City of Toronto to stop issuing new ride-hailing driver's licences until training in place
CBC
Toronto city council will ask its staff to pause immediately the issuing of new ride-hailing drivers' licences until a mandatory driver training program is in place.
Council voted 20 to 3 Wednesday in favour of a motion to request that Carleton Grant, executive director of municipal, licensing and standards, stop the issuing of new vehicle-for-hire and private transportation company drivers' licences temporarily.
The issuing will resume once a driver training accreditation program is established and applicants have completed a driver training course.
Mayor John Tory, who supported the motion put forward by Coun. Kristyn Wong-Tam, said it was a question of safety.
Tory said he thinks the motion will send a message that a driver training program is important and he noted that council first approved the idea of such a program more than two years ago. Councillors made that move in response to a fatal accident involving an Uber vehicle in 2018.
The motion comes after Grant told council that the city issued a request for proposals from vendors for a ride-share driver training program on Tuesday. That procurement process will close on Dec. 10.
In a statement on Wednesday, a spokesperson for Uber said the decision punishes drivers.
"Uber fully supports the Driver Training Accreditation program. And, over the past year and a half, we've actively urged the City to accelerate its implementation," the spokesperson said.
"So while we are heartened to see the program finally start to take shape, we are disappointed by the Council's decision to pause licensing in the interim," the spokesperson continued.
"It is deeply unfair to punish the thousands of drivers who want to earn a living and the hundreds of thousands of Torontonians who require a reliable rideshare service to help them get from point A to point B because of the City's slow action."
For its part, Lyft said in a statement: "Drivers go through rigorous safety screenings prior to being approved to drive on the Lyft platform, and we are supportive of Toronto's efforts to improve public safety.
"However, it's important that we do so in a way that doesn't jeopardize earning opportunities for people at a time when many are still recovering from the economic devastation of COVID-19. We look forward to collaborating with the city in order to achieve our shared goals."
In July 2019, council adopted new mandatory training requirements for vehicle-for-hire drivers, such as taxicabs and limousines, and private transportation company drivers, such as Uber and Lyft, following the death of Nicholas Cameron on March 21, 2018. The training requirements, however, were never implemented because of pandemic demands.
Cameron, 28, hired an Uber driver to take him to the airport. The driver pulled onto the left shoulder of the Gardiner Expressway to pick up his cell phone from the floor of the car before merging back into traffic, and the car was hit from behind by a vehicle driving at full speed — breaking Cameron's neck.
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