U-Need-A-Cab owner John Strang was one of the members of the Taxi industry at a Town Hall Meeting at the lower lecture room at Police Headquarters.
The Police, who oversee the Taxi Industry in North Bay, hold meetings such as this every two years.
One of the most controversial issues was a proposal to freeze the drop rate, which is the rate at which the meter starts on a taxi.
“The proposal is to freeze the drop rate and look at it every two years and its not acceptable to us because we have real costs that rise every year and we have a business to run,” stated Strang about his concern about the freeze.
Regardless of the controversy, Chief Shawn Devine felt the conversation and the meeting with the Taxi stakeholders was good.
“When you have three competitors in the room and you are talking about their livelihood I think it can lead to some interesting dynamics and some questions so I think it was a very good conversation and there was some disagreement but again we are going to take that information and we are going to go back and do some research and give them another opportunity to see what we have come up with,” said Devine.
“I think it definitely has to be part of the system, it has to be transparent and we definitely are looking for the input from the industry.”
While a lot was discussed in the two hour information and question and answer session, nothing came up from the Police or the Taxi Industry about Uber.
Devine was surprised the “U” word wasn’t mentioned.
“We were very clear when we were putting the information out to to the industries that it wasn’t a focus on Uber,” said Devine.
“I read some stuff last night and I agree anything written up on Uber should be written in pencil because it is a new industry and it is something that is changing. How is it going to impact, it’s obviously going to have an impact. You are also looking at the sharing industry - there are some other ones out there - so I think it is a broader conversation on how this is going to effect us and I think the taxi service here is not naive and they know they are going to be effected by it.”
Devine says the Police are already looking at it and noted that before they step foot in the city, there will be some form of regulation.
“So those are future conversations, we are gathering information from places like Ottawa, Edmonton and Toronto where there are bigger issues, like they are talking about traffic flow and environmentalism but those aren’t effects that are in the forefront in North Bay,” said Devine.
