‘What will happen when all the taxis are gone?’

Three of Canada’s largest cities recently rediscovered British playwright William Congreve’s advice: “Decide in haste, repent at leisure.” Toronto’s Pearson International Airport should learn from this.

On March 1, British Columbia’s Human Rights Tribunal decided that Uber Vancouver cannot be exempted from providing accessible services.

The City of Ottawa is anxiously awaiting the judge’s decision in an eight-year-long lawsuit, to see whether or not it will be ordered to pay $231 million for rewriting its bylaws to permit Uber without doing necessary background work.

And in Toronto, Mayor Olivia Chow is dealing with the fallout of John Tory’s Uber deal: 5,500 taxi drivers are being replaced with 55,000 rideshare drivers earning half the minimum wage. There will be virtually no wheelchair-accessible taxis left on the road by next year’s end.

Which makes the secretive changes now being rushed into place at Pearson Airport, managed by the Greater Toronto Airport Authority (GTAA) even more confusing.

Last fall, the GTAA announced it would be rewriting its “Conditions of Permit” for taxi and limo drivers. Concurrently, it is negotiating a deal with Uber. The differences in the two negotiation processes are creating real anxiety for older drivers who purchased their permits from Transport Canada decades ago at a cost of $100,000 or more.

These drivers have always paid for the privilege of picking up passengers at Pearson; and now they will pay more, which is not a surprise.

What is a surprise is the new clause inserted into the Conditions of Permit (Section 2.1v) indicating they are forbidden to talk about this, on pain of losing their permit through a new “demerit point” unilaterally dictated by GTAA last August.

While the increased fees taxi and limo drivers will pay are clearly laid out in the 46-page document, what Uber and other rideshare companies will be paying the GTAA remains top secret.

Will they pay more during rush hour and less during slow periods? Pay per car? Share surcharges with GTAA?

Because Uber can surcharge when demand is high, weather is bad, or traffic is brutal, nobody knows exactly what an Uber will cost during a rush hour snowstorm at Christmas.

When questioned Transport Canada said: “Transport Canada transferred responsibility for all taxi licences and permits to the Greater Toronto Airports Authority … Please contact the GTAA for matters pertaining to taxi licencing and permitting at the airport.”

When asked about Uber’s surge rates, which may double or triple pricing, the GTAA response was “we don’t control their proprietary technology.” Who, then, is responsible for consumer protection? You can’t blame the taxi drivers for worrying about what kind of arrangement the GTAA will forge with Uber. The details of the Uber deal will determine whether taxis can make a living at the airport or be forced to take their cabs off the road, as is happening in Toronto.

Currently, GTAA is demanding drivers agree to pay higher fees to pick up passengers without knowing if they will have enough passengers to cover their fixed costs: vehicle, insurance, maintenance, and gas all have to be paid before they pay themselves any wages.

Consumers should also be worried: having grown accustomed to the idea of city-dictated rates (as with taxis) and venture-capital subsidized rates (like Uber, to date) passengers are not looking ahead to the day when there are no taxis left, and Uber can charge whatever it wants in a market with no real competition as has happened at other airports.

“As it is now, passengers generally never even get out to where the taxis are standing,” notes one airport driver who now typically waits three or four hours for a single fare. “But when Uber is surging prices during a snow storm, they come looking for us.

“What will happen when all the taxis are gone?” he asks. “We can only charge $70 to downtown Toronto. Uber can charge anything it wants. What then?”

Consumers are not looking ahead to the day when there are no taxis left, and Uber can charge whatever it wants in a market with no real competition, says one airport taxi driver