insurance, background checks, proof of economic viability and public need.
No wonder the traditional taxi industry in the province has been able to shelter, cartel-like, behind a regulatory barrier crafted to keep state-of-the-art ride-hailing operators like Uber and Lyft at bay.
Then up spoke Don Guilbault, member of the B.C. Taxi Association and general manager of Surrey-based Greencabs.
“Illegal as it is, ride-hailing is what’s happening,” he told the committee. “Last week, I had nine applicants come looking to change taxi companies, to come and drive with our company out in Surrey-Delta.”
Four were from Richmond, the rest from Vancouver. He asked their reasons for wanting to make the switch.
“The four boys from Richmond all had the same answer: ‘We now have five illegal operators in Richmond. We have families to feed. All we know is taxi. Our business has been killed,’” he said.
The Surrey operator’s lament brought a pointed question from committee member Andrew Weaver, leader of the Green party, the strongest advocate in the legislature for legitimizing ride-hailing services, but no fan of the illegal operators.
“The question is enforcement,” he said. “Frankly, somebody regulating should be fining them $1,000 each time somebody picks up. Are you seeing a lack of enforcement there?”
The folks at the passenger transportation branch were doing all the law allows, Guilbault replied.
“They have been issuing a number of, I think, $1,150 tickets. But these ride-share companies have said, straight up and blatantly: ‘We’re not going to stop. We’ll gladly pay those tickets. We’re not stopping.’”
Elaborating on the challenges of enforcement during her testimony to the committee was the branch’s Karen Vanderkuip. The branch is aware of a half-dozen of these upstart ride-hailing companies, each with its own app for booking services online or via mobile devices. But the companies and their apps are not illegal — rather, it is the unlicensed vehicles and their drivers who pick up the fares that are operating illegally.
“So there’s not an action we can take against the app developers,” she advised the committee.
“We see six trade names out there that we are aware of in Metro Vancouver and the capital regional district. Certainly, the popularity of the service has increased. There has been media coverage that I think has grown the interest, and we are concerned about the growth of that.”
The branch is trying to educate the public “about the risks of riding with a driver who may or may not have even a licence and in vehicles that are not licensed or insured for commercial use.”
It has also fined some drivers to the modest total of $12,650, issued cease-anddesist orders to others, and is continuing to investigate.
But as she also noted, “it takes a lot of enforcement resources to identify and ticket those vehicles.”
In a telling followup to the discussion at the committee Monday, Global TV reporters Geoff Hastings and Frank Qi checked out one of the unregulated ride-hailing companies, GoKabu.
Though operating under the regulatory radar, the company is anything but shy.
The Chinese-language website claims the company has 600 drivers on tap and to have provided rides to a million satisfied customers, according to the translation provided by Mandarin-speaker Qi. But when Hastings used the GoKabu app to make contact with one of those drivers, he was met with a rebuff in Chinese.
“The driver said the company who is running the app asked them not to take any westerner or non-Chinese riders,” Qi recounted on the Global TV News Hour Monday night.
The fallout from the news report brought a reply from GoKabu Tuesday, in which a representative claimed the company has no policy against accepting non-Chinese passengers.
“However, since the app is only available in the Chinese language and not all drivers are fluent in English, to reduce frustration in communication and riding experience, it’s an option for drivers not to take nonChinese-speaking customers based on the driver’s own decision,” the spokesperson said.
Along with the explanation of sorts, the company provided an update on its progress.
“Our platform has been providing ride-hailing services to Metro Vancouver for about two years now and added services to Vancouver Island area in summer of 2017,” it said. “Ride-hailing services have already happened national wise (sic) in Canada and will be B.C.’s future in a matter of time. GoKabu’s ultimate goal is to help to create our very own B.C. style ride-hailing service to not just benefit the Chinese community but also to benefit everyone who lives in B.C.”
Brazen to be sure, but a sign too that for all the pandering to the taxi industry, the province has been unable to stamp out ride-hailing services. Better to establish a proper regulatory regime that would allow legitimate operators to get on with providing safe ride-hailing services to the public.
These ride-share companies have said, straight up and blatantly: ‘We’re not going to stop. We’ll gladly pay those tickets. We’re not stopping.’
DON GUILBAULT, B.C. Taxi Association member