Vancouver extends moratorium on new taxi licenses

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – If you thought finding a cab during the holidays last year was a pain, it probably won’t be any better this year.

Vancouver city council has voted to extend the moratorium on new taxi licenses until October 2017. Councillor Geoff Meggs says this is partly because of an ongoing “deadlock” over suburban taxi licenses.

“The Passenger Transportation Board said they won’t allow us to add any more service in Vancouver until we agree to suburban taxis coming in,” he explains. “We think there are really compelling reasons not to do that.”

But the decision also comes at a time when the future of ride-sharing services in BC is still being decided. A province-wide review of ride-sharing and taxi services began back in January, but final results aren’t expected until after the May 2017 election.

“There’s no point in sending taxis out there to go out of business if you’re going to bring in ride-sharing,” Meggs argues. “We all agree there should be expansion of service, but until we understand where the province is headed with ride-sharing… it just seemed futile to go ahead with piecemeal changes.”

Once the province’s report is released, Meggs says it won’t be difficult for council to lift the moratorium on new taxi licences.

Ride-sharing giant Uber weighed in following today’s council vote, saying in a statement “Vancouverites are clearly underserved” and “people deserve access to more reliable transportation options in the city, including more taxis.”

In 2015, the city granted 58 temporary taxi licenses for the holiday season. Meggs expects something similar to happen this year.

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