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This article was published 1/3/2019 (571 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TappCar became Winnipeg’s first ride-hailing service a year ago with a fleet of 20 drivers.

Today, it boasts more than 700 full- and part-time drivers.

"It’s incredible. It’s been growing on a month by month basis," TappCar spokesman John Morris said.

"It’s now become an actual, full-scale transportation service."

TappCar can get up to 4,000 to 5,000 rides on a Friday night, Morris said. Conditions such as cold temperatures can factor in, resulting in more rides.

TappCar was the first ride-hailing service out of the gate in Winnipeg on Mar. 2, 2018, and is the dominant player in Winnipeg today by leaps and bounds. Some other personal transportation providers (PTPs) include Cowboy Taxi, Hire PTP, InstaRyde, MY CAB app and ReRyde.

Morris wouldn’t give ride volume figures since it began, saying that is proprietary information. However, he said TappCar’s growing fleet has allowed for improved service.

"When you amass the number of drivers that we have, that creates shorter turnaround times for picking up passengers. People who download these applications on their telephones can see what the turnaround time is," he said.

Downtown, the wait time could be just a couple minutes; suburban areas can be five to 15 minutes, Morris said.

The number of full-time drivers who obtain their primary income with TappCar is in the hundreds, but the majority of drivers are part-time, Morris said.

Taxicabs still dominate the sector. PTPs accounted for just five per cent of passenger transport while cabs accounted for the rest, except for a small amount of limousine business. Ride-hailing was used 213,660 times in 2018, versus 4.06 million times people hailed cabs.

But ride-hailing is growing. Up to June of last year, it made up 3.5 per cent of all rides, versus five per cent by the end of 2018.

Managers for Unicity and Duffy’s taxis did not return telephone messages.

The city, which took up oversight of the industry in 2018 from the provincially-appointed taxicab board, says ride-hailing has been positive.

"Overall, the new bylaw streamlined and modernized the vehicle-for-hire industry," said Ajaleigh Williams, program manager at the Winnipeg Parking Authority.

The year saw increased accessibility for people with mobility issues, and greater safety for drivers and passengers, Williams said. The city did more than 13,000 inspections of vehicles for hire, more than double the number of the previous year under the taxicab board.

One of the big safety improvements since the city took over the bylaw was to require the inclusion of audio with video cameras.

As well, there are now an additional 60 taxicabs licensed for people with mobility issues. That means 22 per cent of the taxi fleet can now transport people with wheelchairs or other mobility devices, Williams said.

Some of the other large ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft have stayed out of the Manitoba market because they have a model for private insurers that they say is incompatible with Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI).

MPI insurance rates for ride-hailing companies depends on what time of day the driver operates and whether it’s on a weekday or weekend.

"It is a flexibility a Canadian company was willing to make that an international company is not," Morris said.

TappCar offers about a 20 per cent discount on conventional taxi fares, he said, although there can be extra fees for peak times.

TappCar is based in Edmonton and operates there as well as in Grand Prairie, Alta., and Steinbach. It’s very small in Steinbach, where it started in July, with only a handful of drivers. It is looking to expand into other markets, including Brandon, Morris said.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca