STAKEHOLDER WORKSHOP

Transcription

1 STAKEHOLDER WORKSHOP The Planning Phase s Compilation: Identified Issues and Review Approaches The following document contains anonymous comments compiled from the online and paper Planning Phase s forms, workshop facilitator submissions, voice messages, s and other submissions; ; we have included portions of those submissions which identify issues and discuss review approaches, however have retained all submissions for the review and research for the remainder of the review. Note: Minor edits have been made to some submissions for greater readability. Some submitted s appear to be duplicates, however have been included below.. A summary of s received from all sources is available on the review web page, THE 2012 TAXICAB INDUSTRY REVIEW City Hall 100 Queen Street West 16th Floor, West Tower Toronto, Ontario M5H 2N2 Voic taxireview@toronto.ca TTY: (416)

2 Page 2 of 230 The Planning Taxicab Driver Not Accessible-endorsed Rental costs are too high. We must work on this issue. $1800 monthly lease is something I can t afford it. Drivers can t make money. Only brokers make money. The City increases the meter but the drivers not get that money. Brokers increased the monthly rental fee. So ambassador program is very good. One driver, one car. If ambassador drivers don t like be ready to take the plate because of ambassadors have no cost at all. Brokerages are not needed and must be kicked out. They don t drive the car but they make more money than the driver. No agents only City and the driver. City must control those issues. Leasing contract Put agents and brokers out If an Ambassador driver gets a full-time job, kick them out of the Ambassador program. No agents and brokerages should be allowed in the workshop. There only needs to be drivers and public. Taxicab Driver Not Accessible-endorsed There are fewer drivers and more stakeholders in the meeting. Why? Drivers are the one who is facing on the road. The driver should be free after renting the plate. Why not? We add HST in the fair. Then there was a rent increase. Why? Winter came and there was a rent increase. Why? 12 years ago renting plates was $700 per month. Now $2000 range. Why? If your answer is more people in the City, then issues more ambassador plates. If not, control rent. Ambassador plate waiting list order should be based on the amount of experience the driver has.

3 Page 3 of 230 The Planning Unknown Convert plates to standard. (Transferability and ownership.) Agent and brokerages review. Written Submission Unknown 12,000 drivers Too many drivers graduate. Not enough taxis and not enough income. People register with welfare as a second income. Receive $3 an hour. Receive EI. Received ODSP. Receive social services. Spouses receive ODSP or social services. TTC or etc, those people not registered with HST. One colour, one plate will create a well-recognized taxi. Will establish the Toronto taxicab. People can spot Toronto Taxicab. One colour cab. Good dispatch system. One number for the whole city like 311 or 911. Brokerage dedicated for the whole city (profit sharing with drivers) customer and taxi owner- operators. Start with any company that others can follow most of the problem can be served and resolved. Like for example, Brokerage Company takes 10% net drivers 90% - net profit. Idea should be well supported by city and government of Ontario and federal. Like given all the accounts and support of any brake of fuel, etc... If any brokerage is available, they can start. The others can follow with the same method and criteria or if nobody is available, I can do start up. I can sacrifice my brokerage and I am available to put forward funding the ideas. All the accounts and receipts can be available daily, weekly or monthly or yearly. For any member. I support the finding and the basic start and office.

4 Page 4 of 230 The Planning $500 membership fee $300 brokerage dues $350 for new members and no benefit That will be all central or universal profit sharing company brokerage. Most of the public drivers complaints can be solved 100 % through this. No question that immediately all ambassadors must be converted. All accessible taxis and regular taxis can be the same and one kind of taxi plates and one colour and could be made all purpose taxi service handicap, etc. Anyone who practices 10% for brokerage 90% to owner and taxi driver. Net profit sharing brokerage must get government and TTC contract. It is easy and simple method. Any brokerage that violates TTC contract cannot be awarded to them at all. All TTC contracts can be monitored by licensing police and enforcement officer and driver s enforcement (must recover) Threshold can be withdrawn or revisited. It doesn t make sense. The best service can be done only by the driver and operator of the car. Since that is true and everybody agree to that. The following has to be done whether you enforce it or not. Driver has to be fit and in good health. Has to have proper registration of gym or health club. Most of drivers die of heart attack because they are sitting for long periods in the car. Exercise must be mandatory. If possible, licensing must see membership of any gym. Most of cab drivers in the cab and should be paid through their brokerage fee of company. All drivers must have HST number, because most of them are licence. Standard Licence Owner Not Driving Brokerage owner or management Permit taxicab licenses transferability and multi-taxicab taxicab licence ownership and allow being able to incorporate your taxicab business.

