Taxi drivers, Surrey business leaders call on province to 'level playing field'

The Surrey Board of Trade and the taxi industry are calling on the B.C. transportation minister to level the playing field for taxi drivers across the Lower Mainland.

The group held a news conference Tuesday morning to release a petition asking the province to remove what it calls "red tape" it said isharming the livelihoods of drivers suffering under "archaic taxi boundaries."

The taxi industry has complained ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft, which havebeen recently approved for operation in Metro Vancouver, face fewer restrictions on where and how drivers can travel.

Deadheading practice is punitive

Currently, the province has its own ride-hailing business licence modelin place, which allowsdrivers that pick up passengers in the City of Vancouver to drop them off in neighbouring cities without having to apply for licences in each area.

Surrey's business and industry leaderssay provincial laws regulatingmore than two thousand taxis across the region force drivers into situations that are both inefficientand punitive.

"Allow taxis in Metro Vancouver to pick up and drop off anywhere in the Lower Mainland to serve the public better," said Surrey Board of Trade CEO Anita Huberman.

At the heart of the petition is a regulation the group says forces drivers toreturn in empty cabs after dropping off passengers in neighbouring municipalities.

The online petition says the so-called deadheading regulation is aninefficient use of taxi fleets, increasescongestion and greenhouse gas emissionsand leads to higher costs and longer wait-times for passengers.