Ride-sharing works for Calgary as Regina mulls bylaw

As Regina’s city council continues to contemplate the pros and cons of introducing ride-sharing companies into the local market, other cities have already been operating with them for years.

It was a rocky start for Uber and Lyft in Calgary. In 2015, they began operating without the city’s blessing, ended up having to stop services after an injunction was filed.

In 2016, new sets of bylaws were passed to regulate the services, and they began operating in earnest – shortly after bylaws were introduced in 2016 Uber said it had hired hundreds of drivers and had thousands of people signed up to use the services.

“We’ve heard positive feedback from consumers using these services,” said Abdul Rafih, Chief Livery Inspector with the City of Calgary.

“It was citizens who asked for the additional services, we as the City of Calgary listened to that and determined ‘is this a safe option for customers, and how can we ensure public safety is maintained in any one of these vehicles,'” he said.

Rafih believes that ride-sharing has been good for the city.

“I do feel that giving citizens more options and an opportunity to leverage technology in a way that we have never done before is also something that most citizens appreciate.”

In 2017, there were nearly 2.3 million rides given by ride-sharing companies in Calgary and in 2018 that ballooned to more than four million.

Rafih said since ride-sharing was allowed, taxi rides have declined five per cent, but the number of taxi drivers has stayed the same.

The City of Calgary has heard from the taxi industry, according to Rafih, that their business has been affected. But he said the declining economy in Calgary during the same time could have something to do with the smaller ride numbers.

When it comes to complaints about drivers and services, Rafih said the number they receive are about the same for taxi and ride-sharing.

The requirements for taxis and ride-sharing drivers in Calgary are nearly identical – the same license, insurance, and record checks are required. What is different is the training.

In Calgary, Taxi drivers currently have to go through two days of training, and Rafih said a report is going before city council in the spring to make recommendations on whether that should be expanded to ride-sharing drivers as well.

The report this spring will also include a review on the fee structure for ride-sharing companies. Currently, the parent company pays a fee according to how many drivers they have, as well as a fee per driver and a fee per trip. Rafih said this isn’t meant for the city to make money, just to recoup the cost of administrating the system.

In Saskatchewan, the province made regulation changes in December to allow ride-sharing companies to operate here, leaving the details up to municipalities.

Saskatoon’s city council approved bylaws within days of the province’s changes.

Regina mayor Michael Fougere said his city council would be waiting until at least January for a report from the city administration on ride-sharing. That was heard at an executive committee meeting last week, and a large number of issues were brought up, which could mean things won’t move forward on Jan. 28 when the report comes to the public council meeting.