Ride-hailing is hurting taxi business in Calgary

Data gathered by the city shows ride-hailing services like Uber are gaining a significant foothold in the Calgary market and some of that is likely coming at the expense of taxi companies.

In May, there were 158,355 trips taken with ride-hailing companies. The city calls them 'transportation network companies,' or TNCs.

That's up from 66,181 trips last December.

That was the monthride-hailing giant Uber started operating in Calgary but several smaller TNCs had been around for a few months before then.

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For taxis, the picture is one of contraction.

In May, 525,070 taxi trips were reported. That's down from 571,428 over the same month in 2016 and down from 675,747 in May 2014.

In fact, it was the lowest monthly total for taxi trips since February 2016.

Trips being taken from taxis

A business analyst with the city's Livery Transport Advisory Committee, Marcia Andreychuk, said other cities found the arrival of TNCs meant more than just former taxi users switching to ride-hailing.

"Not all of those trips are being taken from the taxi market. Many of those trips are new trips," said Andreychuk.

"Some of those trips clearly are being taken from the taxi market. But some of those trips too may be taken from the Calgary Transit market as well."

While the May taxi trip numbers are the lowest so far this year, she said it's not possible to say if the trend will continue, both as the year goes on and as the economy is expected to improve.

"It's really too early to say what holds for the taxi industry going forward. We'll be monitoring this very closely going forward," said Andreychuk.

Taxi company planning for the future

The owner of Checker Cabs says their business is down 10 or 11 per cent. But Kurt Enders isn't sure it's all because of Uber and other TNCs cutting into their business.

"We're trying to figure out how much of that is the economy, how much of that is from the effect of TNCs so we're trying to figure out what is the real impact on the industry or for Checker itself," he said.

But don't expect one of the biggest taxi companies in Calgary to just throw in the towel.

"We're here for the long haul and we will survive and we've got some exciting things coming up the pipeline that are going to help attract people back to the taxi industry," said Enders.