Unverified driving licenses, vehicles larger than expected, drivers exhibiting dangerous behavior: users of the Amigo Express carpooling platform denounce a lack of supervision of the journeys offered on it. The company claims to take the safety of its users seriously and says it reacts to reports made by passengers.
Founded in 2006, Amigo Express has since carved out a prominent place in the carpooling market, its platform now having more than 680,000 members. In exchange for a small user fee, passengers have access to a multitude of carpooling options that the company assures, on its website, are “reliable and secure”. However, its service is not infallible.
In a few minutes, The duty was able to easily offer a ride on Amigo Express by entering the license plate number of another driver’s vehicle, before calling the company to have the offer removed from its platform.
In interviews, several passengers also said they noticed that a vehicle different from the one registered in the application had shown up at the agreed meeting place.
In a case that The duty was able to document, a driver registered with the carpooling platform had to offer a trip from Quebec aboard a 2015 Toyota Sienna which has seven seats. On Amigo Express, the driver offered 10 seats to passengers, then showed up at the meeting point with a van that could accommodate 15 people and had a license plate distinct from the one listed on the platform.
Amigo Express, however, limits the number of passengers who can book the same passage on the platform to five. And the Act respecting the remunerated transportation of persons by automobile indicates that carpooling is only permitted in passenger vehicles which, by definition, cannot accommodate more than nine occupants.
“What you are describing to me is fraudulent use of the platform. And that is not tolerated,” reacted the president and founder of Amigo Express, Marc-Olivier Vachon, in an interview. “It’s a case of banning” from the platform, he continued, while calling on passengers to report their driver when he or she behaves suspiciously.
“Illegal” carpooling
Some drivers also seem to offer trips on the Amigo Express platform for commercial purposes, which contravenes the legal definition of carpooling, which requires that the pick-up of passengers by a driver is “incidental” to a trip — and not not his main motive.
“They go back and forth and, often, what happened is that I found that the vehicles that did not inspire me with confidence,” notes Élisabeth Maheux, who found herself on several occasions in “ old vans » in poor condition offering repeated journeys. “There are people who want to carpool illegally, but these people are ousted [de la plateforme] », assures Marc-Olivier Vachon, who specifies that a driver cannot display more than one round trip per day on the Amigo Express website.
Jean-François Vézina, for his part, had the misfortune of finding himself, last week, in the same vehicle of a driver who was “texting non-stop” at the wheel while driving at 120 km/h on the highway between Montreal and Quebec. “We came close to having an accident two or three times,” says Mr. Vézina, who reported the behavior of this driver to Amigo Express. “I dreamed of being arrested [par la police], but that didn’t happen, unfortunately. »
We came close to having an accident two or three times
Passengers also point out that drivers have made several trips while having a driving license “not verified” by the company. On this subject, Marc-Olivier Vachon explains that only driving licenses issued by Ontario and Quebec are verified by Amigo Express.
A regulatory difficulty
According to Pierre Barrieau, lecturer at the University of Montreal and expert in transportation planning, the concerns raised by Amigo Express users reflect the fact that the sharing economy, which includes carpooling, is poorly regulated in Quebec. .
“That leads to a lot less verification and validation. And, therefore, that leads us to this kind of slippage, which was not only predictable, but which was planned,” says the expert, who believes that a tightening of the rules on carpooling – like the measures imposed to the taxi and intercity transportation industries is necessary.
In this sense, the co-founder of the Quebec Mobility Factory, Elsa Bruyère, believes that it would be possible to draw inspiration from France by setting up a register of proof of carpooling.
This measure would allow the Quebec government to apply different quality standards and ensure follow-up with drivers, while offering financial incentives to those who thus contribute to fighting against the use of solo driving, as is is the case in France. “I see an opportunity to provide travelers with the right information so that we see carpooling as a great optimization of the use of solo cars” by increasing passengers’ feeling of security, notes M.me Heather.
At the time these lines were written, the Quebec Ministry of Transport had not commented on the matter.