Toronto cabbies consider charging $25 ‘vomit fee’

Here is a story that could leave the blinged-out bar-hoppers in Toronto's Clubland clutching their wallets in terror: Toronto taxicabs are considering charging a "vomit fee."

The idea was one of several proposed changes raised in the city's Taxicab Industry Review, which will be considered by the city's licensing committee next week.

The change would allow taxi drivers to charge up to $25 whenever a passenger throws up or urinates in the cab, to cover the cost of cleanup.

The fee could be relevant to anyone who gets sick in the vehicle, the impetus is clearly to combat the prevalence of drunk fools who toss their cookies after a night out.

While it likely won’t convince anyone to moderate their level of inebriation before getting in a cab, it would appropriately punish them for the lack of consideration. At $25, the fee is about the same as the cover charges levied by most downtown Toronto nightclubs.

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Frankly, the vomit fee can't be implemented soon enough. It is one thing for someone to go to the club and drink too much, and an entirely other situation when that person takes it too far, hops in a cab and leaves it up to a complete stranger to clean up their sick.

Toronto cab drivers are known to work long hours and extended shifts. Some almost literally live in their cabs. If a drunk passenger pukes in the back seat, not only are they forced to live with the odor and the inconvenience, but they are losing money for every minute it takes to clean it up.

There are nearly 5,000 cabs on the street of Toronto, and officials estimate some 65,000 trips are taken on a daily basis. A review was launched in 2011 and determined that driver safety and working conditions were among the major issues facing the industry.

The vomit tax was just one of many proposed changes — which mostly surrounded accessibility issues and a two-tiered taxi licensing system.

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Among the other proposals made in the Taxicab Industry Review was giving drivers the option of asking for payment in advance to help avoid those situations where passengers skip out on the fare once they get to their destination.

"Driving a taxicab is not always a safe job. Long hours spent working alone, often at night, carrying large sums of cash and dropping passengers off in unfamiliar or unsafe locations can put drivers at risk," the review notes.

All things considered, it seems like taxi drivers have it pretty rough. Fewer dummies spewing all over their livelihood may just be what the doctor ordered.

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