5 Page 5 of 230 The Planning Delete Chapter 545, Article VIII, Section Subsection B(4) reads as follows: B(4) death of the owner. Where a licence has been issued to the estate of the deceased cab owner in according with the subsection b(2) the licence shall terminate one year from the date of death of the deceased cab owner. Ontario and federal inheritance laws take all of this into account. Have more meetings and discuss new issues. They will come on our industry to provide better service to the public and help the industry to stay in business for long time. Ambassador Licence Owner Brokerage owner or management Convert Ambassador Licence in the standard licence/ regular licence. Age of vehicle should be determined by the performance and other variables, not by year of manufacture. Taxicabs should have right to drivers as other public vehicles like TTC buses. Online survey, Questionnaires to put in taxicabs for passenger to hand over to driver or send to city. Telephone Surveys Ambassador Licence Owner Brokerage owner or management To my opinions there are many issues in the taxicab industry and licenses. There are many different interests and stakeholders involved. There are many different issues. They are contradictory to each other. However, at each, all these people are here to make things better. For me, the issue is survival. How I m going to survive. How I m going to make money when things are getting hard as the economy is going down, how could I make money. How to increase the volume of business.

6 Page 6 of 230 The Planning Conversion of Ambassador to Standard. Edge (age) of car. This is probably a good way to go about this. Through discussion, many ideas would come out and the best method of consulting through workshops and through whatever means that are available, you could inform people about updates and information. This location is a little far away. Brokerage owner or management Ambassador program to be converted to standard plate with same??? of formula. Do not agree with more cabs in Toronto. City or province should subsidize. Transferability should be allowed as long as person has a stake in the industry. Only leasing (multiple leasing should be allowed) - no agents. No role for agents if multiple driver leasing is allowed. Split ownership of the car as is in the city of Vaughan. Moving forward, the stakeholder committee should be set up. Taxicab Driver Not Accessible-endorsed Participation of the participants of this workshop mix-up the drivers category. Drivers, who drive their own taxi plates, they become the drivers. Drivers who drive ambassador plates, they don t have any financial pressure and they have job security. They do not face anything like the rental drivers. Rental plates are facing problems. They should not be allowed to interfere in drivers and agents leased or taxi car rent issues. They have to stay within their boundary.

7 Page 7 of 230 The Planning Other garage fleet of taxis The ownership of the car should stay of lessee s name, this way he can finance his car easily. This workshop was too noisy. There should be representatives from all. Ambassador Licence Owner The biggest issue in the taxicab industry today is the ambassador program. No to the dedicated vehicle. We need to go back to where you can own multiple plates and plates do not have to be sold after death. Also, family members should not be forced to get a taxi licence. Get rid of taxi school for drivers already on the road (Refresher Course). Ambassador Licence Owner Ambassador program safety WSIB, GPS in all cabs. Creation of taxi/limousine commission. Mandating POS machines in all cabs and creating common services fees Leasing and agents. Accessibility vehicles Dedicated vehicles Streamlining bylaws and eliminating duplicate laws. Ambassador program safety WSIB, GPS in all cabs. Creation of taxi/limousine commission. Mandating POS machines in all cabs and creating common services fees Open and honest dialogue. Transparency of decision-making process. Open exchange of ideas.

8 Page 8 of 230 The Planning More central location. Smaller groups. Taxicab Driver Not Accessible-endorsed Other Plate lessee. Operating cost: Lease rate should be controlled by the city High insurance provincial government should look into it. Brokerage cost control. Health and safety. WSIB monthly fee. Unemployment insurance monthly fee. Lease termination owners now do it for more money. Should be stopped. Livery and other cities cabs stealing taxi fares inspectors should be controlling. Single driver lessee should be given same years to use the car as ambassadors or single owners are given. Ambassador Licence Owner The first issue, in order to resolve the rent is rising issues, we have to eliminate the rift between ambassador program and standard. This two-tier tier system left us apart. Let s have, in one city, the same plate system. Conversion to dedicated vehicle type is not practical and economically acceptable and we should not copy from New York City (very busy) even there it hasn t gone well. Maybe in the future 10 to 15 years we will see a made-in-toronto type solution. About on-demand accessible service, the province (if supports the financial burden) we may consider it.

9 Page 9 of 230 The Planning This method (all stakeholders like today) is and will be very productive. This should be continuous in the future to solve or identify the future issues. Unknown Health and safety should be a priority. Plate ownership should be equity based. One system should be in place. Shift and leasing rates should be regulated to make sure drivers are protected. Living wages for drivers should be a guiding principle. Agents role should be eliminated as they create an exploitative environment. Avoid town hall meetings style. This is to avoid confrontation. We need independent facilitator to manage the process. Clear guiding principles to make sure we have clear goals. Make sure all city departments from legal to licensing, TTC, police, economic development, are part of the process. Allow and create opportunities for stakeholders to work together. Include everyone who is interested. Ambassador Licence Owner Other representative of Independent Owner/Operators (VP of ICOCI) Accessible on a short notice. Ambassador licence plates to be converted to standard plates. Lack of enforcement by police/city licence officers for illegal, unauthorized limos parked at or very close to the doors of hotels.

