Huntsville, we need to have an honest conversation | Letters

We’ve proudly operated in Huntsville for nearly four years.

It hasn’t been easy. Huntsville has extremely dynamic demand. Some nights there is almost no activity. Shift changes create intense spikes. Summer demand reaches levels that are hard to describe unless you’ve seen it firsthand.

We’ve adapted. We’ve invested. We’ve stayed.

First, let’s be very clear about something important:

We have zero issue with Bill Jr. and his team at Al’s Taxi. They have never crossed a line with us, and we have never crossed one with them. In fact, when we’re overwhelmed, we redirect customers to them as a Plan B. Competition can exist respectfully, and with them, it has.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case across the board.

Over the past few years, five of our windshields have been smashed. We’ve had damage to fenders, a hood, and a trunk lid. Recently, Shawn Boullion was found guilty not only in relation to one of those incidents, but also guilty on multiple counts of criminal harassment and breach of conditions involving stalking and intimidating our drivers. The judge described it as a clear attempt to intimidate another business from operating.

Through all of this, we stayed focused on working constructively with the Town.

We have successfully helped shape fair bylaws in other markets across Canada. In Peterborough, our hometown, where we now complete over 1,400 fares a day, the end result has actually left taxi companies happier because the rules are clear and applied evenly.

Huntsville’s bylaw, however, has been rewritten multiple times since our arrival.

Now we arrive at our biggest concern.

In every market we operate, and frankly almost everywhere in Canada, there are two distinct bylaws:

• A Taxi bylaw

• A TNC (rideshare) bylaw

We are governed differently. We are insured differently, at significantly higher rates. We operate differently. The purpose of having separate bylaws is to eliminate redundancy and conflict, not to advantage one over the other.

Here is where Huntsville’s approach creates a serious imbalance.

The Town charges licensing fees per vehicle.

In addition to Town fees, we must obtain:

• Annual vehicle safeties

• Vulnerable sector checks

• Background checks

• Driver abstracts

In Huntsville, the total cost works out to roughly $500 per driver annually once everything is included. Across our other markets, the average is closer to $200 per driver.

The difference goes directly to the Town.

If the Town wants to charge higher fees, that is their right. That is not the core issue.

The issue is that rideshare licensing is being calculated per car, not per active vehicle on the road at one time, and not per driver.

Here’s why that matters.

A taxi company can license five vehicles and rotate 30 drivers through those five cars 24/7. Under the current bylaw, if they replace one of those five vehicles, they are not charged again so long as they stay within that total number.

Under the current structure, if we want five cars operating at the same time during a peak period, we may need 25 to 30 licensed drivers to cover casual shifts, seasonal demand, and availability. We are charged per vehicle per driver combination. The Town charges $260 per vehicle plus safety requirements.

That means our effective cost structure can be six times higher than a competitor performing the same service at the same time in the same town.

The Town staff still reviews and vets the same number of drivers. The enforcement effort is the same. Yet the cost burden is dramatically different.

We have proposed simple solutions:

• Base licensing on the number of vehicles operating at one time

• Base it on hours in service

• Or most logically, base it on number of drivers rather than number of cars

If safety is the objective, enforcement should focus on drivers, not metal and tires.

Here’s the real-world impact.

Between 3:00 and 4:00 pm, when schools let out, demand spikes. We run permanent discounts to places like Huntsville High School and The Door Youth Centre because preventing drinking and driving and ensuring safe youth transportation matters to us.

Rideshare works by allowing casual drivers to step in during demand spikes, summer events, holiday parties, Hidden Valley weekends, playoff nights.

But we cannot onboard 5 to 10 hour-per-week drivers at a cost of roughly $500 per year per person and expect that model to survive. It becomes financially impossible.

We are trying to make rideshare viable in Huntsville because this is home. As someone born and raised here, nothing made me prouder than bringing this service back to the community.

We believe safe, clean, modern vehicles at fair prices benefit residents, visitors, events, and overall road safety.

Right now, it feels like the current structure makes that increasingly difficult.

So we are asking the community directly:

Are we being unreasonable?

Should we simply absorb a system that treats us differently, or is it fair to expect equal treatment alongside other services and alongside how other Canadian municipalities successfully regulate rideshare?

We welcome honest feedback. The good, the bad, and everything in between.

Let’s have a real conversation.

Rob Davidson,

COO & Co-Founder of Y Drive

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