Beck wants lower taxi fares as Uber considers insurance
Posted September 8, 2015 12:40 pm.
Last Updated September 8, 2015 7:22 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
There could be big changes coming to Toronto’s taxi scene as Beck pressures city hall for lower fares and Uber begins the process of insuring drivers and passengers.
“Did you know the City of Toronto sets the price of taxi fares?” is the first line of an online petition Beck launched on Tuesday. The taxi company is asking Toronto residents to pressure city councillors to lower taxi fares.
It’s a direct response to Uber’s notoriously ever-changing fares.
“We know that Toronto taxis are some of the most expensive in North America. It’s unfair to passengers and, as they look for cheaper options, it hurts taxi drivers,” Kristine Hubbard, operations manager at Beck Taxi, said in a statement.
“More affordable taxi fares would be a win-win for the whole city.”
It costs $4.25 just to sit down in a cab, and every 0.143 km after is $0.25. More information on cab fares can be found on the City of Toronto website.
Meanwhile, Uber announced Tuesday that it’s working with Intact Financial to create a ridesharing insurance plan. It’s not yet on the market. Currently, Uber notes that “every ride on the uberX platform in Canada is backed by $5,000,000 [$5 million] of contingent auto liability insurance covering bodily injury and property damage.”
Toronto, like many cities around the world, is struggling to monitor ridesharing services like Uber. There are concerns the service is skirting local bylaws by using a mobile app to charge riders.
UberX, which has regular drivers transporting people in their private cars, doesn’t have commercial licenses and therefore lack the regulation and oversight of traditional taxi companies. Taxi companies have argued that this puts passenger safety in jeopardy while simultaneously driving traditional cabbies out of business.
The city will be reviewing its taxi bylaws in September.
