The city should limit the number of drivers licensed to work for companies like Uber and Lyft to 80,429, a report to Toronto's executive committee recommends.
The proposal is to freeze the number of licensed ride-share drivers, which already sits at 80,429 in Toronto.
Drivers using accessible and zero-emission or wheelchair accessible vehicles would be exempt from the recommended cap.
The report was written by city manager Paul Johnson, and two other senior officials, Carleton Grant, the executive director of municipal licensing and standards and the city’s general manager of transportation services, Barbara Gray.
Under the proposed system, new licences could still be issued as drivers gave them up, keeping the city's quota at 80,429.
In the report, Johnson, Grant and Gray call the limit "a proactive measure to mitigate the risk of increasing traffic congestion and emissions, and impact on public transit use."
Between 40 and 60 per cent of people using vehicle-for-hire (VFH) services would use transit as a second choice, a survey cited in the report found.
Almost a quarter of a million trips are taken in vehicles for hire in Toronto every day, provided by 26,300 cars, a study found. These rideshares make up for just over 14 per cent of all vehicles in the downtown core.
In the past, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow has argued limiting the number of drivers would mean better wages for ones which were licensed, but that argument wasn't put forward in the staff report.
A city-commissioned analysis of driver wages in the VFH sector showed the average driver made $33.18 an hour when “engaged,” meaning from when they had a passenger in the car, up until the point of drop off. When accounting for all time logged into a rideshare platform, drivers made an average of $22.14 an hour in total earnings, including time when there is no passenger in the vehicle.
After expenses like insurance, repairs and fuel are accounted for, drivers on rideshare apps made $15.34 an hour when engaged and $5.97 an hour in total time spent on the platform.
Ontario's minimum wage is $17.20 an hour.
Researchers weren't able to come up with similar numbers for taxicab and limousine driver wages. They also found extreme generational differences between traditional taxi drivers and drivers for companies like Uber and Lyft, with the latter often younger.
A separate report on a survey of drivers found 59 per cent of VFH drivers and 50 per cent of taxi drivers made less than $15 an hour. Over one third of VFH drivers said they made less than $10 an hour. About two thirds said driving was their main source of income.
"Drivers repeatedly emphasized that they are not earning enough to financially sustain themselves as the cost of living rises," the researchers wrote.
"That’s not a living wage, and in the face of a mounting affordability crisis – we can and must do better," Mayor Chow said in a letter today to provincial Labour Minister David Piccini.
The provincial Bill 88, called the "Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act," mandates people with jobs like Uber and Lyft drivers should make at least the minimum wage during times when they have a “work assignment.”
The bill doesn't come into effect until July, and Chow urged Piccini to bring that into force earlier through regulation.
Chow said private transportation drivers are “hurting” in Toronto and across Ontario.
"We owe it to them as leaders to look for ways to improve their lives, to work together to find solutions that help lift people out of poverty and that reward hard work with good take home pay," she urged.
However, the staff report pointed to a downside of limiting driver numbers: the people who would be shut out.
"For those who are newcomers, and facing additional language, cultural or educational barriers, the low entry requirements, immediate availability of work, and flexible hours in the VFH industry make it a potential way to earn an income,” the report reads. “Limiting the number of licensed drivers in Toronto could restrict newcomer driver access to this income-earning opportunity."
As well, a restricted pool of drivers might focus on the downtown core, leaving the inner suburbs underserved, the report warned.
The report will go to the city’s executive committee on Dec. 10, and potentially from there to council on Dec. 17.