10 Page 10 of 230 The Planning Lack of enforcement by police/city inspectors at Union station. Unauthorized city taxi drivers walking around approaching customers and picking and choosing their customers. Ways to approach hotel management to be fair to the cabs serving their hotels instead of favouring limos for long haul fares > R Y Hotel and King Edwards, e.g., Limos and liveries are parked at front doors for extensive lengths. Too much enforcement by city licence inspectors. I would classify as harassment. Issuing tickets to a cab driver parked in front of the office building unauthorized cab stand. No stopping, no standing tickets should be left to the police and not city inspectors. Not enough taxi parking at taxi stands at the union station compared to the needs of passengers. With the new renovations going on, the way we see the blue print, the taxi stand is even shorter. If there are more taxis, they should increase the number of spots. Also no. Of passengers using go trains and via rails is also increasing. City must have one class of cab licences. Middlemen should be eliminated. Lessees should be between owner and lessee only. Have the discussions and gather information from smaller groups. This group is way too big. Not enough time for input. Taxicab Driver Not Accessible-endorsed There are 80 ambassador plates in licensing shelf that have returned by reasons like death or retired or etc. I think these 80 ambassador plates belong to the taxi drivers on the waiting list and should be issued to them. By doing this, at 80 taxis drivers rs on the waiting list they get what they deserve. Opportunity will create someone drivers who are looking to rent or lease. The city collects taxes and fees so everyone is a winner. Inform drivers update information. Keep doing this and getting together. Taxicab Driver Accessible-endorsedendorsed

11 Page 11 of 230 The Planning Bylaw revised newsletter and revisions One system for all drivers. Police and taxi works together. Abused by them feel like 2 nd class citizens due to treatment received by drivers. Don t feel at home. Brokers are not getting ticket drivers pay due for ticketing. Situation deteriorating in cab industry. Not united. Individual/single driver need to work together issuing tickets. MLS work with each individual not all drivers operators guide needs to be taught. MLS must be accountable and teach cab drivers. Drivers are scared of brokerage separate groups. Standard Licence Owner-Driving The number of taxis in Toronto. Phase out ambassador. Insurance almost no companies One drivers list everybody included. Taxicab Driver Accessible-endorsedendorsed The way (W) plate is going. The licensing of the W plate is the issue. Working demand and TTC. W plate on the ambassador List. Taxicab Driver Accessible-endorsed Accessible Licence Owner

12 Page 12 of 230 The Planning In addition to the issues already listed in the orange page distributed at the December 8 th meeting, the following issues should be discussed: The so-called airport exemption. The forming of some kind of a taxi advisory committee (something similar to what the city of Mississauga has). If the ambassador plate will be converted, the wheelchair accessible plate should be converted as well. however, because there is a demand for the accessible taxis, if conversion is what the city will decide to go with at the end of the process, a condition should be put on the converted wheelchair accessible licence to make it limited to servicing the disable community (as is the current situation) as long as the TTC Wheeltrans requires their services, after which the wheelchair accessible licences will become like any other taxi licence in the city. Standard Licence Owner Not Driving Industry Observer The appropriate number of taxicabs for the present needs of Toronto created from a current economic impact study. Income for all participants. Unlicensed (especially airport) allowed to pick up in Toronto should be stopped. Ownership of taxi plate No conversion of ambassadors Regulatory system needs updating Show cause leading to change Taxicab issuing formula Eliminate reverse onus (show cause hearings) system Establish public vehicle authority Economic impact study resulting in a proper number of taxicabs Review of regulatory function. Establish true ownership of licence. Airport exemption/persecution.

13 Page 13 of 230 The Planning Proper/current economic impact study to recommend a proper number of licensees including livery/limousine vehicles. Regular interval meetings and review categories to come to a consensus. Workshop concept is good venue is too crowded, noisy and hot. Agenda topics came from city. Keep it going but have each category sit in one group. Orange trigger word form submitted with writing Unknown Conversion to a dedicated vehicle On-demand accessible service Representatives from each aspect of the group, e.g. brokerage, hotels. Semi annual review. Even listing for business; web pages, mailing lists, face book, twitter, , event listing. List of new developments. Accessible Licence Owner One plate only two tiered system no good. Designated agents role define and regulate. Plate leasing should be fair and equitable centralize through MLS. Difficulty in drivers earning a wage. Inclusive. All means i.e. , web twitter, text, etc.. Diverse representation. This participant did not enjoy getting up before 10 am ( I m a night driver) Good start to future meetings.

14 Page 14 of 230 The Planning Unknown Ambassador plates and any possible conversion. The role of designated agents. Appropriateness of present number of taxicabs. Other bylaw amendments. Openness and respect. Taxicab Driver Accessible-endorsedendorsed Ambassador Licence Owner See presentation of Taxicab Drivers Coalition. Open and transparent. Need more time. We are confident in the process. Unknown Toronto taxi industry have two types of taxi licences, on is regular and other is called ambassador. Regular plate holder (licence holder) can lease their plate, sublease they can hire the driver. But ambassadors can t. Also, regular ones have value, but ambassadors don t have. So ambassadors should change to make one city one plate. Standard Licence Owner-Driving Cit y coming to table with no set of hidden agenda.

