By Amanda Pratt
The City of Ottawa is taking steps to stop so-called “gypsy cabs” – illegal, unlicensed and unregulated taxis – from driving away with the business of legitimate taxi cab companies.
Susan Jones, the city’s director of bylaw services, says the city has asked the Ministry of Transportation to change provincial legislation which would allow police to seize private, unmarked vehicles being used as taxis.
“We need to be able to seize the cars and take them away,” she says, adding that the politically correct term for them is “bandit cabs.” “You’re able to do this in Quebec and in many cities in the U.S., but not here yet because we don’t have the authority. If we could seize the car immediately and impound it, this would go a long way to eliminating the problem.”
Drivers typically charge a flat rate to customers who call looking for a cheap fare, which the drivers can afford to offer because their vehicles are much less expensive to operate and maintain. By remaining underground, they avoid the higher insurance premiums, licensing fees and other costs accredited taxis face.
To combat the issue, the city conducts blitzes at peak periods of bandit cab operation, usually evenings and weekends during the winter months when demand for regular taxis is higher because of the cold, says Jones.
Sometimes undercover officers will find the “business cards” of drivers and call them up. Four-hundred dollar fines are handed out and repeat offenders can be asked to appear in court, where the judge can set a $5000 fine.
But while Jones says the city catches between 30 to 50 bandit cab drivers in a good year, she admits the fines do little to deter their activity.
“All we can do at this point is give them a ticket and they have to wait for a court date, if they show up at all, and meanwhile off they go and change the look of their cars and their phone numbers and we have to go out and find them again,” she says.
The plan to have the illegal vehicles seized came after Coun. Diane Deans met with representatives of the Ottawa taxi industry in April. They voiced concerns about the economic and safety issues surrounding private vehicles being used as taxis. Deans then vowed to have the city crack down on the problem through stricter enforcement of taxi bylaws.
“There’s the fairness to the drivers who have invested in this industry and work every day to try and make it work,” says Deans, chair of the emergency and protective services committee, which regulates the taxi industry. “People who are operating illegal taxi cabs are undermining the legitimate business of others.”
Deans says the bigger problem is that bandit cabs do not meet the same standards as reputable taxis and they pose a risk to public safety.
Regular cabs must have safety inspections twice a year, they have a seven-year age limit and licensed drivers must be properly trained.
“A lot of the time these gypsy cabs are run by people who are, quite literally, running from the law. They’re criminals, they’re people who are in the country illegally, they can’t work anywhere else and these are the type of people who are moving the public about,” says Hanif Patni, the president and CEO of Coventry Connections, which operates three of the largest taxi companies in Ottawa.
Patni says it’s hard to estimate the impact bandit cabs have on business, but he believes his companies are not as affected because they have a high demand.
Like Deans, he says public safety is a primary concern and people need to think about what they are doing before they get into an illegal cab.
“It could be that 70, 80 per cent of them are going to complete a trip safely, but what about the other percentage that could abuse a customer or take advantage of a customer on the fare?” he adds.
Goda Khashan, a taxi driver with Blue Line Taxi, agrees that in addition to taking his fares, bandit cabs jeopardize public safety.
“The taxi business is a very important service because you’re dealing with everyone – children, men, women and older people – so there should be responsibility there,” he says. “We should have trained, well-educated people because it’s a job. It’s my job. It’s my living.”
So while the proposal to have police seize bandit cabs is still under review, people like Coun. Deans say there’s an easier way to get rid of them.
“If the public didn’t take the cars, they’d be out of business.”