Phase 1: Broad Public and Stakeholder Consultation Compiled Comments: Agents and Leasing Recommendations The following document contains a compilation of some of the input received from taxicab stakeholders in Phase 1, including voicemail and comments from Refresher course classes and comments forms. Please note that: The majority of these submissions contain one recommendation which falls into one issue category, however some comments may contain recommendations outside of the following category. In order to protect the anonymity of those who made submissions, identifiers (such as names and contact information) have been replaced with "***". Minor edits have been made to some of the submissions to allow for greater readability. Other stakeholder and public input is posted online at http://www.toronto.ca/licensing/taxireview/stakeholder.htm. Please feel free to contact the review team with any comments or questions. THE 2012 TAXICAB INDUSTRY REVIEW City Hall 100 Queen Street West 16th Floor, West Tower Toronto, Ontario M5H 2N2 www.toronto.ca/taxireview Voicemail: 416-338-3095 Email: taxireview@toronto.ca TTY: (416) 338-0889
Stakeholder Submissions Agent/broker should be eliminated Regulate garage Shift lease is too high Shift rent is expensive Eliminate or better regulate agents, re: they have a higher incidence of allowing unregistered drivers to operate taxis. Agents also pitting insurance companies against each other. Plate rent is too high Insurance is high Shift lease is expensive Shift lease too high because every 2 weeks there are more drivers in the market Will reduce leverage from bad owners Current policy is allowing exploitation of driver/leasesee/ by causing/ driving up industry pricesdestroying fleet garages Needs to be stronger paper trail to monitor agents/ multi plate owners Every plate should be leased Agents are driving cost up Much leasing should be allowed City should give an agents lists City should do more to ensure agents need to follow guidelines Owners, agents and leasees must have days to cancel lease; same for rules for all Page 2
If plate is sold, leasing agreement should be for the life of the vehicle; life of vehicle law (started in 2009) is good for everyone, wouldn t affect this agents. If agents required to follow guidelines, agents who don t anything would hate this. Mixed opinions, agents should be able to increase rates or take plates away Limit agents to 10 plates to ensure they are monitored Brokerages should be agents because they control too many plates> they control prices in business Four companies have 1000 plates Agents should not be required to have garage City does not need agents who are not operating cabs actively, maintains cars Owner must be liable with respect to leasing. Agents and Leasing Eliminate the agent so that the agent cannot dominate the driver Simplify the terms of the term lease owner does not by the vehicle, the lessee purchases the vehicle which makes things complicated. Sections 545 145C (2)(3)(4) and (5) of the by law are problematic and are not being enforced. Stakeholders want the by law to permit vehicle/taxicab to be in the name of the lessee instead of the plate holder, if the lessee is the one who purchased the vehicle. Recommend that lease information and individual agreements be made available for all industry stakeholders to access. The stakeholders want to see what the fees and terms are of all lease agreements (potential privacy issues) Fees outlined in lease agreements are not always accurate, sometimes the amount in the agreement is much less than what the agent or owner charges for the lease of the vehicle. The example given was Page 3
that the lease agreement stipulates a $500 per month lease agreement, but then the agent or owner wants additional cash funds that are not in the agreement. Drivers/lessees feel that there is no recourse. The facilitator informed the group that recourse can take place if a complaint is filed with MLS. If it is not reported action enforcement will not occur. The term of the lease should be till the end of life of the vehicle. The facilitator indicated that the bylaw changed in 2010 to allow for this. The term of the lease agreement is for the life of the vehicle and can be terminated for just cause. 3: there is no certain law or i will say bylaw regarding leasing of plate and renting of taxi that how much amount a plate owner or car owner can take from leasee or driver there is no checking sys at all every garage owner or plate owner are charging according to their own will and wish no one in the city can check them or ask them I have concerns about the standard plates,plate owners,agents,garages and drivers. 1 Why standard plates are so expensive not beacuse there is lots of business out there it is expensive because agents are involved in this business for example Beck taxi is agent of over 200 plates and beacuse of being agent beck taxi is making $200 per plate every month which means $40000 every month that money is coming from the pocket of drivers who are working very hard out there not only that drivers who lease plates from these agent brokerages those drivers must have to keep those plates in that taxi company who is the agent of that plate.it maens agent brokerages are making $200 per plate plus money from the dues.2 some agents those who are garage owners agents what they do they buy very cheap cars about $8000 they put them in taxi business and sell those taxis for about $25000 on sublease which means agent made abdout $15000 already and now he is charging about $600 dollars per week from the driver which includes brokerage dues plus plate rent.if we multiply $600 with 52 Page 4