15 Page 15 of 230 The Planning Streamlining size of taxi fleet Composition of upcoming major stakeholder meetings. The first round should be individual groups as to what their specific concerns are. When round two begins, representatives from each individual group meet to form a consensus of points to agree on. Other consultant Health and safety (driver fatigue, shift hours, record keeping, etc...)for Taxi drivers Passengers and All road users Sustainability of drivers (ambassador and shift) Living wage, retirement options, protections Refinement of the ambassador program Convert to standard plate with an equity of value for the plate Role and value of agents > tax, etc... Absolutely no open microphone town-hall style meetings. This will be adversarial and polarizing An independent consultant should manage the consultations, advisory groups and report back with a report articulating all feedback received from the public and stakeholders. Why? Because MLS is also a stakeholder with a stakeholder and perception. Work with stakeholders to co-develop a clear terms of reference or guiding principles to keep everyone on trace on forward looking solutions. Include everyone in the industry and a public sincerely. Give stakeholders the opportunity to collaborate on the issues and work towards the opportunity to collaborate on the issues and work towards proposing solutions together through one or more industry advisory groups.

16 Page 16 of 230 The Planning Form and link an internal staff work group made up of city staff from relevant departments to the consultation process (MLS staff, legal economic development, police, transportation) City staff (MLS) must be clear about the overall consultation process from the start. Who will facilitate, take minutes, how will feedback be given. Participants must have a clear overview of the entire engagement process, giving them an understanding of what, why and when certain decisions need to be made. The format was not made clear from the beginning. Being clear helps calm tensions. Way too many speeches about nothing at the beginning of the meeting. Participants should have been given sticker-dots and asked to vote on the most important issues. Other - newspaper Low driver income overall. Ambassadors what to do with them. Leasing too many abuses of/in current system. A. Agents how to control; B. Brokers their involvement in leasing; C. Owners accepting responsibility for their investments. Others (no particular order): Driver safety desperate need for reliable data; what is working, what isn t. Enforcement must do something about serial ticketing by MLS and police. Need can stands in appropriate places. Idling bylaw needs taxi exemption. What does dedicated taxi mean? Please define. If only one approved vehicle, bad ideas. Overall: need for city recognition that taxis are a business, not a social welfare scheme. Transferability of cab licences. Issuing formula needs review/revision. Take into account tech changes over the years not reflected in the current formula, fax, s, and new competition like courier companies.) Reinstate the old annual taxi review and/or equivalent of the old MLC business meetings ; hold regularly. Do an international search/review of what other jurisdictions have done to solve taxi-related problems/issues. Taxi-l site library/archive.

17 Page 17 of 230 The Planning Unknown The oversupply of taxicabs on the streets of Toronto which depresses every drivers income; there were too many cabs by 1987 nobody could make a decent living since 1989 (drivers making $40 to $75 per 12-hour shift). Industry needs new system of governance, i.e., Mississauga model. Get us out of airport exemption its killing our incoming revenues.. Ambassador Licence Owner Ambassador Taxi program and conversion to standard. Leasing and designated agents Taxicab stands lack of stands and not including them in new development plants. Allow access to airport and removing the airport exemption Idling bylaw Debit machine regulate an industry wide fee Workshops Open drop-ins where drivers can say their view and do a direct mailing to inform number of drivers. Police and enforcement Driver behaviour Vehicle safety condition

18 Page 18 of 230 The Planning Obeying rules of the road The taxicab industry reflects the city of Toronto. The taxi driver s cargo is the most precious thing we have: human life. Group discussions ssions of a variety of stakeholders. Listen carefully to your front line people. Having a number of stakeholders learning sharing ideas. The workshop had too many people too close, causing noisy discussions. Very good start. Police and enforcement Driver behaviour resulting from long hours, overtired aggressiveness to meet financial demands. Vehicle condition and safety. Taxi stands stopping location ( don t impede pedestrian and traffic safety) however need ample areas to provide taxi service (need more designated stands). Multiple stakeholder consultation drivers; ambassadors owners/brokers police insurance by law office Stakeholder meetings, updates, online access to strategies. Task specific stakeholder meetings in which stakeholders to meet with specific discussion topics, specific cope for each working group. Each working group makes a report to a larger group. The workshop had too many discussion topics. Other insurance provider

19 Page 19 of 230 The Planning Review insurance certification protocol with a view to reform (see attached letter). Improve road safety introduce initiatives, criteria and training (consider consultation with the trucking industry to research and develop best practices protocol for taxi industry) Driver qualifications; ations; develop standard for acceptable driving and accident record and training/retraining criteria. We support the conversion of ambassadors to standard plates and suggest city consider financing the conversion to standard plates. This would create revenue for the city and allow ambassadors more flexibility. Meet future needs of disabled. Strike various subcommittees to work on identified issues. Strike a subcommittee for insurance with a cross section of stakeholders, invite the chair to attend. This committee should have representation from: Insurance industry Law enforcement Police City MLS by-law enforcement Cross section of brokerage,, fleet, plate owners, standard and ambassadors City representative MLS Driver representation Each subcommittee should report back to the larger stakeholder group and invite, receive and consider feedback. From the stakeholder group as a whole, reconvene when the subcommittee has considered feedback from the entire stakeholder group. Open exchange, inclusive approach, well organized. Given the variety of issues, recommend a few more working sub committees be struck to develop. Unknown Airport taxi comes in city and picks up customers in cheap fare but we city taxis cannot pick up from Pearson when we are dropping customers at airport.

