Skip to main content

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.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Ertico prepares for World Congress 2015
    December 15, 2014
    Hot on the heels of the 21st ITS World Congress in Detroit, Ertico - ITS Europe is already writing session proposals, contacting speakers and putting together the demonstration programme for the 2015 ITS World Congress. This will take place from 5-9 October in the French city of Bordeaux, one of the most advanced cities in Europe in terms of ITS adoption, and will have the theme of ‘Towards intelligent mobility – Better use of space’.
  • ITS America declare Detroit as success
    October 24, 2014
    ITS America, organisers of the 2014 ITS World Congress in Detroit, has declared the event a great success with more than 9,100 participants, 700 papers and 300 exhibiters plus the most extensive set of demonstrations ever staged. The introduction of Chief Technology Officer sessions was considered a big success attracting almost 800 attendees.
  • Eight ways Volkswagen can regain their customers’ trust
    October 6, 2015
    In the light of Volkswagen's concession of corporate wrongdoing in circumventing EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) testing in the US, Frost & Sullivan has proposed eight strategies the company can utilise to regain consumer trust, fuel sales volumes and develop sustainable revenue growth opportunities. Frost & Sullivan says developments in clean diesel technology and internal combustion engines (ICE) have been substantially pushed back by years. The immediate impact of this crisis goes beyond Volkswa
  • American Center for Mobility appoints Microsoft data and cloud provider
    April 10, 2018
    The American Center for Mobility (ACM) has appointed Microsoft as its exclusive data and cloud provider to help develop connected and automated vehicles (C/AVs) as well as mobility technologies. The facility officially opened in Ypsilanti Township on the 4 April 2018. ACM is part of the PlanetM, a collaboration of private industry, government and institutions of higher learning that aims to change the way people and goods are transported across all modes of transportation. Both partners will design a