A duel to maintain control or punch a hole in Vancouver’s lucrative taxi industry is underway after an application was filed to the province for 99 new weekend pickup licences to serve the busy Granville entertainment district.
Yellow Cab Co., the largest taxi company in the Lower Mainland, last week released the findings of a $1.5 million study that revealed an urgent need for more taxis in the downtown core on busy weekend and event nights.
The study, commissioned by Vancouver’s four taxi companies (Yellow Cab, Black Top and Checker Cabs, MacLure’s Cabs and Vancouver Taxi), showed that while the 65 temporary operating permits (TOPs) added last spring for weekend nights have improved service in the downtown area, more cabs are needed to meet customer demand.
Garland Chow, director of the Bureau of Intelligent Transportation Systems and Freight Security at the University of British Columbia, conducted the study and found a direct relationship between the number of cab pickups when the size of each company’s fleet was increased.
He also found that trips originating from downtown represent 40.5% of total traffic on weekend evenings, but that 9% to 16% of pickups on those evenings are taken by suburban taxis not licensed to pick up passengers in Vancouver.
Carolyn Bauer, general manager of Yellow Cab, wasn’t surprised.
“They come in; they pick up illegally. The biggest problem is there is no responsibility, no accountability, no safety protocols in place with these out-of-town cars.”
She said suburban taxis picking up passengers in Vancouver have been a problem for years, eating into the business of licensed Vancouver cabbies that make the lion’s share of their money on the weekends.
Last year, the region’s 16 suburban taxi companies applied to the province’s Passenger Transportation Board to allow them to dispatch 15% of their fleet into the city for Friday and Saturday pickups.
A decision has yet to be made on that application. But the city’s four licensed pickup companies aren’t keen to see suburban companies move onto their turf.
Vision Vancouver city councillor Geoff Meggs said Metro Vancouver’s taxi industry has been divided up by municipal boundaries for a long time, and, as a result, the value of Vancouver pickup licences is far higher than their suburban counterparts.
“From a business standpoint, each of those small-business owners in those taxi companies has an enormous amount of equity tied up that would be diluted or even destroyed by a wide-open system.
“So deregulation at this point would be wonderful for those who bought cheap taxi licences in the suburbs, but would be devastating for those who operate under the old rules in Vancouver.”
But Meggs agreed that more cabs are needed to service downtown Vancouver on weekends.
“It is a serious problem … because the tighter rules on drinking and driving mean there’s even more people who are reluctant, for good reason, to get in the car and drive home.”
Bauer said weekend demand in the downtown core could support 150 more licences, but not if suburban cabbies continue to illegally pickup passengers. She maintained that the province has not done enough to crack down on the illegal pickups.
The Passenger Transportation Branch (PTB) said it tickets cabbies for illegal pickups, but it doesn’t have the resources to be downtown every weekend.
“We don’t have staff down there every weekend, but it’s ongoing,” said Dawn Major, the PTB’s registrar and director in Burnaby.
The number of penalties handed out for illegal pickups in 2011-12 more than tripled to 163 from 51 the year before.
Yellow Cab, Black Top, MacLure’s and Vancouver Taxi want provincial approval for their 99 new weekend licences before the busy tourism season begins this spring, though the PTB said it could be months before any decision is made. •