20 Page 20 of 230 The Planning There should be no middlemen for taxi licence plate lease. They are taking 25 % to 40%. Rate of plate is getting higher and higher.. Taxicab Driver Accessible-endorsedendorsed The biggest issue is breakdown and absence of proper city bylaw. The first one is setting a long-term goal of improving taxi industry. The long-time goal should be owner-driver system, like ambassador system. Although there are complaints, the system is working well serving public and driver alike. The party to be removed is agents, who compete with each other to raised price of leasing a plate, and in turn, he gets the extra expense from shift driver who is falling into a victim of absurdly long working hours. After some grace period, lay five or ten years, the practice of subleasing is done by agents or middle men should be outlawed to make the taxi industry healthy. The second one is setting of simple system that can benefit general public, not a specific group. The ambassador and standard system should merge into ambassador system where driver owns a car and plate number. To accomplish this one, after some period, like ten years, standard plate should be converted to ambassador or returned to the city. To have a successful review, every ery stakeholder has the same opportunity to express their concern. The most voiceless stakeholder, shift driver, does not have affluent enough, to drop in workshop and lose that time to cover rental fee. To get enough feedback, for that specific group, one-to-one interview should be conducted on the road. Other option will be getting feedback from on line form that is easy enough and well advertised about participation. Ambassador Licence Owner Brokerage owner or management

21 Page 21 of 230 The Planning This is good for start. For now thank you for approach us and we so pleased you called us and invited to help our city especially our mayor rob ford and councillors to be having less hassles to make this industry good and no. 1 for the public. We hope we continue potently and review slowly and not sops to it. It will be good idea if we can make small table meetings and or we have big place and inform all public. Agent has to be abolished. Give the city the authority or study. Ambassadors have to be converted now. Common dispatch system. Brokerages are...helpful for the public. Another alternative can go for better customer service. We have to make good system for public and then a good idea like making one company of brokerage for all the taxicab companies and drivers and owners are supposed to be served in one. Thank you. Small workshop continues. Taxicab Driver Not Accessible-endorsed The most important issue of the taxicab drivers is the so called agents. These agents go around to the plate owners, collected the plates and rent to the cab drivers with a high rate of dollars. They also are making money without the owner of the plate for example as an agent will ask the driver to give him $10,000 or more; before he could continue working with the plate, and the same time, the driver will renew the plate sticker. So my idea is the Licensing Commission should go through, and, warn the agent about that kind of behaviour. Also, the plate owners should renew their own taxi plate, not the drivers. 1. Agent charging renewal fees of $10,000 or more. 2. Plate owners are now renewing their own taxicab plate. Taxicab Driver Not Accessible-endorsed

22 Page 22 of 230 The Planning Lease should be fixed by city because last time when the city increased the meter, all the garages increased their leases, so what is the point to increasing the meter? You are taking out money from the public pocket and giving it to the garages. All taxi matters [should be] looked at by city lease and plate and also I found out that there are some taxis on the road. Those taxis should be have passed [the vehicle inspection], but still some people are passing those cars because if the city is not going to look at that. Unregulated lease fees. Unfit Taxicab vehicles are passing their DOT inspection.. Taxicab Driver Not Accessible-endorsed See attached copy. Cost is too high. It s very hard to live on $90 a day and gas, etc. Most of the money, brokerages are making from us. Ambassador is very good program. Keep it the way it is. I'd like to have an Ambassador licence, so I do not have to pay rent and not keep another car. I could be saving $2500 per month. Brokerage keeps them out. They have nothing to do with this meeting. They do not driver taxi. What do they know about the taxi industry? They will suggest how to get more plates so they can make more money. Many ambassadors have full time other jobs. TTC, real estate, etc Still they keep Ambassador Plates. Please take plates from them and give to other people. City should have control of plates, not the agents. The City should have rent controls so drivers can make a living. Leasing controls. Eliminate agents and brokers. Ambassadors have full time other jobs; the City should take away their plates and give them to other people.

23 Page 23 of 230 The Planning Taxicab Driver Not Accessible-endorsed Eliminate middle men to cut the cost. Regular plates should also be single operators, not daytime someone, nighttimes someone else. They cannot keep the car clean. People who lied to the City show fake letters. They own regular plates, then they transfer the plates to family members, they get Ambassador and should be fine. And out as soon as possible from Ambassador. They should be charged with fraud. 36 hours part time driving as Ambassador should be out. Full time, not part-time ambassadors. Middlemen should be eliminated. No taxicab vehicles should not be driven 24 hours a day, as the cab cannot be kept clean. There are Ambassadors are driving 36 hours per week, which the participant feels is too little, and that the licence should be given to someone who would drive more often. Whoever faces the problems like drivers should be involved in this process. Ask identification for who they are, ambassadors or other drivers. The person may be Ambassador but he may be writing that he is a driver. Taxicab Driver Not Accessible-endorsed This time taxi drivers day shift is over $90 per day. It cost $90 +gas + something to eat + personal car cost. What city is going to do to establish the good taxi service for the customer from the taxi drivers. Plate rental pays more than $1500 per month, but still their jobs are not secure. What is the City going to do for plate rentals?

