By Anja Karadeglija
Downtown cab drivers are experiencing a dramatic loss of business three months after city council opened taxi zones.
Drivers are reporting a 20- to 30-per-cent drop due to increased competition from suburban drivers, says Yusef Al Mezel, president of the Ontario Taxi Union. In January, Ottawa became one zone, allowing taxis from suburban areas to pick up passengers in the downtown core.
Downtown drivers were so angry at the controversial move they shouted at city council when the decision was made. They claimed suburban cabs would flock downtown, where there are more fares.
Al Mezel says their fears have been realized. “The downtown area is now overcrowded,” he explains.
Because of this Joe Chaar, a driver with Blueline, says he’s seen his earnings drop from an average of a $100 to $70 a day from a 12-hour shift.
“I have five kids and a mortgage, and the situation is only going to get worse in the summer,” he says.
He explains he cannot work extra hours since another driver takes over after his shift finishes. But drivers who have the flexibility of their own cars are choosing to work during the rush hour to compensate for the loss, Al Mezel says.
The union is also lobbying city council to make changes. “We need solutions from the city,” he says. “We need more taxi stands outside of downtown, in places like shopping malls, to encourage people in suburban areas to take cabs,” he explains. “Also, cabs need to be allowed to use bus lanes. If they can use the lanes, people will know cabs are faster then driving themselves, and will use them.”
But Hanif Patni, president and CEO of Coventry Connections, which owns the Blue Line, Capital and DJ’s companies, doesn’t think drivers are experiencing any abnormal drop in business.
He admits business in Ottawa is slow now, but says profits always fall in the spring, due to school vacations like March Break and reading week.
He acknowledges drivers’ fears that it will fall further in the summer, but says business will increase in the longer term. As drinking and driving becomes less socially acceptable, people will start using more cabs, he says. “For example, the Zoe Childs case is in the courts. They want to make hosts responsible if guests drink and drive,” Patni explains.
But drivers aren’t seeing those increases yet.
Bahram Dehghany, a driver with Blueline, says he’s lost 20 per cent of his business since January.
He’s also angry because the change in the law meant more expensive downtown license plates were suddenly worth the same as cheaper suburban counterparts.
He says the value of his downtown plate decreased 15 per cent. “Gloucester plates were worth about half of downtown’s, but now, they’re equal in value,” he explains.
Patni considers that a fact of life in a growing city.
He says the new law is more environmentally friendly, because under the old system, drivers had to return to the suburbs with an empty car if they dropped off a passenger downtown.
Now the fuel is not wasted because that cab is being used for a fare, he explains.
He says the changes to make all of Ottawa one zone were only a matter of time. “Five years after amalgamation, we were still using old bylaws, and it was incredibly inefficient.”