IATR’s 32nd Annual Conference “Regulatory Round-Up” in Calgary!

The International Association of Transportation Regulators (IATR) is pleased to announce more information about its 32nd Annual Conference, which will be held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada from Sunday, September 22nd, 2019 through Wednesday, September 25th, 2019! The new organizational motto for the IATR is Innovating for a Multi-Modal Future for All! Our IATR membership now includes not just traditional government agencies that regulate taxicabs, liveries, black cars, paratransit and limousines, but now also Transportation Network Company (TNC) state regulators, public transit agencies, departments of transportation and motor vehicles, insurance departments, airports, planning agencies and other regulators of new mobility services, including bike sharing, microtransit, pedicabs, technology platforms and car sharing.

The world is changing, and once again, IATR is ahead of the curve in the mobility road.

In light of our new organization and its mission, the theme and content of our 32nd Annual Conference is keeping pace with the changing mobility landscape – namely “Regulatory Round-Up!” IATR is acknowledging the historical roots of the City of Calgary by “rounding-up” past, present and future ideas, modes, and regulatory agencies into one “thought herd” to embrace the technology and planning for the growth of this smart Canadian city. Sessions will include our boot camps for both regulators and industry members or sponsors, a case study and hack-a-thon geared towards helping improve service and safety in the host city of Calgary, a workshop to develop model regulations for automated and connected vehicles, as well as labor/workforce issues, new technology, multi-modal transportation planning, and topics involving safety, equity and accessibility!

Registration & Sponsorship Open – Detailed Program Agenda Announced!

We have an eventful program planned and hope that you can join us this year in Calgary! Please join us at the Fairmont Palliser Hotel in Calgary from September 22nd – 25th, 2019. Please visit https://bit.ly/2WcHfLsfor more information about the venue. Please make sure to book your room on or before June 21st, 2019.

To view our complete preliminary conference agenda, please visit https://bit.ly/2TR44Xq. Visit https://bit.ly/2FmzqNwto register for our conference. For additional information about IATR, please visit www.iatr.global.

3rd Annual IATR Bootcamp

By popular demand, the IATR’s Boot Camp Training will be back for an all-day session on Sunday, September 22nd in Calgary. This training day is a great way to meet new and experienced regulators in a smaller, more collaborative setting. Trainees will be encouraged to network with experts in the field to learn best practices that may apply to multiple jurisdictions. Also, for the first time, certain limited sessions will be opened for industry members to attend and speak. For the second year in a row, the IATR will offer professional service credits for many of its sessions (especially the Boot Camp sessions). This includes continuing legal education credits in all 50 US States, as well as urban planning and engineering credits.

Topics include regulatory basics, but also workshops on specialized topics, as follows:

Transportation Law Enforcement 101: Methods, Legal Parameters & Best Practices.A panel of experts will address best practices and common issues involving the enforcement of for-hire ground transportation companies, vehicles and drivers. Particular attention will be paid to methodologies of enforcement, including field enforcement, inspection protocols, and administrative or technology-based enforcement. TNC audit methods and the use of agency enforcement staff, versus outsourcing auditing to third party validators, will be addressed.

Driver Training 101: Best Practices Curricula and Administration (Safety, Customer Service, Vision Zero & Accessible Service.This session will introduce various approaches to the training and testing of drivers – and the various levels of control or oversight over the process. The administration, curricula and content of driver testing will be addressed, including safety training (Vision Zero), customer service, rules, geography and wheelchair accessible service.

Meter Regulation & Innovation: Soft Meter Technology, Cloud & Platform Solutions.This session will involve an introduction to the regulation of taximeters and smartphone applications, including an overview of the regulatory paradigm. The latest in technology enhancements and deployment of smart meters, or soft meters, which integrate with various cloud-based systems, on board diagnostics (OBD) and smartphone applications, will be discussed, and how the technology can or should be regulated as part of the existing paradigm.

Transportation Insurance Primer: Transportation Network Company (TNC), Worker’s Compensation, Auto Liability & No-Fault. This session will provide an overview to regulators and industry of the basics of insurance, including the distinctions between personal lines and commercial automobile policies, the interplay with Workers’ Compensation and Personal Injury Protection statutes and new insurance models such as TNC supplemental insurance. The changing landscape of insurance with respect to telematics technology, cameras/partitions, and new forms of predictive insurance models will be addressed, as well as a forwarding thinking perspective on the advent of car sharing and rental models as well as connected and automated vehicles.