24 Page 24 of 230 The Planning Who is the taxi operator? Taxi operators are the ones who are giving the physical service to the customer. But whatever money they are charging from the customer, most of it goes to the third party, which is not the driver. But the City opens big loopholes for the third party to grab the taxi drivers' money. Most of the taxi drivers are willing to drive their own taxi cab but the plate rental is out of affordability and not secure. Ambassadors are free of cost and have job security. If the City does not want to control the regular plate, then they issue the ambassador plates to the needy taxi drivers. For present Ambassadors, if any of them do not like the Ambassador program, they should return the Ambassador plate and rent or buy a regular plate. They already save a lot of money. High rental and lease costs create a difficult financial situation for drivers. Taxicab Driver Not Accessible-endorsed Ambassador drivers who are not driving as full-time drivers, or are working full-time job somewhere else, should be out of this industry. The Ambassador program should be good for all fulltime drives that are depending on the taxicab industry. Ambassador driver is already driving without paying any lease expenses, low insurance and without having any other vehicle expenses driving to work. There should be conversion in designated vehicles for the needy people. On demand accessible taxi program should be in effect in all taxi facilities. The Ambassador program is good, but other drivers who are driving full-time should have a plate. Ambassador drivers pay less for a 24-hour period than one standard [12-hour] cab shift. When standard cab drivers always have financial burdens on his shoulders he is driving under a lot of stress. City should have more plates for drivers, which will bring down the price of taxicab

25 Page 25 of 230 The Planning plates. This review should look at all the aspects of taxi related issues to make a more reliable industry. Taxi lease should be designated by the City that how much the leased should be. The lease should be between the taxicab owner and license commission and the lessee. There should not be any middle man. Middlemen always make more things miserable and always try to make more money. Drivers to the owner because they want to have more money as agents. There should not be any agents in any way. The agent asks for bribery to give the plate to drivers, plus they are making the things more miserable. There are a lot of cab drivers from the minority groups. Transferability of a taxicab licence should be made easier and there should be a price barrier. The price of plate ownership is high, which is unaffordable. Police should not be given a power when the cab driver is picking up a fare from busy spots. Cab drivers should have more demerit points, because they are always on the road. I have seen all the cab aspects in the last 24 years. I have gained more experience on the road than by reading the bylaws. There are Ambassadors are driving 36 hours per week, which the participant feels is too little, and that the licence should be given to someone who would drive more often. Every driver should have his/her own taxicab. There should be an on demand accessible taxicab service offered by every brokerage. Taxicab Driver Not Accessible-endorsed As cab drivers, we are facing very difficult times to help our family because I myself lease a plate weekly base and am paying $560 a week to an agent and also agent is paying brokers and

26 Page 26 of 230 The Planning brokers also paying owners. So imagine we drivers are those who feed these 3 persons. We are just working very hard to accommodate those and our families. Why is City ignoring us instead of eliminating agent and brokers? Between the drivers and agent and brokers and owners. We are paying to those three persons A B O to feed those 3 persons our families. Imagine how hard it is for someone who has to work for it but the City does listen to us. $560 a weekly base. Insurance $560 per month. Sticker $74. Gas Monitoring car To communicate with drivers, not agents or brokers. To call all drivers if it is possible. To hear from their feelings. Taxicab Driver Not Accessible-endorsed The first issue unlimited powers of the licence plate owners and unlimited immunity given to them by the City of Toronto. They are exploiting this immunity and taking advantages of drivers and the agents. Cost of driving a cab is going up and up day by day. But the revenue is going down. Insurance companies are also increasing their premiums every year and there is no check on them. The first issue unlimited powers of the licence plate owners and unlimited immunity given to them by the City of Toronto. They are exploiting this immunity and taking advantages of drivers and the agents. Cost of driving a cab is going up and up day by day. But the revenue is going down.

27 Page 27 of 230 The Planning Insurance companies are also increasing their premiums every year and there is no check on them.. Taxicab Driver Not Accessible-endorsed Rental costs are too high. Must work on this issue. $1800 monthly lease. I can't afford it. Drivers can't make money only brokers make money. Last time city increases the meter but driver not get that money brokers increase weekly rental fee. So Ambassador program is very good, one driver, on car. If Ambassador driver don t like be ready to take the plate, because of ambassador have no cost at all. Brokerages are not needed. Must be kicked out. They don t drive the car, but they make more money than the driver. No agent only city and the driver. City must control those issues. Leasing control. Agent brokers outs. Ambassador how are doing other fulltime job. They kick them out. No agents or brokerages should be in workshop. Brokers and agents do not drive the cab but they are here. Only need drive city and public. Taxicab Driver - Not Accessible-Endorsed Conversion of Ambassador plates to standard Driver health and safety. Making sure illegal cabs are eliminated. Hotels receiving cookies (kickbacks). Discussion among stakeholders through meetings. We should stay away from town hall meeting style as this causes friction and antagonism. Ambassador Licence Owner

