In the category of Municipal Implementation of
Legislation (Population 20,000 or more)
City of Toronto – Vehicle-for-Hire
Legislation & Technology
an example of the productivity gains of
this automation, processing of nearly
40,000 PTC driver’s licences generating
$600,000 in revenue has been reduced
to seconds per licence from hours.
Over 99 per cent of licences are issued
automatically.
This legislation also introduces
a new revenue source (estimated at
$500,000/month or $6M annually) for
the City through digital processing of
PTC-related trip fees.
Key Objectives
The key business objectives for this
Vehicle-for-Hire legislation were:
■ License
private transportation
companies, such as Uber and their
drivers
The City of Toronto’s new Vehicle-for-
Hire (VfH) legislation was approved
by City Council at its May 3, 2016
meeting through the adoption of
104 recommendations, concluding a
two-year ground transportation review
undertaken by the Municipal Licens-
ing & Standards Division.
This represented a landmark
policy change for the City’s ground
transportation industry, establishing
a new business model for both the
existing taxi industry and new private
transportation industry. The new
Vehicle-for-Hire legislation establishes
new standards for taxi operation
and legalizes private transportation
companies (PTCs), such as Uber and
their drivers.
The City has earmarked this
legislation as a significant regulatory
and business transformation initiative.
This included the enablement of
delivery of the first business licences
through a 100 per cent digital process.
Through the implementation of
automated solutions for Vehicle-for-
Hire licensing, the City was able to
provide exceptional customer service to
the business clients and partners while
achieving substantial cost savings. As
■ Establish
consistent and equitable
regulatory requirements between
PTCs and established transportation
companies (taxi, limo)
■ Implementation
of an electronic
process to facilitate the licensing
requirements
Based on the new legislative
requirements, the technical solution
had to address the following
requirements:
■ I mplement
business
system
functionality in an incremental,
just-in-time agile approach to
manage the scope of system
changes required
■ Secure
FTP setup was required to
enable the automated processing
of digital files between the City
and the PTC and other integrated
partners (MTO)
■ A new SAP-based BI solution had to
be implemented to facilitate analysis
of compliance, transportation
activity and automated billing to
the PTCs for trip fees.
■ F ully
automated
data-based
processing (including intake,
validation and issuance) of
electronic PTC driver applications
was required for ML&S to manage
the volume of applications in a timely
manner. Only exception records
require ML&S staff intervention
to determine whether or not PTC
driver’s licences will be issued.
Vanessa Fletcher, Manager of Policy & Planning, Municipal Licensing & Standards, City of
Toronto (l), accepts the E.A. Danby Award from AMCTO President Steph Palmateer, AMCT.
Municipal Monitor
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