An Ontario court has ruled that a carpooling company — it helped people arrange to drive to work/school/whatever together — violated the law. It fined the company and banned a whole lotta carpooling in general.
The only way you can ride with someone is if you meet ALL of the following extremely impractical set of specific criteria:
* You must travel from home to work only – (Not Home to School, or Home to the Hospital or the Airport)
* You cannot cross municipal boundaries – (Live outside the city and drive in – sorry you cannot share the ride with your neighbour)
* You must ride with the same driver each day – (Want to mix it up go with one person one day and another person another day – no sorry cannot do that – must be same person each day)
* You must pay the driver no more frequently than weekly – (Neighbour drives you to work better not pay her right away just in case she drives you later on in the week)
Why? The bus companies complained.
(H/T to The Wife!)
The Fray
greyrat says:
Rodger Rabbit tried to protest, but was dipped for his trouble…
Adam Kantor says:
To be fair the law as I understand it is to prevent individuals from starting up their own cab like companies outside of government regulations.
Agreed, the laws are stupid but from what I’ve read on the topic many people are currently looking for ways to have them changed so that they don’t interfere with car pooling.
Ontario working to loosen carpooling restrictions
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/09/02/ot-carpool-080902.html
http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1290669
This will probably be an ongoing issue.