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

  • Navya supplier of autonomous shuttles for European Horizon 2020
    June 7, 2018
    Navya is now the official supplier of autonomous shuttles for the Avenue European Consortium's Horizon 2020 project. The initiative is intended to develop autonomous vehicles in Europe's urban centres. Through the agreement, Navya will deploy two Autonom Shuttles to both Luxembourg and Lyon. In addition, the company will send three vehicles each to Copenhagen and Geneva. The Avenue Consortium brings together academic institutions, public transport operators and other partners to integrate autonomous
    Read More
  • Next Generation mobile computers launched by 4P
    November 19, 2013
    4P Mobile Data Processing is launching the latest versions of its FDA600-POS all-in-one handheld computer devices at CARTES 2013. The new machines “feature fiscal cash registers, chip&pin payments and biometric signature capture,” says 4P. The units are “light, compact and durable,” and allow “operators to track goods, people and locations with barcodes and RFID, shoot and geotag pictures, (create) videos and auto-ID, and stay permanently connected to remote servers via high speed wireless data”. There is a
    Read More
  • ReachNow scraps car rental service in Seattle and Portland
    July 25, 2019
    ReachNow has scrapped its car-rental services in Seattle and Portland following a corporate “realignment”, says The Seattle Times. ReachNow offered rentals for BMWs and Mini Coopers and launched a ride-hailing service last year. In May, the company announced to some of its customers that it was shutting down its ride-hailing service, saying that its third-party vendor could no longer support their business. Last November, ReachNow - a BMW subsidiary - integrated car-sharing and ride-hailing int
    Read More
  • US DOT announces vehicle-to-infrastructure guidance
    January 20, 2017
    The US Department of Transportation (US DOT) has announced new Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) guidance (link http://www.its.dot.gov/v2i.) that aims to improve safety and mobility by accelerating the deployment of V2I communication systems. The guidance complements the Department's efforts to reduce crashes by advancing vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technology announced in a proposed rule in December. V2I communication is an important component of a connecte
    Read More

Highlighted Content