A colossal failure

Remember when Toronto City Councillors Howard Moscoe and Denzil Minnan-Wong trotted out their massive reform of the city’s taxi industry? They promised their vaunted creation would raisedriver incomes, improve service, and lower plate and leasing prices. Well the verdict is in: Howard and Denzil’s excellent adventure has been a “colossal failure”.

Ambassadors declare City’s once vaunted cab reforms a ‘colossal failure’

Fed up with the City’s two tier taxi licensing, angry Ambassador drivers converge on City Hall to demand equal treatment and opportunity

by John Q. Duffy

About 250 cab drivers came out to parade in front of Toronto City Hall to show their support for a fellow driver entering mediation talks at the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.

Other taxicab drivers passing
by City Hall during the demonstration showed their support for the aims of the group by honking their car horns, or stopping briefly to talk with marchers, but did not leave their cars.

Organized by the “Workers group, the demonstration on Tuesday, June 16th allowed the drivers to demand that their Ambassador taxi permits be converted into so-called “Standard” plates. MORE

Ambassador program an ‘absolute mess’, say system’s intended beneficiaries

by Mike Beggs

About a decade after its’ introduction, Toronto’s Ambassador Taxi program has a growing list of
critics.

That takes in those Ambassadors who are part of the longstanding Drivers on the Waiting List (DWL) legal challenge, brokers, independents, and regular drivers who complain that the City has flooded the streets with way too many cabs (more than 1,400 Ambassador issuances in the early 2000’s), and more and more Ambassadors who say they’re working under onerous conditions just to make ends meet (many of whom turned out for a downtown demonstration last month).

It’s a long way from the picture painted in the 1998 Toronto Taxi Industry Reform. Promises like a legislated 40-hour work week, and a driver benefits package seem a pipe dream, in retrospect. Many industry leaders say the proposed higher driver service standards never materialized. Even the program’s driving force, Councillor Howard Moscoe concedes there are now too many taxis in this city. MORE

MLS shutdown by labour strike

by John Q. Duffy

Municipal Licensing and Standards operations, as with most other City services, are shut down during the current labor strike.

Contacted about how the taxi and limousine industries are to continue during the labor disruption, Leisa Tjoeng, Communications Advisor, Media Relations for the City of Toronto, said in an e-mail, “Taxi licences will not be renewed during the labour disruption. Taxi drivers can keep driving, however they must renew their licences as soon as the labour disruption has ended.”

She added, “We have information on our website - http://www.toronto.ca/labour-relations/index.htm#y.”

The web site says, “The vehicle inspection facility at 843 Eastern Ave. will be closed. There will be no taxi or vehicle inspections. Inspections will be rescheduled MORE