Uber or Lyft

Idea:

I know this is not the right place to talk about Uber but, the taxi service is not good in Fredericton. We should have Uber or Lyft. Or the public transport could be more reliable. We have to wait for 1 hour to get home in the cold weather. There’s no place for sitting around kings place mall .

Staff Feedback:

Thanks for your Big Idea! As the result of a citizen survey and stakeholder engagement process, in late 2019 and early 2020 a number of improvements were made - taxi companies operating on electronic booking platforms, changes to the taxi Bylaw, elimination of fees for drivers to make it easier to attract people to the position, a new class of driver’s license, among others. In addition, in early 2020 the City passed a Vehicle for Hire Bylaw allowing for companies like Uber or Lyft to operate, and are still the only community in Eastern Canada with that kind of Bylaw. Unfortunately, for most of the last 24 months the pandemic has drastically impacted the taxi business and their ability to remain viable. For much of the pandemic the overall taxi fleet in the City has been reduced by as much as 70%, and very little interest from ride sharing companies in expanding to Fredericton.

Although we wouldn’t expect to see an immediate improvement, we’re optimistic we’ll see a gradual return to life as it was before the pandemic, with taxi companies able to return to the fleet size they’ve operated in the past and very optimistic we’ll see interest in ride sharing companies operating in Fredericton.