Lots of coverage of the legislative committee’s report on ride-hailing:
But this recommendation shouldn’t be missed:
The Committee recommends to the Legislative Assembly that the provincial government:
13. Require transportation network companies to provide data to government for monitoring purposes, including but not limited to: wait times; trip lengths; trip start and end locations; trip start and end times; accessible vehicle trip statistics; trip refusals; trip fares; drivers’ hours and earnings; driver and passenger demographics; and consider extending this requirement to the taxi industry.
It is critical that this data-provision requirement be put in place before the arrival of ‘Transportation Network Companies’ like Uber. They argue, after all, that they are not actually transportation companies, but instead the providers of apps, marketing, branding and information to independent contractors. Their product is in fact their data. Of course they would want to keep it proprietorial.
That in turn means power – power to control and manage part if not eventually all of the transportation system. If the public sector does not establish who is actually running the show – and has the information it needs to do so – then the power shifts to the TNCs and we are entering a very different world. And not a nice one.
I’m glad it’s referred to here as ride-hailing, it’s annoying when people refer to this commercial transaction as ride-sharing. Nothing is being shared, it’s being bought!