Council gives Hamilton taxi industry more time to pay fees

A plea from Hamilton's taxi industry for a break - or at least deferral - of fees has found a sympathetic ear in city council.

Cabbies have weathered competition from ride-hailing companies like Uber and earlier this year got whacked" with spiked insurance premiums, Coun. Tom Jackson said Wednesday.

Then the pandemic hit," Jackson said, grinding to a halt" their business. And they're doing their darndest to recover to some degree."

Following his lead, council backed a request from taxi company Blue Line to further defer collection of fees from Sept. 30 to Dec. 31 and asked staff to explore other relief measures.

In a letter to council, Blue Line president Anthony Rizzuto wrote his company was operating at about 60 per cent of its normal" fleet size with demand similarly reduced since coronavirus hit.

The pandemic has created a long-term shift in operations and consumer behaviour," Rizzuto said.

Of immediate concern is a $661 annual renewal fee for taxi plate owners, he said some weren't able to pay due to the drop in fares.

Licensing director Ken Leendertse told The Spectator this week the owners of about 50 plates haven't paid their fees. There are 471 plates in Hamilton.

The city wants owners who don't pay their plate fees to relinquish them so Leendertse's department can reissue them to people on a wait list willing to pay $4,500 to take them over.

Some taxi plate owners are retired cabbies who lease them to drivers, who, in turn, lease them to others. But during the pandemic, owners haven't collected payments, Rizzuto said.

Plates also change hands privately, but their market value has dropped from roughly $200,000 several years ago to about $25,000 more recently.

During Wednesday's meeting, Jackson said he hoped city staff and taxi industry representatives could huddle" to come up with solutions.

But he added waiving of any fees is probably a non-starter," a sentiment Coun. Brad Clark echoed, noting the city hasn't forgiven the fees of other business licences. We didn't create this situation," Clark said about escalated insurance rates.

As well as breathing room to Dec. 31 to head off the accidental abandonment" of taxi plates, Rizzuto also proposed a 15 per cent deposit to allow owners to retain them until they could pay the full freight.

Teviah Moro is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: tmoro@thespec.com