Metro Vancouver Residents Want Government Regulation of New Vehicles for Hire Services

An Ipsos online poll conducted on behalf of the Taxi Association of Vancouver shows that most Metro Vancouver residents want any new type of 'vehicle for hire' services (e.g. rideshare companies) to be subject to government safety and consumer protection regulations. Two-thirds (67%) of residents believe these new services should be subject to the 'same' regulations as taxi operators. A further 21% believe that these new services should not have the same regulations as taxi operators, but should still be regulated by government. Only 6% say these new services should not be regulated by government (5% are undecided).

Desired Government Requirements: Survey respondents were shown a list of 17 possible government requirements for new types of 'vehicle for hire' services. They were then asked to indicate which of these governments should require if new types of 'vehicle for hire' services are allowed to operate in their own municipality.

Metro Vancouver residents show strong support for these government requirements, with 16 of 17 requirements receiving public support from a majority of survey respondents. The top requirements (90%+ support) include vehicle safety inspections, driver background checks, income tax payments and proof of eligibility of drivers to work in Canada.

These are the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between March 22 and 28, 2016, on behalf of the Vancouver Taxi Association. For this survey, a sample of 800 Metro Vancouver residents from Ipsos' online panel was interviewed online. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within +/ - 4.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Metro Vancouver adults been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.