Metro Vancouver green-lights single, regional ride-hailing licence

Metro Vancouver’s TransLink Mayors’ Council has passed a motion to fast-track a regional business model for ride-hailing companies.

Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum was the sole dissenting vote.

McCallum said he opposed the motion because a large majority of Surrey residents oppose ride-hailing.

“I have been out in the community,” said McCallum. “We ran a campaign about a year ago, we had many many interviews or talks with our residents.”

1:50 Tri-Cities establishes one ride-sharing licence

The council will now create a working group tasked with hammering out the details of a region-wide business licence for ride-hailing companies, including what they would pay as a licensing fee.

The goal is to have the licensing regime in place by the end of next year.

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Under provincial regulations, individual municipalities have the authority to regulate business licences for ride-hailing companies.

1:56 New obstacle to ridesharing in Vancouver

That has created a fractured regulatory scheme.

The Tri-Cities created a three-municipality licence with a single per-fleet fee. That’s compared to the City of Vancouver, which is charging a fee of $100 per vehicle, and the City of Burnaby which implemented a $510 per-vehicle fee.

Industry advocates say they worry the complex and costly system will discourage ride-hailing companies and drivers from stepping forward to provide service.

It remains unclear when the first ride-hailing vehicles will actually get on the road.

More to come…