Rideshare companies, taxis neck-and-neck in competition for Winnipeg trips

Many people in Winnipeg planned safe rides home from New Year's Eve celebrations last night, but the way they got there may have been different from years past.

The City of Winnipeg's latest update on the vehicles-for-hire industry, received by council in December, shows the landscape has shifted significantly in the last year.

Traditional taxis have seen their share of the market shrink significantly in the three years since the rideshare service Uber began operating in Winnipeg.

In 2022, taxis provided about two-thirds of all trips in the city, down from about 75 per centthe year before.

Personal transportation providers a category that mostly encompasses rideshare services, but also includes limousines continued to take a larger share of the market in 2023, reaching 48 per cent, while taxis accounted for 52 per cent.

The overall vehicles-for-hire market also appears headed for another record-breaking year, in terms of the total number of trips provided.

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In 2022, the industry provided 6.7 million rides, the highest on record, and an average of 557,000 rides per month. As of last August, the average number of rides in 2023 was 715,000 per month, "an average increase of 28.4 per cent trips per month over 2022," Winnipeg Parking Authority general manager Randy Topolniski wrote in the report.

The numbers show people's driving habits have shifted, says vehicles-for-hire manager Grant Heather.

"The cost of owning a vehicle can be extremely expensive for people, and in a world where there's rising inflation, people have to choose," he said.

Uber began operating in Winnipeg in the summer of 2020, two years after the Manitoba government transferred responsibility for regulating the vehicles-for-hire industry to the city.

Hart Macklin has driven vehicles for Uber ever since it launchedinWinnipeg.

"It was a very slow process, getting customers, that sort of thing, but it's getting better," he said.

That increase in the number of people taking rides has not necessarily translated into an increase in profits for Macklin, who says there are more drivers on the road now than ever before, increasing competition for customers.

The report notes that the average number of vehicles available in 2023 was 2,693, up from 1,784 in 2022. On average, there are 585 taxis, 2,050 rideshare vehiclesand 58 limousines on the road each month.

Despite the growth that Uber has experienced, Macklin says it's still not at the level he would expect.

"Most people who use Uber here in Winnipeg have used it in other cities when they travelled or they were from another city," he said.

CBC News requested comment form Duffy's Taxi and Unicity Taxi, the two largest taxi companies in Winnipeg, but did not receive a response.

Uber spokesperson Keerthana Rang said ridesharing and taxi companies "coexist" in cities across Canada.

"By giving residents more transportation options outside of private car ownership, we see the overall market expand for all players," Rang wrote in an email.

WATCH |Winnipeg's vehicle-for-hire market is shifting:

Winnipegs vehicle-for-hire market is shifting

10 months ago

Duration 1:44

A new report from city council shows taxis and rideshare services nearly at 50-50 in terms of usage in 2023.