British Columbia taxi industry modernizing with ICBC help
The West Coast is always slightly behind the East from a time standpoint, but for a while now, there's been another notable area in which its been lagging behind its central, prairie, and Atlantic counterparts: ridesharing. For various reasons, the British Columbia government has been slow to allow its residents ridesharing privileges, despite the service becoming a staple of municipalities in the majority of Canada and the United States.
But that's about to change. It was announced yesterday by BC's Minister of Transportation Todd Stone that the province will be going ahead with the implementation of ridesharing while also ensuring that certain improvements take place that will benefit the taxi industry and smooth the transition. In waiting as long as it has, the BC government believes it has been able to better ensure that it is going ahead with this development in a manner that gives taxi companies a level playing field against non-traditional alternatives like Uber and Lyft.
One organization that has been crucial to this process is the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC). According to a statement, the ICBC "is committed to working with the industry to improve their insurance to make it more flexible and cost effective, which could save taxi drivers significantly." Early estimates project that these savings could be in the ballpark of 25 per cent. Moreover, the ICBC has pledged to invest up to $3.5 million into the taxi industry in order to install crash avoidance technology in all B.C. taxis.
Other notable pieces of information regarding the decision included: confirmation that the province will assist with the creation of app-based technology for the services, a promise to reduce red tape and overlap within the system for the taxi industry, protections for exclusive street hailing for taxis, more flexibility on pick-up/drop-off boundaries, and increases to the fleet of available vehicles.