The conflict between traditional taxis and ride sharing companies could soon be settled.
Waterloo Regional Council has promised to create stability in the taxi industry with a new set of bylaws.
The bylaws are meant to protect passengers and offer an even playing field for taxi and ride sharing companies like Uber.
“I think the bylaw proposal is favourable to innovation and competition,” says RideCo president Prem Gururajam. “I’m mostly happy with it.”
Among the requirements – proper insurance and registration.
But there are still some key issues that have to be sorted out.
A revised report will be submitted to council Wednesday night.
It will cover outstanding issues such as: installing cameras inside vehicles, license fees and GPS.
“I think that they’ve done a good job at creating balance between what they need from us and not imposing such fees that we can’t operate effectly,” says Brian Bazely of Driverseat, a shuttle and designated driver service.
However license fees are expected to be a sticking point with drivers.
According to the report, Uber is unhappy with the per vehicle fees recommendation. The company argues many of its drivers are part-time and the region should use a fees per trip model instead.
With reporting from Leena Latafat
