Here's (some of) what's wrong with B.C.'s taxi system

Anyone who's ever waited — and waited and waited — to grab a cab home to the suburbs at closing time on the Granville Strip knows there's a serious taxi problem in B.C.

For some people, the problem is obvious — the province doesn't allow Uber, Lyft or any other ride-hailing services that might fill the service gap.

But a technical report released this week by transportation expert Dan Hara, who holds a PhD in economics, suggests the roots of B.C.'s taxi troubles go much deeper than that.

It reveals complaints from just about everyone who has a stake in personal transportation and analyzes how the current regulatory system erects roadblocks to improvement.

Mohan Kang, president of the B.C. Taxi Association, said he hasn't read Hara's full report, but he's optimistic about the changes that are recommended, including an immediate 15-per-cent increase in taxi fleets across the province.

"Dr. Hara has touched some of the important issues," Kang said. "The taxi industry should be prepared to be competitive and to serve the general public better, and he's an expert in those things."

Hara recommends a slew of fixes to the current system, including throwing out the requirement for a Class 4 driver's licence, funding more accessible taxi service, developing a usage-based insurance option for part-time drivers and establishing a provincial authority to issue chauffeur permits.

Here's why he says it's necessary to overhaul the current system:

Regulation roadblocks

Where to begin? There's the fact that any driver who picks up passengers at the airport needs to have a chauffeur permit for multiple municipalities, which means multiple criminal record checks. There are local regulations in cities like Vancouver which, for the most part, only allows pickups by Vancouver taxi companies.

Then there's the Passenger Transportation Board, an independent tribunal that reviews applications from taxi operators and issues licences. The current legal framework allows competitors to argue against those applications, saying there are already enough taxis in service.

According to Hara, that means that instead of determining how many taxis are actually needed, the PTB is left to act "as a referee and judge in a contest between applicants and competitors who oppose the application."

And of course taxis still need municipal licences, so city councils can block any new applications, as Vancouver has done in the past.

Cab and driver shortages

In downtown Vancouver on a Friday night, it can take more than an hour to clear out the lines of people waiting for taxis, a situation that sometimes leads to drunken brawls, according to Hara. Resort communities like Whistler and Kelowna, on the other hand, are more likely to have problems with seasonal shortages.

That's because the PTB only issues licences for a fixed number of taxis in specific operating areas, usually well below what's needed during peak times, Hara says.

But he adds that cab companies also have trouble finding enough drivers because of the need for a Class 4 licence — something that would take three years for a new immigrant to obtain.

Meanwhile, disabled passengers in cities complain they're frequently told that no accessible taxis are available when they need a ride, and smaller communities often don't have any accessible cabs at all.

Driver complaints

The current system isn't making drivers happy, either. To begin with, insurance is too expensive — as much as $32,000 a year, according to Hara.

Some of the cabbies he spoke with also mentioned the high rates they pay to lease or rent taxi licences, and said they might prefer driving for a ride-hailing company.

Why change is taking so long

Many of the details in Hara's report were lost in the uproar over the news that ride-hailing likely won't be available in B.C. until the fall of 2019 — just the latest in a series of delays.

The latest timeline takes into account ICBC's estimate that it will need at least six to 12 months to develop the right approach to insuring drivers for ride-hailing services, and that can only happen after a change in legislation.

But Hara's report suggests that another major sticking point has been figuring out how to cushion the financial blow for those who hold or lease expensive licences to operate existing taxis.

In other parts of the world, taxi regulation has remained unchanged even after the introduction of ride-hailing, leaving companies with limited ability to compete while they watch the value of their businesses decline, according to Hara.

He writes that any new system needs to protect "the value of historic investments" made by drivers and taxi companies.

To that end, Hara recommends that all new vehicles be required to pay a fee per trip in an attempt to level the playing field.