Bradford taxi brokers say they are hesitant to increase their fares, despite new leeway recently provided by the town.
In light of the decision by council on June 20 to approve a recommendation from June 6 to eliminate the town’s taxi fare schedule and allow brokers to set their own rates at the time of licence renewal in March, BradfordToday reached out to local brokers for their reaction.
Addai Sarfo, also known as “Kasy” of BB Taxi, wasn’t sure how well the new approach would work and felt it would have been better for local brokers to work with the town to set a new rate.
“In the history of the taxi it’s always the municipality that works along with the taxi companies to determine the rate, so I don’t know how it’s going to work because at the end of the day, we still have to bring it to the town to approve it,” he said.
Sarfo also had concerns about town staff denying proposed rates, but Brent Lee, the town’s director of corporate services, clarified the approval process is less about the amounts and more to ensure fares are being charged in a consistent structured manner and to allow the town to verify what customers are charged.
“I can’t foresee an instance in which proposed fares would be denied,” he said via email.
Sarfo is debating a modest increase in his base rate from the current $3.50 to perhaps $3.55 or $3.75 to help make up for the increased costs he cited including inflation, fuel prices and increases to the town’s fees for brokers while cab fares remained frozen for the last eight years.
Still, he hasn’t made any decision yet.
“We live to see how things can change, because who knows about tomorrow? We’ll see how it goes,” he said.
One factor will be how other brokers respond, and what changes, if any, they decide to make to their rates — a situation he described as being “like the survival of the fittest.”
Kamaljit Jhandi of Singh Taxi said they have no current plans to increase fares, and thanks to their small size and reliable customer base, they haven’t been as impacted by increased costs.
“We have only two cabs that me and my husband drive, and we are always busy so it didn’t affect us. We have regular clients and they keep us busy,” she said.
Still, she cautioned that the future is unpredictable.
“Who knows what’s going to happen by next March?” she said.
Ryan Bender of Town Taxi said he thought council’s decision was a welcome change and while nothing is certain yet, he thinks the company will be entertaining the idea of a rate increase in future.
“Although I can’t commit to saying ‘yeah, we’re going to raise prices,’ because we don’t want to lose business to Uber or the other competitors in town, it’s certainly something I think every taxi company needs to take a good strong look at,” he said.
Increased fuel cost, almost double the maintenance costs and insurance increases of 30 to 40 per cent over the last few years have all hit the company hard while rates remained frozen, according to Bender, leading to Town Taxi reducing its fleet from 14 to six vehicles.
“We want to get those other vehicles back on the road, but it’s just not economically viable with the rates we’re charging and the amount of business that we’re currently getting. We’re paying more for six vehicles on our insurance than we did for 14 vehicles eight years ago,” he said.
Bender is hoping the flexibility that comes with the new rate system will allow them to handle the natural fluctuations of the market without having to go back to council each time a rate change is needed.
“It’s like any other business. If you look at a convenience store, if their costs go up, then obviously they’re going to pass some of that along to the consumer, and they’re still going to price themselves accordingly. We’re going to have to maintain a proper pricing strategy, but ... we’re going to allow ourselves to be in a position of profitability,” he said.
More important than letting brokers set their own rates, Sarfo feels the town should be doing something to regulate ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft, which he estimates have caused BB Taxi to lose about 50 per cent of their business, not just from fares, but also from food and grocery deliveries which the cab service used to offer, but for which many people now use Uber Eats, Skip the Dishes or online grocery delivery.
“Uber is running around and the town of Bradford is doing nothing about it. Why? Because Toronto did the same thing. If Toronto did the same thing, that is their problem, but that is not the problem for us in Bradford, and the town is not doing anything about it,” Sarfo said.
While he accepts that businesses evolve and everyone needs a job in order to afford to eat, he thinks ride-sharing drivers should be required to register with the town similar to how taxi drivers are required.
“All I’m saying is, there are some of these red lines that the town should be dealing with. Why would they also work here and they wouldn’t need to identify themselves to the town?” Sarfo said.
Lee confirmed that the town does not currently license or regulate ride-sharing services and that within his recent memory, there have been no reports from staff to council regarding the matter.
“Generally speaking, the purpose for which the town would regulate ride sharing is consumer protection (i.e. over charging, safety concerns, mechanical concerns, customer service). BWG has not received any recent concerns from the public respecting ride sharing services,” he said.
Sarfo also took issue with ride-sharing drivers operating across municipal boundaries, while taxi drivers feel limited to the municipality in which they are registered or else risk facing fines.
“It’s like the taxi is an easy target, which to me is wrong,” Sarfo said.