28 Page 28 of 230 The Planning It should be only one type of licence, convert all ambassadors sadors to standard. Our business is being lost due to too many illegal taxis The hotel doorman corruption should be stopped. Driver safety, Stiffer sentence for assaulting, robbing, or not paying for the fair. More workshops. Ambassador Licence Owner The effectiveness of the ambassador taxicab owner program The viability of requiring all taxicab owner to use a single dedicated taxi vehicle The re-evaluation evaluation of specific regulations with respect to taxicab leasing Other by-law amendments It is better to do small group discussion Other Electric Taxi Startup. Two-tier licensing system which is unfair. High expenses with low incomes. Unfair airport rules. Parking and ticketing issues. All parties involved must have the chance to tell their side. Decision makers must listen and consider all sides. All interested parties should be kept up to date and informed through the web-site and via . Ambassador Licence Owner Ambassador conversion to re-establish establish one type of license for all owner/operators. Safety review with look at establishing WSIB coverage for all industry members. Mandating POS machines and service fees for these machines into all cabs. Creating plate only leasing, Plate Ownership and transferability, brokerage activities, Licensing agents, Creating a Taxi/Limousine Commission to be run by stakeholders rather than politicians and reporting directly to the City Executive Committee. Preventing one person or a single group from running

29 Page 29 of 230 The Planning the industry. Workshops by stakeholder groups, clear and transparent procedures a final report reviewed by stakeholders before being sent to the L&S Committee. Standard Licence Owner Not Driving,brokerage owner or management,other: Agent The Failed Ambassador Program. There is no such person as an Ambassador or Accessible "license owner", this term is an oxy-moron. Ambassadors are license HOLDERS only. They own nothing, not the license and unless they paid cash for the car, they don't own that either. These people are living in fear of losing that license so drive many more hours than they should to try to make as much money as they can before that happens and are in constant fear of getting sick. Any waking hours are spent knowing that they should be in the car working. They are not providing better service than non-ambassador drivers. They are tired and afraid. They are not able to spend time with their families and for many who have invested 20+ years in this industry they are forced to work more now than ever with no chance for retirement. I know an Ambassador driver who is 76 years old. When an Ambassador driver dies, his family is left with car payments and that is it. To suggest that their wives and families have not contributed to the industry under these circumstances is laughable. Leasing. Lease agreements have been allowed to hide the name of the vehicle owner. Leases should identify both the license owner and the owner of the vehicle separately. Every leased plate should have valid lease agreement. Multiple lease agreements should be allowed in order for fleets to operate in garage settings. Standard terms and conditions should appear on a lease agreement regarding cancellation and length of the lease which should cover the life of the vehicle. Subleasing should be illegal and strict consequences should follow if the lessee is not maintaining the vehicle. Lease agreements should identify and protect the license owner and the owner of the vehicle by identifying allowable increases in lease rates over the term of the lease agreement. Agents. The role of agents should be investigated. Do they offer anything of value to our industry? Agents are middlemen who often simply drive up the price of leasing for nothing and without reason. They force vehicle owners to move into specific brokerages or the vehicle owner will lose the plate so they have no choice but to pay. Agents

30 Page 30 of 230 The Planning often make more money than the license owner for no work at all. People are making tens of thousands of dollars per month as agents, offering nothing to this industry. It would be best to phase this group out as plates are sold or transferred. Owners should work directly with lessees moving forward. People who make decisions about but are not directly involved in this industry need to be educated about how it works. This would include regulators and City officials. Enforcement against out-of-town town taxis picking up in Toronto needs to increase. More taxi stands are needed in this City. Too many drivers are coming out of taxi school with little supply of vehicles to drive and/or plates to lease and they can't get insurance as drivers. Ambassador plates should be changed into standard plates over the next few years to relieve the leasing market and offer choice to those paying exorbitant rates to agents. Transfer fees for this would be an income to the City. The failed Ambassador program is the worst catastrophe to hit the Toronto taxi industry in history. There is enough expertise within the Toronto Taxi industry to provide information needed to correct our problems. There is no need to hire third party consultants, it would be a waste of money. Looking at comparable markets will help. Toronto is NOT New York City, and should not adopt a NY model. Chicago is a closer match. Face to face meetings are best. First with individual stakeholders and groups and then in roundtable discussion like the December 8th workshop. This review must be done in a timely manner with continued momentum. A failure in this respect will result in a loss of confidence in the review by participants. Taxicab Driver - Not Accessible-Endorsed Issuing more ambassador plates and letting two drivers, that will help bring the weekly lease which garages charge down pension, something to work for and wait for, like automatic plate ownership after years of service.,what am I going to do when I'm 65 years old? collect welfare!

