What happened: B.C.’s Select Standing Committee on Crown Corporations has released 11 recommendations for ride hailing in the province
Why it matters: Recommendations zero in on components of ride hailing the government has so far been cagey about
No boundaries, no caps on fleet sizes and easy access to Class 5 drivers are among the recommendations put forward to government from the B.C. legislature’s own committee tackling ride hailing.
A multi-party committee submitted its report Tuesday (March 26), recommending the province move forward with implementing key characteristics associated with ride-hailing services from companies like Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft.
Premier John Horgan told reporters after the report’s release that ride hailing would be coming to the province this year, touting the speed at which his government has moved on introducing these services.
“The former government had half a decade to bring it forward and did not. We’ve had 18 months and we’re almost there,” he said.
Vancouver is known as the largest city in North America without ride-hailing services.
Other recommendations from the report include requiring ride-hailing companies to provide data to government for monitoring, such as wait times, trip lengths, start and end locations, fares, and drivers’ earnings and hours.
The committee also recommended the government set a minimum per-trip price so as not to discourage the use of public transit, require companies to disclose an estimated cost for the trip and require vehicles used for these services be no more than 10 years old.
The committee made 11 recommendations in all.
“Today’s report marks a major milestone in bringing ridesharing to the province by the fall of 2019, as promised by the government,” Ian Tostenson, president and CEO of the Ridesharing Now for BC advocacy group, said in a statement.
“It is time to get ridesharing on the road by implementing the key recommendations and finalizing ridesharing auto-insurance.”
The B.C. government tabled legislation in November 2018 that would introduce insurance products for ride-hailing companies by fall 2019.
But beyond the introduction of insurance products, Transportation Minister Claire Trevena would not commit to a specific date for launching services.
Instead, she said that burden would fall on the cabinet-appointed provincial regulator, the Passenger Transportation Board, to approve any applications for ride-hailing services like Uber or Lyft.
Meanwhile, Surrey-based tech company Kater Technologies Inc. is planning for a phased launch beginning March 30 of what it describes as a ride-hailing service.
While Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft are not able to operate in the province under current rules, Kater struck a deal last year with the Vancouver Taxi Association to secure 140 taxi licences for the tech company’s own fleet of vehicles.
Kater has purchased its own fleet of cars and is employing its own drivers, who must possess the more advanced Class 4 drivers licence.
Passengers will in turn hail those vehicles using a mobile app similar to Uber’s or Lyft’s.
