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

  • Gulf Traffic 2015 sent to be ‘one of the largest ever’
    October 19, 2015
    Gulf Traffic 2015 is shaping up to be one of the largest ever, say the organisers, with floor space nearly sold out four months away from the opening date. Significant investment over the past year in the Middle East within the traffic management, intelligent transport systems (ITS), road safety, parking, road maintenance and transport infrastructure industries has been reflected in the growth of the exhibition, conferences and awards. The GCC is set to invest approximately US$121.3 billion to improve
    Read More
  • Third generation signs spell a bright future for Swarco
    April 23, 2013
    Swarco Traffic Americas has introduced its third generation of optic LED dynamic message signs (DMS) to the North American market. The third generation signs deliver contrast ratios more than double the NEMA TS4 requirement and are said to use a fraction of the power consumed by its competitors’ signs.
    Read More
  • Cubic ITMS and Urban Insights
    August 26, 2014
    Cubic, whose transportation solutions power some of the major urban centres across the world, including London, San Francisco, Chicago, Vancouver, New York, Los Angeles, San Diego; Sydney; and Brisbane, will be showcasing two vital new services for the US market at the ITS World Congress Detroit. The first is its Intelligent Transport Management Solutions (ITMS) which has already powered the transport and infrastructure projects for the Sydney and London Olympic Games. The company says that, with an unriva
    Read More
  • Xerox demonstrates Merge parking management system
    September 8, 2014
    Xerox is showcasing its latest transportation innovations in on- and off-street parking, photo enforcement and mobility management here at the ITS World Congress. On display at the Xerox booth is Merge, an analytics-based parking management system, and 360SmartView, an advanced safety e-screening solution.
    Read More

Highlighted Content