Jiffy Cabs owner 'pretty upset' as St. John's opens door for Uber, other ride-hailing apps

One of the last remaining cab companies in St. John's is worried what will happen to its business if Uberis allowed to setup shop in the city.

Chris Hollett, owner of Jiffy Cabs, says he was blindsided by Mayor Danny Breen's comments last week about changing city bylaws to pave the way for ride-hailing apps to operate in St. John's.

Hollett said the city had told taxi companies they were researching the possibility, but Breen said last week they were actively looking to change the rules, which are currently a barrier to entry for companies like Uber.

"I imagined we would have been involved," Hollett said of the process. "Theytold us explicitly they would [involve taxi companies]."

St. John's has been dealing with a taxi shortage for several years, and it has worsened during the pandemic. Hollett said hiscosts have gone up 350 per cent over the last 10 years, driven largely by rising insurance rates.

Local taxi companies had asked the province to make changes to the insurance industry, which would allow a driver'sinsurance rates to be based on their own personal driving records and not be affected by the industry as a whole. A review of the auto insurance industry in 2019 fell short of including those changes, or a cap on claims for minor injuries both of which were sore points for the taxi industry, Hollett said.

Hollett said he's even more upset to now see the city and provincial governments making changes to allow competitors to enter the space.

"The city is going to come in and change the rules instead of trying to help the taxi industry," he said."They're basically going to take our share of the market and give it out to Uber, we'll say, a multinational corporation who doesn't give back to the communities like I do. And there's going to be a lot of full-time taxi drivers who are going to be upset if that is the case."

What's changing?

Ubertold CBC/Radio-Canada in Januarythe company wasn't interested in entering the St. John's market due to two pieces of legislation the City of St. John's Act and the provincial Highway Traffic Act.

Those laws would require Uber to register as a taxi company and its drivers would have to be licensed as taxi driversand be subject to all the same tests and inspections as local drivers and companies.

That's a problem for Uber, which said in January that"several aspects of these pieces of legislation are incompatible with this newer transportation model and would need to be amended to permitridesharing in the province."

Breen told reporters last week Uber hadn't expressed an interest in St. John's because of those rulesbut the city is looking to change that.

"We want to make sure we have our bylaws ready and we're in sync with the province on how to regulate that industry," he said."So we're working on what bylaws and what changes we need to make in the event that they do approach about coming here."

Breen also told VOCM'sOpen Linethat he was in Toronto this month to meet with representatives of Uber.

A spokesperson for Uber Canada said the company is working on a response to the CBC's inquiries about their current interest in the province.

'I've done my best'

Chris Hollett is worried what Uber's entrance would mean for his company, which was founded by his late father, Tom Hollett.

"It's going to be substantial," he said."We're going to lose cars off the road. We're going to lose drivers from my roster. We've spoken to other jurisdictions and what they've done. It's an ugly sight. It really is."

He said the company has done its best to weather a series of challenges in recent years from spiking insurance costs to surviving the COVID-19 pandemic.

Breen's comments on the city's position also comes just as Jiffy Cabs was preparing to launch a new mobile app, with which users can book rides and see when their cab is approaching. Hollett said it's expected to launch next week.

"I've done my best to service the people in St. John's," he said.

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