Jerry McCallum is the General Manager and President of Deluxe Central Taxi Association (Ross Lavigne/ CHATNewsToday)

By Tiffany Goodwein

Taxi industry critical of vehicle for hire bylaw

Jun 16, 2020 | 3:24 PM

MEDICINE HAT — A local taxi company is speaking out following a proposed bylaw that is currently before city council.

Last night, council voted to give the first two readings of the new vehicle for hire bylaw. The city says the bylaw would level the playing field and open the door to ridesharing in the city.

Jerry McCallum is the general manager and president of the Deluxe Central Taxi Association.

“I don’t see it really leveling the playing field as per say. With the ridesharing companies a lot of the money you are charged for your fare leaves the local community, whereas we at Deluxe Central, we have been here for 76 years now in business supporting local business, the money stays here in the Hat when we provide this service, ” he said.

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The Vehicle For Hire bylaw also aims to allow cab companies the ability to modernize their technologies with digital meters and payment systems, but McCallum said those technologies are something his company is already equipped with.

“We’ve actually been in the modernization process for quite some time now. We went to digital dispatching about seven years ago almost, plus we take digital payments, we do offer things like NFC payments through Google Pay in some of our cars,” Mccallum said, adding the company also has an app for people to order and track their cabs.

“We’ve already been quite modernized and I don’t think council understands where we are at in terms of the modernization,” he said.

Another component of the vehicle for hire bylaw is the issuance of temporary licences during peak seasons such as Christmas and New Years, but Mccallum said logistics come into question.

“That’s all well and good, but a lot of the owners of the cabs, we are only allowed to own so many cars, so we are not out there with a whole bunch of extra cars sitting on the sidelines waiting for the opportunity to go to work during peak times,” McCallum said.

When asked about how government can better support cab drivers Mccallum said reducing licensing fees is a good step.

“Those costs are extremely high. The cost to insure a single vehicle as a first time cab owner you are looking at almost $5000 a year and that’s only for your PLPD, that doesn’t include special cargo coverage or any extra coverage that you might want to have in the event of something happening,” he said.

Council is expected to vote on third reading of the new bylaw at their next council meeting.