Toronto maps out new rules for vehicle-for-hire industry

Toronto City Council has amended its vehicles-for-hire rules to improve safety and accessibility of taxis and private transportation companies including Uber and Lyft. Toronto mayor John Tory, says:” These new and updated requirements are a necessary step in protecting the residents and visitors of this city. Regardless of where they are going or how far the distance, we want to make sure passengers are able to access the service and get to their destination safely." The new rules will make it mandatory
July 30, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

Toronto City Council has amended its vehicles-for-hire %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 <span style="color: windowtext">rules</span> false https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/municode/toronto-code-546.pdf true false%> to improve safety and accessibility of taxis and private transportation companies including 8336 Uber and 8789 Lyft.

Toronto mayor John Tory, says:” These new and updated requirements are a necessary step in protecting the residents and visitors of this city. Regardless of where they are going or how far the distance, we want to make sure passengers are able to access the service and get to their destination safely."

The new rules will make it mandatory for all drivers to take a third-party training programme approved by the Canadian city. Preliminary topics will include safely transporting passengers, driving in an urban setting and providing an accessible service. In addition, all drivers will be required to securely mount all handheld devices to their vehicle and display notices if a camera is being used to record passengers.

The council says an Accessibility Fund Programme will help offset the higher cost of providing a wheelchair-accessible service. It will be funded through a regulatory charge on companies that do not provide this service.

As part of the move, the council has made changes to improve the licensing and enforcement of vehicles for hire. This includes increasing the amount of data that is collected to help inform future regulations.

The requirements will come into effect in January 2020.

Enforcement

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Finland leads the MaaS debate at London conference
    February 20, 2017
    Finland’s revolutionary attempts to change how public transport is provided, funded and managed will be top of the agenda at a ground-breaking mobility as a service (MaaS) conference in London on 22 and 23 March. The MaaS Market – Concept to Reality conference will feature keynote presentations from Anne Berner, Finland’s forward-thinking Minister of Transport, and Sampo Hietanen, CEO of MaaS Global. MaaS exploits developing technologies to allow populations to plan and buy all-inclusive transportat
    Read More
  • ITS America student essay competition: deadline 14 April
    April 9, 2019
    The deadline for US college students to take part in ITS America’s annual essay competition is fast approaching – entries must be in by Sunday 14 April. The competition, sponsored by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), invites students of transportation, engineering and public policy to share ‘thought provoking’ visions for the future of transport. The topic is: ‘How do you envision disruptive technologies impacting transportation systems to make them safer, greener or smarter over the next 10 years?’ U
    Read More
  • Australia’s laws are ‘not ready for driverless vehicles’
    May 13, 2016
    Australia’s National Transport Commission (NTC) has released Regulatory Options for Automated Vehicles, a discussion paper that finds a number of legislative barriers to increasing vehicle automation. The paper proposes that there are barriers that need to be addressed as soon as possible to ensure clarity around the status of more automated vehicles on Australia’s roads and to support further trials. In the longer term other legislative barriers will need to be addressed to allow fully driverless vehic
    Read More
  • AV ride-sharing services must appeal to motivations and overcome barriers
    April 18, 2018
    Autonomous vehicle (AV) ride-sharing services need to appeal to user motivations and overcome potential barriers or concerns, if they are to be successful, according to research conducted by Merge Greenwich. The study revealed that, on balance, ride-sharing presents a greater barrier-to-uptake than AV technology. 85% of respondents indicated a willingness to use an AV in the future, suggesting that the technology is the aspect of the service that excites them the most. 46% are willing to use a ride-shar
    Read More

Highlighted Content