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

  • Smart Mobility World 2015
    October 9, 2015
    Smart Mobility World 2015, organised by ClickutilityTeam and Innovability, takes place in Monza, Italy, from 28-30 October 2015. It provides an opportunity to engage with experts in the machine-to-machine market, with an industry-led, market-driven conference agenda focused on the machine to machine market. Industry experts will share their expertise on trends impacting future development, alongside an exhibition of mobility solutions, applications and embedded devices.
    Read More
  • Masabi: bespoke tech is holding transit agencies back
    September 30, 2019
    Sixty per cent of transit agencies looking to use account-based ticketing are struggling with bespoke technology which is slow to deploy and costly to maintain, claims Masabi. Masabi CEO Brian Zanghi says agencies have been “denied access” to systems that keep pace with technology in a cost-effective way and have had to invest in bespoke automatic fare collection (AFC) systems. “This has led to limited innovation with some agencies able to purchase the latest systems but leaving many underserved and left
    Read More
  • Innovative wind guard combats distortion
    March 3, 2014
    Austrian company, Commend International, a specialist in security and communication solutions for parking and mass transit systems, will use Intertraffic Amsterdam 2014 to unveil the NoVento Wind Guard. The company says the device is an ingeniously simple solution to combat sound distortion caused by wind in help phone call connections at roadsides, toll gates, pay points, etc. A microphone attachment with a brush-like shape, the No Vento is precision crafted to dissipate noise causing wind swirls. Comme
    Read More
  • Asfinag displays Unterwegs service for traffic and weather conditions
    October 22, 2012
    Asfinag, the Austrian motorway operator, is showing its full service portfolio in the areas of traffic information as well as traffic management at the ITS World Congress. The company’s Unterwegs service provides current traffic and weather conditions on Austrian motorways and expressways for users whether at home, at work, or on the move. Before leaving the office for the journey home, mini applications and gadgets provide commuters and users of modern operating systems like Windows7, Mac OSX with Asfinag
    Read More

Highlighted Content