Ontario Stops Sharing
No More Ride Sharing
Bus firm wins against Pickup Pal
An Ontario bus company has convinced the transport board that ride-sharing companies — such as Pickup Pal — operate illegally.
Pickup Pal matches up people who are heading to the same destination.
John Stewart, CEO of Pickup Pal, said the goal of the concept is to reduce greenhouse gases and air pollution by getting more cars off the road.
In Ontario the only way you can ride with someone is if you meet ALL of the following extremely impractical set of specific criteria:
-You must travel from home to work only
-You cannot cross municipal boundaries – (Live outside the city and drive in – sorry you cannot share the ride with your neighbour)
-You must ride with the same driver each day
-You must pay the driver no more frequently than weekly
PickupPal was charged and fined for facilitating a ride from Toronto to Montreal for $60. The crime – a PickupPal member crossed municipal boundaries. They were fined $11,336.07.
Trentway-Wagar, the local bus company, says its beef was simply that it is unfair they have to meet labor, environmental, and equipment standards to haul passengers around when services like PickupPal can arrange rides without doing any of that.
The issue is not only that PickupPal’s site allows drivers and passengers to connect for carpooling. While it is up to the users to determine compensation, apparently the site “does nothing to check on insurance, roadworthiness of the vehicles, driving history, or anything else.”
This worried the Highway Transport Board most.
Good thing they are looking out for the folks.
photo credit: joeventures
November 12th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
[...] Trentway-Wagar, the local bus company, says its beef was simply that it is unfair they have to meet labor, environmental , and equipment standards to haul passengers around when services like PickupPal can arrange rides without doing any … Original post [...]
November 13th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Which crybaby bus company is this? WAH WAH WAH, BOO HOO.
They need to give their head a shake. My neighbour and I carpool all the time. It saves us both money, we are both going in the same direction and we have the luxury of detouring if we see the need. IE Tim Hortons Coffee in the morning. Most importantly neither of us has to get on a bus at an inconvenient time and inconvenient place and sit on an uncomfortable seat on a bus that takes an unneccesary amount of time to get to where “I” or “HE” wants to go.