Uber, the luxury car-hailing app, may be breaking city bylaws
When Uber, a smartphone app that allows users to hail black sedans and SUVs, arrived in Toronto, many locals, used to dysfunctional taxi regulations, wondered how it could be legal. It turns out it may not be. Toronto’s director of licensing Bruce Robertson told OpenFile that city staff are “leaning towards” ruling that the company is operating illegally because it has yet to apply for a limousine service licence. Uber, however, doesn’t see itself as a limo service; Andrew MacDonald, the company’s head man in Toronto, told us it partners with licensed companies and drivers and does not itself own cars or employ drivers. “We are a technology company that helps limousine companies connect with their customers through our app,” he said, comparing the distinction to that between Expedia.ca and Air Canada. Unfortunately for MacDonald, Toronto’s bylaw defines a limousine company as “any person or entity which accepts calls in any manner for booking, arranging or providing limousine transportation.” Tough to wiggle out of that. [OpenFile]
(Images: Commerce Court, Daniel Sahlberg; town car, Alden Jewell)
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Can we get rid of some of these obnoxious by-laws? Uber is fine in NYC, SF, PAris, Seattle, etc. Ugh.
Fix the bylaws and let this company provide an alternative to our city’s terribly run taxi market. Uber provides a more professional service than said “licensed” operators.
The by-laws are ridiculous. Instead of pandering to the corrupt transport unions, the city should embrace a service that actually helps it’s citizens/consumers (for once)
The current taxi system in toronto is the joke. It is not a consumer oriented program. The more competition the better. Uber provides a great service. We should support them and allow them to thrive!
This is a bylaw that clearly needs to be revisited by city council. It stifles innovation and caps competition in Toronto’s monopolistic taxi market. Uber provides a dual benefit for this city by (1) allowing small business owners with a dispatch network to run their business, and (2) offers consumers an innovative way to hail a far higher quality car at a marginal premium to exiting taxi rates. Any opportunity to raise the bar on quality, provide employment for small business owners, and encourage innovation should be welcomed by our city.
Let’s get real – we live in an age of connectivity. We need to get rid of these pointless regulations and revise the bylaw to reflect today’s reality so that we aren’t restricting an innovative and tech-savvy transportation alternative.
The evolution of an imperative service to Torontonians should not be halted because the incumbents silently dislike an innovative competitor gaining traction. Forward thinking metropolitan cities around North America have already adopted Uber, knowing that their constituents want options, increased quality of service and to be heard. Is that unreasonable?
Toronto does not have a public transit system that is worthy of a growing world class city, should we
also have a limited number of dated car service options?
At the very least, with Uber I know that the driver isn’t going to tell me that I can’t get in his car if I’m going to pay with Visa!
The city needs to reduce its red tape so that innovative new companies like UBER can operate. It is ridiculous that UBER has to fight City Hall in order to provide a service that Torontonians clearly value.
Are you kidding me with these ridiculous by-laws? Do they seriously want to impede innovation and at the same time limit competition? Toronto is going to be left behind if we don’t start becoming more proactive…just a thought…
Bruce Robertson should try and hail a cab downtown on a Saturday night in the middle of a snow storm before he deems Uber to be anything but the most efficient means of transportation Toronto has seen in a long time.
The Bylaw states any person or entity who accepts CALLS. I didn’t think Uber accepted any calls, but instead used a mobile application to connect users with cars.
I see the launch of UBER as an extreme positive. It provides alternative transportation options and will put pressure on Canadian cab companies to use innovate technology to make its customer’s lives easier.
Uber will provide incentive for cab companies to look at developing a mobile app (I believe Beck may have one in place) as a convenient method of ordering cabs and ensure all cabs make it easy to accept credit card payment.
Best of luck to Uber on your entrance into Canada!
Calling Uber a limousine company is analogous to calling OpenTable a restaurant. Very disappointed by the obvious shortcomings in this author’s argument. On the surface, reads like a blatant attempt to stir up a controversy for no reason.
Perfect! A efficient, easy to use service that makes our city look good is being canceled because of red tape.
Council and the people on the City of Toronto payroll seem to be content to sit idly by and allow our city to fall further and further behind on the world stage. It is stories like this that make me cringe and think we will never be in the same league as New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Paris, or London. Toronto has been, and will continue to be a poor man’s Chicago unless bylaws like this are updated.
City of Toronto, please listen to your constituents that live IN the city and get out of the way of progress, lest Prime Minister Harper be correct in saying Calgary is Canada’s greatest city.
As loyal Toronto Life reader, I stand conflicted with reasoning behind this story. The writer alludes to speculation and fails to dig up on many of the facts behind what UBER actually does. Furthermore, this article fails to shed any light on the type of valuable service that UBER provides to the city and its inhabitants.
As a Toronto native and frequent club/resto/nightlife aficionado, it has become increasing difficult to navigate the downtown smoothly (and suavely) via taxi, and the reason for this is simply the steadily increasing number of condo’s going up and the stagnant number of taxi licenses issued out by the city. With the demand for taxi’s ever increasing (don’t get me started on TTC service), UBER is there not only to fill the much needed void, but does so by providing a better and more efficient way of travel.
Putting an iphone in a car so idle cabs can connect with residents frustrated by the city’s existing cab services is hardly grounds for calling the tech company a limo service.
If this article does anything, I hope it is to shine a light on a rather misguided potential move by city staffers in the licensing department, possibly due to lobbying by strong cab unions.
Why are we wasting our energy trying to cap innovation? Lets move forward and embrace this city’s great entrepreneurial spirit.
Putting a stop to UBER in Toronto would be a great way to show the World how our city (and country) embraces technological advancement, entrepreneurship and an open-market economy – especially since other cities (NYC, SF, D.C., etc..)have given UBER the green light. The opportunity for UBER exists because there is so much wrong with the taxi experience today. It is not fair to stop a new entrant because the incumbents are bad at what they do.
Yet another innovative project about to be derailed by red tape. Wonderful! Dare I mention the food carts?
Try out the service while you still can by using promo code “ubertdot”. You’ll get a free $10 credit, still active as of today.
uber is a waste of time. it will be gone within a year! don’t get your hopes up people, illegal operations always get busted! stay away, sincerely.. I mean for goodness sakes, my uber cab driver was offering to sell me Weed since I was from Cali. Hope that’s what you are all ready for!
That would be calls “in any manner for booking, arranging or providing limousine transportation”.
You’re a poor excuse for a short sighted lawyer. A call via the internet is still a call for service.