weeks it becomes $31200 per years $2600 per month.$2600 includes brokerage dues $525 and brings out about $2075 plate rent on top of that agent is also charging 7% on all taxi chits and credit cards which driver gets from the customer.3 Drivers are paying $625 per week for night shift and $550 per week for day shift plus 7% on taxi chits and credit cards which is not easy to make.its answer should not be why they are driving taxi.its answer is plates should be between owners and drivers, there should be no agent and to full fill the demand of these plates, ambassadors plates should be converted in to regular standard plates.if some body buy a new brand car for $50000 to put in taxi that person will not be able to get the plate on lease because there is no plate out there to lease.these garage owner agents calls the plate owners and offers them big bucks.one of my friends he drives taxi his owner called him for a meeting.on meeting he told my friend to increase the rent from $1400 to $1800 plus he told my friend to pay $7000 every 4 or 5 years when car expires.my friend ask him i can understand the rent increase but i could not understand the $7000 which you mantion.he told my friend that two garage owners called me and offered me this deal if you do not agree with this deal you can return me the plate when your car expires, in other words that $7000 is the Royalty(goodwill) of the plate.my another friend his car will be expiring after about 6 months and he sold that car for $22000.Person who bought that car why he paid that amount only because of the plate, it means he paid about $20000 to get the plate and he also knows that he have to buy new car after 6 months for at least $20000.It means there are not too many plates out there.there are two solutions to solve the huge demand of these plates one there should be no agents and second to convert the ambassadors plates to standard plates. 3. Leasing problem Page 5
I a taxi driver lic hold has been driving since 1989. when i get my licence my contrubition to the public as a cab driver was my first aim. and i have been serving the public as of my duity and responsiblity with the hope that ond day the city will reward me the plate that will make my future life will depend on. since i lease a taxi from garage and pay $500 a week at current rent cup, that the big portion of my income gose to the agent and the agent never had any tax report return to me.so since i am not getting a pay check i have to cover my all expensess with the money left on my hand after i pay my lease I am Licence Holder since 1989 currently drive for wali garage and pay $500 a week,and i am on waiting list over seven years. as i have been waiting the hope of getting my ambassador palte is very optmistic. as city is planing to review the industry my comment to this is since city found diffecult to shape the industery i think city should start leasing plates in order to stop the monopoly only certen group of people only benifited. which city should learn from vancover and missisagua and brampton it will be difficult to correct once it's out of city hand. TAXI PLATE RENTAL (RATE) SHOULD BE CONTROLLED BY THE CITY. is it possiable to fix the amout of lease the driver has to pay because everbody is paying diffrenly and sometime the driver doesnt make enough so he has to pay from his own pocket. Direct lease from owner no middleman or garage please. Back bone of the industry is driver please consider us thanks first of all I must say thanks to the city (Mr Mayor and The Team) for taking an initiative in reviewing the industry which desperately need an overhaul. Here are few issues which bother the drivers the most:,1) Renting and Leasing of a Car/Plate and role of Garage: Most of the drivers who actually drive the vehicles on the roads (a vast majority) rent or lease their vehicles from a garage on weekly basis Page 6
with a shift premiums running from $500 550 per week for a day driver per 12 hour shift and $575 $665 per shift for a night driver for a 12 hour shift. Garage also charge upto 7% service fee on paper transactions (credit card, debit card, vouchers etc) You may add daily fuel costs of $50 to this and actual expense of driver is much higher. a) City must not allow renting of as many plates as possible to one person, thus allowing one person to acquire multiple plates. City may need to amend the law with respect to leasing of a plate as person leasing the plate must be the primary person driving the car not renting it to another person after leasing it from the owner. Every leasing driver must provide his own car and insurance and must not be allowed to rent it further to garage. Take these agents or middle man out. They are making very expensive to rent. If one can run his or her plate let the city run for him/her and charge administration fee at same time make drivers waiting lease. Maybe this will make cheaper for the leasing instead of four hands. I would like to see a fair review whole taxi industry:, No Agents between Drivers and Owners, Lease control (now is out of control), It would be better if the City buy it back all standard plates, ambassador plates and issue to the drivers a city own plates, where the City can make money and drivers can make a good decent living when city lease to the drivers., Price of standard plate is around $350, 000.00. today, this is out of hands. 1. PLEASE DELETE THE ROLE OF AN AGENT BECAUSE ALL DUTIES AND WORKS CAN BE DONE BY THE LESSEE OF THAT TAXI SO NO NEED FOR THE AGENTS., Define and clarify "agent" and "designated custodian" Give more definition to "owner" Should be able to charge an agent as an owner Page 7
