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Op-Ed: What if Uber really cared about their drivers?

There has been carloads of backlash over the recent decision by Toronto city council to temporarily pause the issuing of vehicle-for-hire licences

Private transportation companies like Uber and Lyft have mobilized their arsenal of influence, from free-market think tanks to liberal strategists and go-to lobbyists to fight the move.

Arguments against the pause include the claim that wait times and fares will increase, drunk driving incidents will go up and newcomers will be deprived of much-needed income opportunities.  

These arguments are flawed and intended to scare municipal decision-makers into revoking their decision at this week’s city council meeting.

In 2019, council passed a bylaw that mandated training for drivers as a pre-requisite for receiving a licence. This requirement was reintroduced after the tragic death of a young man in an Uber, caused by a driver from outside of town who was new on the job. 

Training, it must also be noted, had to be re-introduced after Uber’s lobbyists convinced city hall in 2016 that our long-standing training programs were antiquated and no longer of use. Then the pandemic hit, and the mandatory training program was never established. 

And while issuing licences should have been halted until training could be provided, the city continued to issue more than 40,000 licences to drivers.  

While none of Uber’s advocates are arguing against the importance of training and safety for their drivers, they bend themselves into pretzels to make the case as to why this decision would be everything but safe or equitable. The numbers tell a different story.

Pre-pandemic, Toronto had as many ride-hailing drivers as New York City, despite only being a third of its size. But in New York, Uber operates a whole lot more efficiently, making nearly four times the number of trips per licensed driver every day. 

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has come out against the pause to argue that an increase in demand over the holiday season would lead to increased pick-up times and thus would incentivize drunk driving, particularly when the TTC is cutting service. 

MADD, which has listed Uber as a funding sponsor in its 2016 and 2017 annual reports, has not called for the reinstatement of recently cut TTC service, nor did it direct people to use taxis. It merely made assumptions about an uptick in demand due to holiday parties – despite a growing surge in the pandemic – and drew a parallel between pick-up times and incidents of drunk driving, using a study from Houston, TX, a city that couldn’t be more different from Toronto.  

A recent op-ed in the Toronto Star made the argument that a pause is preventing newcomers and the city’s BIPOC community from accessing income. 

But existing drivers have been earning less driving for Uber or Lyft in Toronto because of the pandemic and the fact that Uber drivers work without pay almost half the time. According to city reports, on average 40 per cent of a driver’s time goes unpaid. That’s because Uber only pays for the time between passenger pick up and drop off. 

If they really cared, what Uber advocates would glean from reading the city’s reports is that Uber operates highly inefficiently, using too many drivers who spend too much time driving without passengers or pay and adding needlessly to congestion and emissions. 

When they do pick up customers, they’re usually poached from our public transit system, arguably the more ecologically sustainable, socially equitable and support-worthy transportation service in the city. 

Uber advocates should take this into consideration before turning out for a company that relies on flooding markets with drivers under the pretence of safety.

Thorben Wieditz is an urban geographer and planner. His work focuses on the intersection of cities and app-based platforms in the housing, labour and transportation sectors. 

@nowtoronto

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