City makes recommendations to Council following livery fee review

Council is recommending a review of the Livery Transport Bylaw be accelerated to ensure appropriate and fair regulation of the evolving industry.

The City of Calgary presented the results of the Livery Fee Review to Council today and recommended the bylaw review be moved ahead of schedule before any changes are made to livery licence fees.

In April 2018, City Council directed Administration to complete a review of the fee structure in the Livery Transport Bylaw as a follow-up to the Transportation Network Company (TNC) one-year combined licence fee pilot.During the pilot, Administration conducted industry engagement and heard overwhelming support for a full analysis of City costs associated with each industry sector. Based on this feedback, Council directed a review of the fee structure to ensure fees paid by each participant is proportional to the administration and enforcement costs associated with licensing and regulating the industry. Council also directed The City to look into training for rideshare drivers, similar to that required by taxi drivers.

An independent contractor, Summit72 Capital Advisory Services, was hired to complete the review. Its findings were posted on Calgary.ca.

“When we conducted engagement sessions with industry members on the pilot, they told us they believed the fees were not equitable across the industry,” says Abdul Rafih, Chief Livery Inspector for The City’s community standards business unit. “The Summit72 review focused on distributing the fees in a more equitable way for all industry sectors based on the regulations in the current bylaw.”

While The City offered several options for Council’s consideration, it is recommending any new fee structure be put on hold until a full bylaw review is completed. Rafih says this is the best way to ensure true equity across the entire industry.

“The fee review and the engagement we did with industry members both provided important information that led us to this recommendation,” said Rafih. “The fee schedule calculated by Summit72 can be incorporated into a revised bylaw.”

Rafih says The City received a lot of industry support during engagement for implementing driver training for all drivers in the industry. He says The City would work with industry to develop a program, adding that training would most likely be delivered online and current licensed drivers would be exempt. Training would focus on regulations drivers are expected to follow under the bylaw.

To read the complete report, visit Calgary.ca.