Vancouver's four taxi companies are trying to lock the doors on late-night weekend business in Vancouver's entertainment district by appealing a recent BC Supreme Court judgment that allows 38 suburban taxis to circle in on their clientele.
The dispute centres on industry regulator Passenger Transportation Board's (PTB) decision earlier this year to approve 38 temporary licences for suburban taxi companies to operate downtown on Friday and Saturday nights between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.
"If there was any need for additional taxis, we would have met that need," said Yellow Cab general manager Carolyn Bauer.
Bauer, who also represents Black Top & Checker Cabs, MacLure's and Vancouver Taxi, wants a balance where passengers are picked up reasonably quickly and drivers can earn a "proper" living.
"This is the first time in the history of the taxi industry that suburban taxis have been given licences to operate in Vancouver," Bauer told Business in Vancouver. "It doesn't make sense to me. It's never been done before."
But competing cab companies applaud the PTB's decision.
"If Vancouver taxi companies were able to serve their customers, we would not have had the PTB grant us our application for the 38 licences," said BC Taxi Association president Mohan Kang, who represents Delta Sunshine Taxi, Kimber Cabs, Guildford Cab, Tsawwassen Taxi, Newton Whalley Hi-Way Taxi, North Shore Taxi and Sunshine Cabs.
He said plenty of suburbanites who head to the Granville entertainment district on weekends have trouble getting a taxi home.
Despite it being illegal to refuse a fare, downtown taxi drivers still reject customers who want to be driven to the suburbs, Kang said, because the driver then has a long ride back into Vancouver in an empty cab before he or she can pick up another fare.
Vancouver taxi companies have increased fleets in recent years with the PTB approving 99 taxi licences for Vancouver cab companies two years ago. That put a total of 687 cabs on Vancouver streets.
They then won an injunction in June that stopped suburban cab companies from operating the 38 temporary taxi licences – an injunction that Justice Stephen Kelleher dismissed October 23.
In an olive branch to the Vancouver taxi companies, however, Kelleher ruled that the PTB should give Vancouver taxi companies notice when suburban taxi companies apply for licences to operate in Vancouver.
Vancouver cab companies could then attempt to convince the PTB not to grant those licences.
They will get that chance because the 38 temporary suburban taxi licences expired in late October and the suburban taxi companies will have to apply to the PTB to renew the licences.
But if the suburban cab companies win their court challenge and PTB approval to renew the licences, it's not a fait accompli that there will be more taxis on Vancouver streets.
Suburban taxi drivers will have to jump through civic hoops, such as getting a city inspector to approve that cars have accurate meter readings. Drivers must also get chauffeur permits, which require a criminal record check and confirmation that the driver has not breached any federal, provincial or municipal law for the past five years, Vancouver deputy chief licence inspector Tom Hammel told BIV.
"Technically, if a driver has a traffic ticket in the past five years, he could be denied a chauffeur's permit," Hammel said.
He added that the City of Vancouver needs to change its bylaw to raise the maximum number of taxis allowed on city streets.
The bylaw currently allows only 588 permanent cabs.
So, the 99 extra taxi licences that Vancouver taxi companies were granted in 2011 are categorized as temporary and have to be renewed once every three months. •
