As thousands of unregulated UberX drivers continue to use their personal vehicles to carry paying passengers, a Toronto taxi company is protesting the annual renewal fee increase for cabbies.

On Jan. 1, taxi drivers who want to renew their licences face a 2.5 per cent fee hike, Kristine Hubbard, operations manager for Beck Taxi, said Monday.

At the same time an estimated 20,000 UberX drivers, the majority lacking commercial liability insurance, operate in the city paying no fees and subject to no regulatory oversight, Hubbard said.

Rather than easing the burden for cabbies struggling to compete with cheaper UberX rides, the city is choosing to tilt the playing field further against legal taxis, she said.

“A licensing fee gives you the privilege to participate in a regulated system. They are not regulating the system, so what are they paying for?”

It adds “insult to injury” that the fees collected are supposed to support enforcement of bylaws, which Uber flouts by operating its UberX service, Hubbard said. The city has laid about 200 bylaw charges that are still before the courts.

Mayor John Tory’s spokesperson, Keerthana Kamalavasan, said in email Monday the city is working as quickly as possible to develop regulations that address the needs of Torontonians and the taxi industry, while providing a “fair, safe, convenient way” to get around.

“This includes a review of licensing fees paid to the City of Toronto.”

This fall, Tory and council started to level the playing field by reducing the base fare paid by the public by $1 — dropping it to $3.25, “making traditional taxis more affordable and competitive with services like Uber,” Kamalavasan wrote.

The base fare for an UberX ride is $2.50, according to the company website.

Toronto taxi licensing fees are among the highest in North America. Taxi drivers pay $55 a year to renew their licences in Montreal, Hubbard said.

In Toronto, a taxi owner/operator’s licensing fees will increase from about $780 a year to $800, while the renewal fee for a taxi driver who doesn’t own the cab jumps from $329 to $337, Hubbard said. Full-time, independent cabbies will pay $1,280, up from $1,247 a year.

Taxi licensing fees contribute roughly $10 million annually to the city of Toronto.

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