TappCar’s exclusive access deals raise questions for bylaw
TappCar is racking up its exclusive contracts. It will be the only taxi-type company available at the Heritage Days Festival and already has deals with the Edmonton Eskimos and FC Edmonton.
At Bonnie Doon Shopping Centre, the previous taxi stand has been eliminated,replaced with a set of reserved TappCar stalls and a mobile dispatcher to walk mall customers through the process of ordering a ride online.
It has traditional taxi cabs wondering — when is a taxi stand a taxi stand? Is what TappCar is doing legal?
“Fix the holes. Reduce the ambiguity,” said Coun. Mike Nickel, who gave notice Wednesday he will be asking council to support a review of the fledgling bylaw to give better definitions for everyone. Councillors Moe Banga and Dave Loken also signed the notice of motion.
The bylaw took effect March 1. Since then, taxi drivers and companies are alleging TappCar, regional taxis and others have been taking street hails and setting up from taxi stands.
That was specifically forbidden in the current bylaw in an attempt to preserve a niche and allow the existing licensed cab companies to survive. They are the ones that still operating under a capped taxi plate system.
Uber is still unable to operate within city limits because it doesn’t have provincially approved insurance.
Private transportation providers “are obtaining taxi stands. But we don’t know if those taxi stands are authorized and there’s no definition for that,” said Banga.
“We want clarification,” he said. “We just want to make sure the bylaws that were passed are being adhered to.”
TappCar now has 260 drivers in Edmonton, 50 more in Calgary and hit a new high of 3,000 rides in one day last weekend, says the company.
It’s also installed tablets near the entrance to several private bars and restaurants to encourage restaurant patrons to book a ride. It’s working on a deal with Southgate Mall, and preparing to test new outdoor call centres to let customers simply hit a button to call a ride. It would issue a receipt to tell them who was on the way.
“We have to be innovative,” said Pascal Ryffel, spokesman for the company. He said they strictly adhere to the bylaw and issue weekly reminders to their drivers that the bylaw prevents them from picking up street hails. All trips need to be arranged through the app or by phone, even if the customer has the name of a favourite driver.
Most of the time what taxi drivers think is a street hail is actually just a passenger flagging down the driver they pre-booked, he said.
Banga, Nickel and Loken also want the city to review what decals and markings a non-traditional taxi vehicle is allowed to have and review the wording of the prohibition against street hails and allow for stronger enforcement if necessary. They also want an update on enforcement.
Previous bylaw enforcement officers have said undercover and late-night enforcement is critical to catch bandit cabs operating with no licence at all. City officials won’t say if they are doing undercover work, but drivers say they’re not seeing any late night enforcement.