RIDE-HAILING RULES TOO RESTRICTIVE
After studying the Horgan government’s proposed licensing regime for ridehailing services in British Columbia, one could easily conclude that the NDP’s heart really isn’t in it. That should quickly lead most reasonable people to ask themselves why. Two answers spring to mind.
One, the NDP is so tied to the B.C. taxi industry (and fears losing its members’ votes and financial support) that it is intent on thwarting ride-hailing while trying to appear — at least to frustrated British Columbians hungry for the service — to favour the revolutionary transportation system available in every major North American city except Vancouver.
Or the party is so ideologically opposed to free markets and so obsessively committed to government control that it is simply incapable of allowing free market-oriented companies such as Uber or Lyft to operate without excessive regulation.
It’s likely both.
At this stage, the delays simply can’t be about “public safety,” as Transportation Minister Claire Trevena kept repeating earlier this week in announcing that ride-hailing is finally coming to B.C. — sometime next year or even the year after that.
With all respect to the minister, this is a red herring, as no one is arguing against basic regulations to ensure ride-hailing would be safe, including the potential operators, who have a vested interest in operating a safe service.
They are trying to make ride-hailing act like taxis.
Ensuring ride-hailing drivers have clean driving records, no criminal history and their vehicles are inspected regularly to ensure safe operation and proper insurance is all that should be required, apart from some minimal level of registration so they can be operated as businesses. This is what is generally done in the many locations around the world where ridehailing companies operate.
Instead, the NDP wants to force these drivers to obtain onerous Class 4 commercial licences, something not done in Ontario.
They also want to limit the number of ridehailing licences and set rules about driver compensation. In other words, they are trying to make ride-hailing act like taxis, which defeats the purpose.
The NDP would argue it is doing all these things to protect the public, but the public isn’t asking for most of these regulations. They want the less-regulated ride-hailing they’ve experienced in other cities, where the number of drivers on the road at a given time floats up and down in reaction to demand and where many people can operate their cars on a part-time basis to earn a bit of cash.
Clearly, the NDP is trying to bring in a form of ride-hailing that will compete on a more or less equal footing with taxis and therefore potentially take away less of their business. But this is being done at the expense of consumers, who want the flexibility and lower cost available with ride-hailing.
That’s not to say some sympathy can be felt for traditional cab operators, who have paid high prices to obtain the tightly controlled licences issued by government. But it’s clear the traditional taxi model has been smashed by the new dispatch technology of ride-hailing. There is no going back and the provincial government is wrong to try to prop up the old system.
If it feels inclined, Victoria should offer a buyback scheme for taxi licences for those who want to get out of the business and allow ridehailing to proceed as it has around the world. The half-measures being considered make little sense.