Way: Glut of ride-share drivers is bad for Ottawa

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On May 13, an Ontario Superior Court judge declared that Uber was a “bandit taxi company” and that the City of Ottawa “was negligent” for not dealing with it. Now, municipal leaders across Canada face a painful reality: the sort of instant consumer gratification that ride-share companies represent has never been a sustainable concept in ground transportation.

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It is unsustainable both environmentally, for the number of unnecessary vehicles it puts on the road, and financially, as an unlimited number of drivers compete for a limited amount of business.

Uber’s bargain pricing — the result of temporary subsidies designed to help it gain market share and create new consumer habits — aims squarely at competing public transit systems. Consumers love the idea that they can tap an app to get whatever they want, effortlessly and instantly. Unfortunately, officials have given the impression that eliminating wait times for transportation is both possible and affordable. Politicians have yet to take into account the long-term effect of this, although Ottawa and Toronto are grappling with it now.

As a parallel, it makes no sense that one person can order one takeout coffee and receive it within minutes.  If 10 people in the same building order one coffee each within minutes of each other, you could watch 10 separate drivers in 10 separate cars arrive with one item each. This has been made possible because officials have encouraged an overflow of drivers to sit around waiting to do this, earning nothing.

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This is not financially or environmentally sustainable, and, when it comes to transit specifically, the now-common expectation of “instant gratification” should be discouraged by officials, environmentalists, traffic planners and responsible consumers before it becomes more entrenched.

In my 40 years of experience delivering ground transportation, everyone was happy if a cab arrived in eight or 10 minutes.

In Canada, the National Fire Protection Association benchmark is to have a vehicle arrive within six minutes and 24 seconds. Toronto’s paramedic response time ranges from six minutes to 25 minutes, depending on several factors. It’s reasonable for a taxi to take eight to 10 minutes. There is no fire. No one is dying.

However, since 2014 the market has been flooded with thousands of ride-share drivers. They cruise busy streets or strategically idle nearby, so that a vehicle be summoned almost instantly in a city’s downtown core.

Municipalities generally have found that with a reasonable number of vehicles for hire on the road, it was reasonably convenient to get a ride. There are exceptional circumstances like New Year’s Eve, snowstorms or transit strikes to manage; but service providers, consumers and government worked together to find a fair balance over the decades. Regular tweaking has been required: that’s what we do.

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However, local governments have come to allow unlimited numbers of vehicles on the road, 365 days per year, to prevent customers from having to wait an extra few minutes for their ride.

Government cannot change the immutable laws of supply and demand; Government can create rules and regulations that work with the laws of supply and demand to benefit consumers and industry (for example, caps on vehicle numbers).

Officials must have the courage to push back on the unrealistic belief that having an unlimited number of vehicles for hire is a positive thing. Unlimited numbers of vehicles mean gridlock, increased emissions, and drivers with poverty earnings.

Yes, there will be complaints. Yes, there will be letters and emails to politicians, lots of them generated by the ride-share companies who make users sign a terms of service agreement that allows the company to complain on their behalf.

But the people who make decisions that are best for everyone must stay strong and create good policies that work for everyone.

In Canada’s democracy, we decided it was a good idea to have rules and regulations around things like restaurants, swimming pools, and ground transportation to provide fair and reasonable service, and to keep consumers safe.

An unlimited open-entry market may make select consumers happy, but it harms the environment; harms municipal transit systems; and forces drivers to work for poverty wages.

Surely, we can do better.

Marc André Way is President of the Canadian Taxi Association.  

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