Vehicles-for-Hire & Transport · 7 min read · Last updated
The Personal Transportation Provider licence is not a driver licence or a vehicle licence. It licenses the platform: the company that facilitates prearranged transportation for compensation by connecting passengers with drivers. That is why its checklist is about data, contracts and system access rather than safety certificates and photo cards.
The City of Hamilton lists this under its “Mobile” category: “Is any person facilitating prearranged transportation services for compensation using any platform to connect passengers with PTP driver and may also be referred to as PTP.”
Who needs this licence?
A Personal Transportation Provider is any person facilitating prearranged transportation services for compensation using any platform to connect passengers with a PTP driver. If your business is the app or the booking system that matches riders with drivers, this is your licence.
The definition turns on two things: the trips are prearranged, and they are for compensation. Street hails and metered pickups are the taxicab world, which Hamilton licenses separately through the taxi broker, owner and driver licences.
This is a company licence. It does not license the drivers who work through the platform, and it does not license their vehicles. What it does is put obligations on the platform for the data it holds, the insurance it carries, the information it gives the City, and the payments it remits per trip.
What documents do you need?
The PTP checklist reads unlike any other vehicle-for-hire licence in Hamilton, because the thing being licensed is a system rather than a car.
It opens conventionally enough with business registration, corporate profile or master business licence documentation dated within one year of application. After that it turns to data. A notarized or commissioned document must verify that data security measures are in place to protect the personal data the PTP collects about passengers and drivers, which is a sworn statement rather than a policy attachment.
A certificate of commercial general liability insurance at not less than five million dollars of coverage per occurrence covers the liability side. Then come the agreements: a signed contract giving the City permission to obtain drivers personal information if required, and a signed contractual agreement that the PTP understands a quarterly payment must be submitted to the City.
Two items are technical rather than documentary. A data portal must be available for the receipt of information on drivers and trips, and Licensing Compliance Officers must be given access to the mobile application. The checklist closes with a signed voluntary accessibility payment agreement. Together these mean an application cannot be assembled by an administrator alone; engineering and legal both have work to do.
Zoning and premises requirements
There is no Zoning Verification Certificate on the PTP checklist and no zoning fee in the fee structure. The licence attaches to a platform operator rather than to premises.
Zoning applies to where a business physically operates, not to the licence holder. If your company maintains an office, a driver support centre or any other physical location in Hamilton, that address has to satisfy the zoning by-law in its own right.
That separation is worth stating plainly to anyone comparing the PTP licence with the taxi broker licence. A broker's dispatch premises attracts zoning verification and a parking inspection; a PTP licence, as set out in the guide, does not.
Inspections and approvals
No physical inspection is listed on the PTP checklist. There is no premises to inspect, and the vehicles used by drivers on the platform are not licensed by this application.
Oversight is continuous instead of scheduled. The data portal must be available to receive information on drivers and trips, and Licensing Compliance Officers must have access to the mobile application. In effect the City inspects the platform's records rather than a building.
The signed agreement permitting the City to obtain drivers personal information if required is the third part of that arrangement. Where another licence would send an officer to a site, this one gives the City a route to the data.
How much does it cost?
The PTP fee structure has two halves, and only the first half looks like an ordinary licence. At application you pay a processing fee and a licence fee. HST applies to the processing fee; the licence fee is not taxed.
The second half is per trip and paid quarterly. A per-trip fee applies to trips facilitated through the platform, and a voluntary accessibility payment is charged on the same per-trip basis. Both are remitted to the City quarterly, which is what the signed payment agreement commits you to.
At renewal, the licence fee applies again, together with the continuing per-trip fee and the voluntary accessibility payment. This is the only vehicle-for-hire licence in Hamilton whose cost scales with how much business you do.
A late renewal carries a licence re-instatement fee. All amounts, including the per-trip rates, are set by the City in its fee schedule and confirmed during the application, so build your remittance calculations against the current schedule rather than a fixed assumption.
How to apply
Start with the technical items, because they take longest. The data portal has to be able to receive driver and trip information, and Licensing Compliance Officers need working access to the mobile application.
In parallel, have the data security verification notarized or commissioned, and obtain a certificate of commercial general liability insurance at the required per-occurrence coverage.
Get the three agreements signed: permission for the City to obtain driver personal information, acknowledgement of the quarterly payment obligation, and the voluntary accessibility payment agreement.
Submit the package with current business registration documentation and pay the processing and licence fees. Once licensed, set up the quarterly remittance process immediately, since the per-trip amounts begin accruing with the first trip.
Renewals and staying compliant
Renewal is narrower than the first application, and it focuses on the two things most likely to change: the notarized or commissioned data security verification must be provided again, and so must the certificate of commercial general liability insurance at not less than the required per-occurrence coverage.
The licence fee is payable at renewal, alongside the continuing per-trip fee and voluntary accessibility payment. Those per-trip amounts do not pause between licence years.
Keep the data portal and mobile application access working throughout the licence period rather than reinstating them at renewal time. They are conditions of holding the licence, not a renewal task.
A late renewal brings a licence re-instatement fee, and outstanding amounts owed to the City can hold up the renewal, so reconcile quarterly payments before the renewal date rather than after.
Quick quiz: test what you learned
Three questions, all answered in this guide. Click an answer to check it.
1. What does the Personal Transportation Provider licence actually license?
A PTP is any person facilitating prearranged transportation for compensation using a platform to connect passengers with a PTP driver, so it is the platform business that is licensed.
2. Which document must be notarized or commissioned on the PTP checklist?
The checklist requires a notarized or commissioned document verifying that data security measures are in place for the personal data the PTP collects.
3. How are the per-trip amounts handled?
The per-trip fee and the voluntary accessibility payment are due quarterly, which is what the signed contractual agreement on the checklist commits the platform to.
Skip the paperwork
Tell Permits2Go about your business and it assembles the licence application for you — document checklists, e-signatures and a guided workspace for Hamilton, with more cities on the way.
This guide is general information, not legal or professional advice. Licensing requirements, by-laws and fees change and vary by municipality — always confirm the current rules with the City before you apply.