BCBusiness

bcbusinEss.ca august 2015 BCBusiness 35 There are infrequent but alarming tales about Uber passengers who say they have been raped by drivers or, on the less life-threatening but still annoy- ing side, those who have found their accounts charged for startlingly high amounts. The house-sharing business has its risks too. There's the Stockholm woman whose apartment got used as a brothel, the Oakland house used by a meth addict or, recently, the Calgary family whose house got trashed by a group of party animals. But there hasn't been anything like that in Vancouver and they don't appear often enough globally to outweigh the word-of-mouth "I made good money and it was so easy" stories that we like to tell each other. The City of Vancouver's communica- tions department blandly observes that there were fewer than 10 resident calls about Airbnb in 2014 and only -ve to date in 2015. Uber, like Airbnb, is also widely popular among Vancouverites— even though the com- pany's town-car service only operated here from July to November of 2012. (Social media is st ill ° illed w it h its mournful fans; Uber Vancouver has 4,400 followers, and spokesperson Van Chau says the petition urging Uber for Vancouver has 30,000 signatures.) Donna Fox, a 35-year-old who lives a car-free life near Main Street with her husband and baby, is one of those who jumped on Uber when it operated brieœy in the city. "The ser- vice was really handy, and I liked the ability to know a car was coming really fast," she says. "We called one for deep- est darkest east Van and it came in -ve minutes. It was a nice unmarked car, and the guy was super-nice." But, adds Fox, she's less impressed with Uber these days after reading about what it does to compete with other businesses, its vice- president's suggestion that the company should go after hostile journalists by digging into their personal lives and more. "It's a turn-o". Ethics in business is important to me." All of that has left cities in a chal- lenging game of Twister. The public says, Let us take advantage of all these new ways to make or save money. But make sure they're safe. And don't let them get away without paying taxes, if they're running something that's just like another business paying taxes. But don't ruin the low-cost advantage for me when I'm using them. Both the traditional businesses and the new ones are -ghting hard to prove to regulators that either: (a) the new sharing-economy businesses are dangerous and a threat to the city's economy; or (b) the new sharing- economy businesses are a godsend for cities and their strapped citizens. And it's all so new that there's not a lot of data to prove one way or another what's really happening. That's why when Portland decided to give Uber and others temporary per- mission to operate, there was no chatter about the sharing economy. It was all about trying to understand what rules to set for all the ride-giving businesses, whether they were traditional taxis or ride-hailing newcomers. "This is not something any of us saw coming," said Mayor Charlie Hales, in advance of the four- hour meeting where city lawyers and sta" spelled out all the conditions the new transportation network companies would have to operate under. His trans- portation commissioner, Steve Novick, added: "Nobody's going to come in and just make up their own laws." Seattle tried to do something similar to ensure that all companies would be on an even playing -eld. But for some taxi drivers, it doesn't feel that way. Fri- day night, a line of them in front of the Renaissance Hotel in Seattle watches a middle-aged couple prance out of the hotel with a bottle of wine and get into an Uber car. A taxi driver, œagged on the street later that evening, at a time when the downtown is hopping and it's easier to -nd a cab even than to tap an iPhone screen, is pessimistic. Samson Gimbot, a 31-year-old originally from Eritrea, says he's taking courses in how to drive a truck. "Fifty per cent of the cab drivers, they are not working now." Those who are surviving drive for Uber during the day, the regular taxi company at night. "This business is dead." ■

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