Unrestricted Growth of Ride-Hailing Companies Threatens Sustainable Recovery

No more special rules for gig platforms like Uber/Lyft, says coalition

TORONTO, Dec. 9, 2020 /CNW/ - Today, RideFair Toronto launches a broad coalition effort to stop a race to the bottom initiated by Silicon Valley-based gig platforms like Uber and Lyft. After a few rounds of deregulation, the coalition says enough is enough and calls for fair rules, so gig platforms work in, not against, the public interest. Taking a sober look at Uber and Lyft at this time is crucial if we value an economic recovery that works for everyone.

"If we don't take action, ride-hailing emissions could double in the next five years to over 350,000 tonnes per year. That's about 8% of Toronto's current emissions from all passenger vehicles. We need to make sure we're not building a future with even more polluting cars on the road," says Sarah Buchanan, Program Manager, Ontario Climate at Environmental Defence.

Ride-hailing companies put forward a public image that masks a very different reality.

"Uber provides a cheap consumer option because it avoids the true costs of running a business. It outsources costs, evades taxes and avoids accountability for the subpar jobs it produces," says Tom Slee, a Waterloo-based tech professional and author of What's Yours is Mine. Against the Sharing Economy. "And as we learned in California, it spends hundreds of millions to keep it that way. Even so, Uber is losing money. Each and every ride is subsidised, in a way that is not sustainable."

Despite running money-losing enterprises, Uber and Lyft have been able to reshape Toronto's policy environment in ways that benefit its bottom line and undermine a range of important City policy objectives with regards to emissions, congestion, transit, health and safety – at record speed. 

"Since 2014, ride-hailing giants like Uber have lobbied hard and heartlessly against any legislation or regulation that does not support their business model – even if that might compromise safety, the environment, public transit and traffic flow and decimate the livelihood of thousands of drivers," says Cheryl Hawkes, a ride-hailing safety advocate and RideFair Toronto supporter. 

Ride-hailing drivers are quick to point out how difficult it has become to earn a living. 

"The problem is there is not enough work and drivers can't survive. We want to work and are simply asking that we be paid fairly for it," says Earla Phillips, an Uber and Lyft driver. 

RideFair Toronto will soon release its first research report to estimate the impact that this unrestricted growth has had on a number of the City of Toronto's key policy objectives.

SOURCE RideFair coalition

Thorben Wieditz at 647-409-8997 or [email protected]