IATR’s Model Regulations Workshop

A wide array of thought leaders, academics, industry and organizational leaders in the mobility and transportation technology space will be invited to take part on a “Charrette style” visioning exercise, with white board sessions, break out groups and audience participation to develop a plan for innovative multi-modal integration and preparation for the future implementation and introduction of shared automated and connected vehicles. The benchmarking and best practices blueprint from this day-long session and workshop will be used to formulate the IATR’s Model Regulations for Automated Transportation. Leaders of various government, industry and quasi-government organizations (including organizations that are members of the IATR’s Advisory Board) will talk about a wide range of issues affecting their members, and the future of mobility in a fast-changing business environment. These organizations may include mobility providers, auto manufacturers, technology and telematics companies as well as leaders representing public transit agencies, departments of transportation, airports, innovative think tanks, and IATR sister organizations. The panelists will discuss the socio-economic and regulatory impacts of automated and connected vehicles and will identify the outline of issues to be addressed in the IATR’s Model Regulations for Automated Transportation.

IATR’s 4th Annual Hack-A-Thon

The IATR has also decided to continue doing one or more hack-a-thons every year and to grow its Data Commons repository of multi-modal transportation trip data, which is housed at the University of California, Berkeley. The IATR Data Commons will continue to be used by students, start-ups and academics competing in hack-a-thons or data challenges, and as information to help fellow regulators – whether to prepare legislative testimony, issue internal or external studies or reports, or to conduct benchmarking. This year, the hack-a-thon will be held from Friday, April 12th, 2019 through Sunday, April 14th, 2019. So far, participating universities include: Carnegie Mellon University; The City University of New York (CUNY); Michigan State University; Morgan State University; New York Institute of Technology (NYIT); New York University, Tandon School of Engineering; Princeton University; Purdue University; University of California, Davis; University of Maryland; University of Massachusetts, Amherst; University of Michigan; and the University of Virginia, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

The results of the Calgary focused Hack-A-Thon will be presented, to add context and proffer a tentative series of solutions. The IATR conference will involve presentation from the finalists or winners of its 4th annual Hack-A-Thon competition, using a set of public and private transportation data available through the IATR’s Data Commons. The goal of the Hack-A-Thon is to provide a comprehensive “Smart Mobility Plan” that may include: reduced congestion; centralized dispatch systems or data platforms for for-hire ground transportation services; connected & autonomous vehicle implementation & testing; Mobility on Demand (MOD) – Mobility-As-A-Service multi-modal integration options; increased “Shared Mobility” options; Equity – wheelchair accessible service enhancements and service to under-served communities.

Mobility Policy Sessions

Many diverse sessions on policy issues that will touch upon topics of safety, licensing practices, enforcement, labor/workforce, transportation planning, sustainability and congestion mitigation, equity, data/privacy and technology, accessibility and underserved communities, including the following:

Regulatory Star Trek: The Next Gen of Mobility Management Professionals.This panel will feature representatives from a wide variety of transportation agencies regulating TNCs, taxicabs, limousines and public transit agencies, who will present innovative reforms and initiatives.

A Tale of Two Mayors: Daytime vs. Nighttime & the Future of Nightlife Transportation.This panel will explore the trend of deploying Nighttime Mayors to address urban nightlife district issues and cutting-edge, multi-modal public/private solutions to safe and efficient evening transport coordination.

To Cap or Not to Cap Vehicles? Is That the Question for Congestion?This panel will analyze whether New York’s recent attempts to impose congestion pricing only on for-hire vehicles and taxicabs, and NYC’s temporary cap on the number of high volume smartphone app company vehicles work. The New York approach will be contrasted with other jurisdictions, including Singapore and London, as London recently changed its congestion pricing policy by removing the private hire vehicle exemption – but not the black cab exemption.

The Driver Revolution: Are Unions Back?This panel will discuss the major changes that are undergoing in the transportation workforce. To name a few, there have been attempts to unionize drivers by law in Seattle. NYC has instituted the first-ever minimum wage law for independent contractor drivers, and there have been new wage rulings in London. These reforms are changing the landscape of transportation nationally and internationally.

IATR Committee Meetings

The very active IATR committees, that work year-round to share best regulatory practices, news and developments, will be meeting on the last day of the conference, including the following:

Technology & Innovation Committee.Committee Chair, David Do, Interim Director at the Department of For-Hire Vehicles (DFHV)

Accessible Transport Committee.Co-Committee Chairs, Rupal Bapat, Deputy Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection; Isabelle Ducharme, Chairman of the Board of Kéroul

Canadian Regulators Committee.Chair: Sylvain Tousignant, Development Director of the Ville de Montreal (Bureau de Taxi)

Safety Committee.Committee Chair: Cammie Chaumont Menendez, Senior Scientist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

TNC Working Group.Committee Chair: Terry Mercer, Associate Administrator for the Motor Carriers at the Rhode         Island Division of Public Utilities and Carriers (DPUC)