31 Page 31 of 230 The Planning Airport pick ups like Limos, they have both ways passengers, we have one way. Why? It has to be even or one way each. More cab stands, stop using yearly renewal fees for revenue generating for the industry i.e don't keep increasing the fees every single year like 300 plus that is ridiculous! Ambassador Licence Owner Ambassador licence [one kind licence for every body. No agent all taxi be weelchir acssebl on demand I have been deriving taxi 20 years toronto is bigger now,if we put more taxistand would be good for the public and for the industre I think in a small group Standard Licence Owner Driving Too Many Taxis - Without the City coming to the negotiating table committed to doing an economic impact study and enacting a responsible licensing issuing formula that truly reflects current customer need, most of the other outstanding issues will become redundant. Our present taxi fleet has approximately 1100 more taxis than needed if a proper taxi issuing formula was put in place. Ambassador Taxi Program - This was an ill advised program in 1998 and city hall staff at that time recommended that it not be enacted but council went forward with it anyway. This is the area that the City has control to deal with too many taxis. This program needs to be grandfathered out and a new combined seniority list of all taxi drivers and plate operators & owners needs to be compiled and any future standard licenses issued needs to come from that list. This requires the unfreezing of both the taxi drivers'and standard owners' lists so they can be incorporated and exhausted into the new list. It is my recommendation that 80% of new issues go to drivers and 20% go to standard plate owners. The City cannot issue a chatel worth in excess of $300,000 without considering all of the industry's membership as that would violate

32 Page 32 of 230 The Planning the Canadian Federal Charter of Rights and Freedoms under Equality Rights.irport Exemption - For over 33 years the City of Toronto has not made any attempt to officially approach the Province to recitify this issue. The exemption is not only unfair and unnecessary but it flys in the face of the Toronto Act(2006), which is supposed to give the City Of Toronto total control on how it runs their city and that includes the licensing of taxis and limousines. Our industry members have no desire about inclusion into the Pearson Airport pick-up scheme but want the business generated in this area within the city's boundaries to be returned to them. Twice this was overturned and then quickly re-instated, once in 1998 and the second time in Our industry has lost over 1 to 2 billion dollars in business because of this issue and it needs to cease. It required a coalition on city hall and industry members to work together in approaching the Province to have this exemption removed from all legislation, not just the Toronto Act (2006) so as it cannot reappear through the back door in the future. Under no circumstances do we want airport taxis and limousines to be licensed by the City of Toronto as we have an over abundance of taxis and limousines in our city already. a) Credit & Debit Machines - Usage & Fees,b) Hotel Doormen Receiving Cookies - Consider how Montreal handles this situation as they charge them with extortion,c) Taxi Airport Flat Rates - The present flat rate sheet violates the taxi by-law which states flat rates must be as close as possible to the meter rate and in many cases this is not true in our trips to the airport due to time of day, traffic, road and/or weather conditions,d) Singular Dedicated Vehicle - A truly poor approach to vehicle requirements for our industry considering ng numerous points such as driver comfort, supply if singular supplier goes on strike, could cost us a portion of our customer base depending on the vehicle chosen and the list goes on and on,e) Toronto Police Services - A serious issue with overzealous police officers not only over ticketing but illegaly ticketing as well,f) Hand Held Devices - our industry members need to be educated on this new legislation and how it is going to change In 2012,g) Idling By-Law - The changes last year in this by-law now require taxi drivers as well to not be able to idle their taxis for more than 1 minute regardless of temperature or customer service requirements as stated in the taxi by-law. Due to our present depressed economic climate, we routinely sit between orders for half to one hour. An exemption to this by-law needs to be sought for taxi drivers allowing them to idle their taxis as stated in the old by-law dealing with this issue which was when the outside temperatures reached above 27C or below 5C,h) Accessible On Demand Taxicab Service - The City in consultation with both the industry and the Province need to come up with a responsible plan that will meet this demand

33 Page 33 of 230 The Planning while adhereing to upcoming 2014 provincial statutes in this area,i) Standard License Ownership - All sections of the by-law in this area need to be looked at and re-written. The City does not have such stringent requirements for any other industry it licenses and it is well overdue that the City get out of the taxi business and into their role as elected officials and that is to enact responsible legislation The City need to come to the negotiating table in a transparent manner with no hidden or pre-conceived agendas. They need to understand that this process is a give and take one and that includes city hall. Meetings with individual groups and then a combined group meeting with representatives from each group could format a final list with recommended resolves could come from that final meeting. The website, taxi news, direct mailing and other medias give more than enough options to communicate with the entire taxi industry membership. Ambassador Licence Owner,police/ enforcement,other: protecting our bussiness one type of taxi licence owner should protect our business Safety and Security Health Accessibility police enforcement treat driver as human police enforcement Taxicab Driver - Accessible-Endorsed,Ambassador Licence Owner,industry observer,accessibility interest groups,other: The complete resolution of the Ambassador Taxicab licences.,this is based on the fact that more and more people feel Toronto must have one type of owners licences. Taxi Industry Pension Plan. Those 3451 taxicab licence owners were provided a service when they were first issued Toronto taxicab owners licences. This service is longer sustainable and I suggest a pension plan that drivers pay into.