Defining contracts between agents and owners, where the city has it as a form to have standard clauses. ownership should stay the current way that means taxi plate should buy drivers who has taxicab licence. Not every one. also city shoud rent the plate throuth to the drivers that means no more agent and garage, the city should get the benefit of the plate like united state. 2.to increase the income of taxi driver the city should eliminate the middle men like agents and ask the plate owners to lease the plate directly to the taxi driver. taxicab drivers pay every week to the garage 650 per week,ambasador pay 650 the all year, and the city wants to make review only ambasador not the drivers that they have presure every week, the city you have to be fare or you are making joke. WEEKLY LEASE, THAT ALL GARAGES AND PRIVATE OWNERS ARE CHARGING LIKE DAY SHIFT 560,AND NIGHT SHIFT 650,THAT SHOULD NOT BE GET FROM DRIVERS LIKE SO MUCH,IT SHOULD BE FIXED LIKE DAY SHIFT 300,AND NIGHT SHIFT SHOULD BE 400.,IN CITY TAXI STANDS SHOULD BE MORE,POLICE SHOULD BE REGARD TO ALL TAXI DRIVERS,EVERY TAXI DRIVES HAS LIKE 30 TRAFFIC TICKETS IN A YEAR, Garage owner put your name as a liesse without letting the driver.,garage owner give you car without puting his name on insurance list (drier is not covered by insurance company),this job is now comming as slavery, no vation and lease they make it too much more than 600 weekly, gas price is going up and we are loosing business on daily basis too. there should not be agents, there is always high demand of lease,if there is mechanical problem in car, driver who only get the ticket from by law officer so garage or agent never care about the safety of car, if driver insist garage to repair, driver was removed to replace by other driver by garage or Page 8
agent,,so i recommend tickets related to automobiles should be issued to agents or owner of plate not the driver, for the safety of driver and passengers in car.. Driver and owner should have good relation Owner should check the car every week Lease rate should be fixed. Problem: Sharing of income between Owner and Driver Lease control should be more clear and to be renewed as of dated 2011, 2012 New contractors being an agent > custodian and lessee should be updated. Lease should be fixed for everyone at one price (under city contract) Ambassador cabs system is good but should not allow second driver. If they can't make money working 12 hrs a day, they should leave the plates for other drivers in waiting list who are ready to drive. Weekly lease for shifting drivers should be controlled by the City. Do City has any regulation on leasing rate The City should be able to rent the plates to the drivers Plate owner should lease the plate directly to driver Over charging / Lease insurance Plate controlled price License plates should be leased directly from MLS office, only for taxi drivers. Decrease monthly price > lease or rent. Over charging leases should be regulated The time frame for lease agreement cancellation to be reduced to 2 weeks from 60 days Page 9
Need to minimize the role of agent Drivers are marginalized (agents are charging drivers too much). Suggestion is to charge according to demand, not a flat rate. i.e. mon, Tue, Wed are slower days, therefore charge less than for Thu, Fri, Sat Payment System (Lease) Taxi weekly lease in Toronto is getting higher and higher. Day shift is 525 and night shift is 650 a week. Depending on the work, it's hard to make living. Need to regulate the lease for drivers. Having no control on shift charges rent from lease, every month they increase the rent (min $70day $80night) Whenever plate owners want to take back their plates, it must be on reasonable grounds and not for money reasons Plate owners should be forbidden to take their plates from drivers and give to another driver. Should be stopped totally. Cap on lease $400 for day time, $500 for night time No middle man for taxi plate lease Get rid of agents to lease Deal with owners directly Regulate how much driver have to pay to the owner as rent Plate owner should rent the plates to the drivers Agents No benefit to industry Abolish it or regulate Rip off drivers Limit # of plates/agents Page 10
Fee should be set by City Agent has no role to play. They exploit drivers controlling plates Shift rent should be controlled by city Shift lease is too high Drivers pay too much to lease plate from agent or garage drivers are suffering because of increasing of leasing, percentages on cards and vouchers. No rights for drivers. If the complain, they are dismissed. Need a union. City needs to stop increases. driver for 15 years, pays $500/week for a cab to rent a cab driver pays $550 per week; wants city to issue more plates driver pays $550 per week; wants city to issue more plates Major problem, after driving 20 years, should force experienced drivers to speak about issues. Thinks city should regulate cost of leasing. No agent Page 11