Crack down on Uber and Lyft vehicles in London sees 30 per cent fail safety inspection

Almost thirty per cent of private ride-share vehicles inspected by the City of London in a recent safety blitz were deemed to have issues that needed immediate repairs.

Bylaw officers looked 47 randomly selected vehicles registered with Uber or Lyft in a planned inspection last week. They failed 13 drivers for vehicular bylaw infractions.  

The city has a Vehicle for Hire By-law to make sure those providing transportation services comply with safety regulations and their privately-owned vehicles are suitable for the road.

"We were quite concerned on the number of vehicles that actually failed the inspection," said Orest Katolyk, director of municipal compliance and chief municipal law enforcement officer.

"Out of the ones that were inspected, approximately 30 per cent of them failed and they failed for a variety of reasons."

There are 7,500 private ride-share drivers working in London, and while the city asked 80 to participate in the inspection, only half attended. 

Katolyk said vehicles were checked for their age, the state of their tires, mechanical issues or warning lights, and window tint in compliance with municipal and provincial laws.

"We found that there were a number of vehicles that had to be taken off the road for safety purposes," Katolyk explained.

"And a lot of the vehicles also failed to have any markings on them. So that's a public safety issue. When the public is ordering rides over a cell phone and then vehicles are showing up to provide them rides, we want to ensure that the public that's using these services are provided safe rides."

Katolyk said some vehicles that failed inspection made the necessary repairs or adjustments and passed a second time. Those that didn't and the vehicles that failed to show up at all were taken out of service and off the rideshare platforms.

He added they are planning to have another blitz in the near future, as part of proactive enforcement inspections.

City-licenced taxis and limousines also being inspected

Katolyk said the city is also inspecting city-licenced taxis and limousines over the next two weeks, as part of yearly checks completed every October before the companies can renew their licences.

Hasan Savehilaghi is co-owner of Yellow London Taxi company. He said his company runs their own inspections and all their vehicles have to come to the office and physically provide proper paperwork and undergo training before they are allowed to work.

"We need these drivers physically in this office to be trained about rules and policies and public safety and responsibilities they have," said Savehilaghi. 

"When they start driving, none of them will get login passwords to get on the system and go and serve customers until they pass these trainings within our office."

Savehilagh said he thinks the city randomly selecting for-hire vehicles like Uber or Lyft doesn't go far enough for safety and they should use a different approach.

"How can that be a safety [issue] when you just go randomly?," he said. 

"How would you detect them? I personally believe at this time it's just done truly for a check mark, not truly making sure a safety mechanism is in place to see if these vehicles are 100 per cent safe."