New Data From Toronto Show How Uber Is Testing the Limit. 

Five years ago, RideFair and allies successfully pushed for a council resolution ordering the  continuous public disclosure of comprehensive trip, driver and fare information from Uber and other “private transportation companies” (PTCs). Now, the City of Toronto has started to publish open data about ride-hail in the city, and it offers a new level of transparency into an opaque industry.

Here are some lessons from the first release:
• In 2025, ridehail drivers had no passenger for half their time on the app (“deadheading”), an increase from 40% four
years ago.
• Drivers only earn money when they have passengers in the car, so a higher  deadheading rate is effectively a pay cut. Over a four-year period, customer fares have fallen slightly and studies outside the open data show Uber’s portion of the fare increasing (Binns et al. 2025). These trends together conspire to push wages even lower.
• About half of all drivers leave within a year of joining the platforms. This high turnover shows how far gig work is from being a “good job”.
• The high rate of deadheading adds to traffic congestion, especially in the popular downtown areas.

The Ontario government’s toothless “Digital Platform Worker’s Rights Act” and its recent Northern Rideshare Pilot are endorsements of an unregulated or self-regulated ridehail system, but the public data paints a timely portrait of an industry in need of reform.

Read the full report: https://ridefair.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Ridefair-Report_May_2026_final.pdf