City ‘slow to develop’
driving and was also ordered to take a remedial driving course, sentenced to two years of probation and fined $1,000.
Hawkes has pushed for safety training and other measures following her son’s death. “It’s a plan to do something and they’re being very slow to develop it,” she said. “I don’t know if our roads are going to be safer.”
The training will also be mandatory for taxi drivers, after council scrapped training for those drivers in 2016 in an attempt by Mayor John Tory to level the playing field as companies such as Uber, already operating in the city, were brought under a regulatory regime.
Fiona Chapman, the city’s director of business licensing and regulatory services, told the Star in an email the city is working with Centennial College to develop a “training requirement package” that would see courses administered by third parties approved by the city with the help of an expert review panel.
Chapman said the city expects to release that package to any interested vendors in February. It’s not clear when drivers would be able to begin taking the course.
“The training will be in-depth and will need to cover a range of topics — including transporting passengers in a safe manner; driving in an urban setting; providing accessible service; antiracism, diversity and sensitivity; and legal requirements,” Chapman said.
When asked how the city will keep track of training compliance, Chapman said the city has an audit system that will allow officials to verify who has completed training “on a random or selected basis.”
As for why the training program was not ready to roll out Jan. 1 when the new rules took effect, Chapman said city staff are following council’s direction. “Some of the amendments can be implemented fairly quickly, while other changes need more time to be done correctly,” she said.
“To ensure that new drivers have enough lead time to take the training before applying for a vehicle-for-hire driver or private transportation company driver’s licence, the report recommended that new drivers will need to provide proof of training from June 1, 2020, onwards.”
Beck Taxi’s Kristine Hubbard, who says they haven’t been consulted about the training, was critical of the city’s approach. “It’s a hands-off, noncaring, uninterested effort,” she said.
After council cancelled training for taxi drivers in 2016, Beck, on its own initiative, created mandatory training for its drivers in collaboration with Centennial College, including an incar defensive driving component.
Other rules effective as of Jan. 1 include an increase in the years of experience drivers require — now a minimum of three years up from one — and that drivers need to “securely mount” all hand-held devices.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Uber said the company has been “working closely” with the city “to ensure we are in compliance with the requirements that are taking effect in 2020. “Along with working with cities to ensure we’re compliant with municipal regulations, we are continuously investing in safety at Uber through our policies, practices and the product features we offer on our platform for riders and drivers,” the email said.
Lyft did not respond to questions from the Star.
Both companies made significant lobbying efforts in the lead-up to the July 2019 vote that saw the regulations amended, but lobbying after the vote has been non-existent as the city develops a training program.
When council approved the updated rules for vehicle-forhire drivers in July, one member, Coun. Gord Perks (Ward 4, Parkdale-High Park), unsuccessfully moved to ban Uber and similar companies, saying the proposed changes didn’t go far enough. “Their business model depends on being able to get a precarious workforce in and out as quickly as possible and that doesn’t work if you require that precarious workforce to be well trained in how to operate safely,” he said.