OrilliaMatters received the following letter to the editor from Brolin Devine about the problems people encounter trying to obtain a taxi in Orillia and the debate around Uber.
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Taxi companies in Orillia have very little accountability.
Sure, they obviously have to operate within the law. We saw this last June when John Beck, owner of Able Taxi, was found guilty of two counts of failing to ensure a taxi meter was adjusted to the prescribed tariff. (Click here to read the article)
John Beck is also one of the people in our city who has spoken up publicly against the implementation of Uber in Orillia. I wonder why?
There are so many good reasons that we should allow Uber into Orillia, but off the top I’m going to focus on the biggest, most important reason: Accountability.
Whenever I have to take a taxi in Orillia it is an anxiety-inducing affair. Some drivers are lovely, some are rude, miserable people and you have absolutely no idea who will be driving you.
That’s why Uber allows the passenger to rate the driver out of five stars and allows the driver to rate the passenger as well. If somebody is rated poorly several times, that person will have trouble being assigned rides and it will hurt their income.
If the taxi company had a similar rating system then there would be several drivers I’ve encountered that I would hopefully not be encountering again.
Car cleanliness is also part of what might sway your five-star rating down to a two or ome star. Have you ever sat in a cab that you were afraid to touch the seats or to breath the air? How nice would it be to exit that dirty car, finally be able to stop holding your breath, and rate that car accordingly?
Accountability is the biggest difference between the unratable cab driver and the five-star Uber driver that picks you up.
On a side note, when I do a quick Google search, I see that the Google rating for Able taxi is 2.5/5 stars (60 reviews). Orillia Taxi Service has a 1.6/5 but admittedly that’s only out of seven reviews. All Canadian Taxi has the highest rating with 3.4/5 out of 17 reviews. A 68% is the best we are doing right now.
The Uber vs.Taxi debate always feels like a debate between people who are against Uber vs. people who actually take taxis. You don’t have to try very hard in Orillia to find countless stories about people waiting two to three hours in Orillia for a taxi. It’s extremely common.
People trying to make it to work on time. People trying to come home from the hospital, old ladies like my grandma who just want to buy groceries.
If you’re curious, talk to almost any bartender or staff at a restaurant. They have to call taxis for patrons all the time. They see people waiting longer than it probably would have taken the person just to hobble home.
Uber would also mean more drivers. It’s no secret that cab companies have a hard time finding people who want to work for them. I was told this by one of the Orillia taxi drivers.
People seem happier to work for a company like Uber because they’re able to choose their own hours. If they want to they can work full-time hours, they can work very casually around another job or during their retirement.
Uber is usually painted as some corporation that will shut down these small independent taxi companies. Uber in Orillia could actually mean more possible income for more people.
Taxi companies can also strike a deal in most cities to have taxis included in the Uber app. I read that they just have to pay approximately a dollar per ride to Uber. This would allow them to benefit from the same accountability and safety features that are built into the Uber app.
Which brings me to my next argument for Uber: Safety. It’s public knowledge that both Uber and taxi companies in North America have a history of assaults and abuses.
But Uber has been accountable to that. The Uber app is constantly made safer for vulnerable consumers. They’ve strengthened background checks. They’ve added a panic button you can press. The panic button would be very effective since the Uber app knows your exact location.
Taxi or Uber: Neither option is entirely risk-free, but Uber has definitely stepped up its safety game in the last year.
There seems to be a common theme in the ongoing narrative of this town: A fear of change and an unwillingness to accept the inevitable.
A petition is going around that was created by Jenn Harvey. It makes sense because Jenn is the general manager of a bar downtown and as I said earlier, restaurant and bar staff are in the know when it comes to how awful the Orillia taxi service is.
Unfortunately, the only ones who can make a decision are our city council members and there are many who are not for Uber. I would love if everybody who signed the petition went here and emailed the councillors of this city.
A petition is a good start. I signed it myself. But a petition appears to them as a single problem. If we all email them then it appears to them as many.
I think every councillor, before they make up their mind on this issue, should have to travel by an Orillia taxi to everywhere they need to go in the span of a two week period. Work, appointments, groceries. They’d have to remain anonymous as not to garner priority.
Do this first and then vote on whether or not to allow Uber into Orillia. I’m extremely confident about how this will go.
Brolin Devine
Orillia
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