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Taxis target limousines in new bylaw

London’s public safety committee struck down a proposal that would have banned limousines from stopping for hailing pedestrians while considering changes to the taxi and limo bylaw on Tuesday.

As the bylaw stands now, limos and cabs alike can be hailed, and many saw the proposal as an anti-competitive move by the taxi industry.

“[Hailing] has been the practice in London for 23 years, but where did the recommendation to ban hailing come from? From the taxi industry. They want to eliminate the competition,” Paul Hubert, Ward 8 councillor and acting chair of the public safety committee, said.

The move reportedly did not come as a surprise to the taxi industry. “We didn’t think that would go through anyway,” John Pepers, general manager of U-Need-A Cab, said. “It’s very difficult to enforce a bylaw like that. It wasn’t our suggestion.”

Hubert agreed enforcement would have been impossible. “If a limo pulls over and parks in the meter parking, which after 6 p.m. is free, on Richmond Row, and you walk up and say ‘Hey, are you available?’ that’s not hailing. So a taxi or a limo is, first of all, a very fine distinction, and secondly it’s virtually unenforceable.”

The limo industry was not happy with the taxi industry’s efforts to cut into business. “We’ve been able to hail for the last 23 years, and [the proposal] was not based on public participation, not on anything other than the taxi industry going directly to the city administration to limit our competitive play in this,” Brad Rice, general manager of Checker Limousine, said.

The proposal was one of a series of suggested changes to the bylaw, which is regularly reviewed every five to 10 years. Other changes include a fare increase of $1.50 for limos by July 2013 and the installation of front-facing and interior cameras on all limousines. The bylaw goes before council for approval on Tuesday.

“Since January 2010, all cabs have cameras, and since that time there have been approximately 950 police occurrences, and many of those have involved camera downloads. So the next time somebody thinks they can rob a driver, assault a driver, run a fare, they are on camera,” Orest Katolyk, London’s manager of bylaw enforcement, explained.

Rice felt the city was overstepping its bounds by mandating limos to increase their prices.

“I don’t know of any other industries in this world where the competition gets to choose what my price should be,” he said. “This isn’t a place for the municipality to be directing this kind of thing. I don’t think it should be regulated by the city at all.”

Limos have historically had 15 per cent higher prices than taxis in order to differentiate their different levels of customer service, but the taxi industry didn’t think the current price difference was large enough.

“In some cases, [Checker limos] were cheaper than cabs. And there has to be a broad distinction,” Pepers explained. “They’re an elite, for-hire service. We’re the middle of the road—there’s the LTC, there’s us, and there’s the limo service.”

“I don’t know what planet [Rice] is from, but anywhere in North America all taxis are regulated by the municipality or the region,” he continued. “He’s a for-hire service. If you’re a for-hire service, you better be prepared to be regulated.”

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