Disrupted, not displaced
Uber arrived in Toronto in 2012 with billions in backing, a global brand, and a playbook built on forgiveness instead of permission.
Most taxi companies folded, sold, or faded.
Beck Taxi did something else.
It stayed.
Today, Beck Taxi still operates roughly 2,000 vehicles, making it the largest taxi fleet in Canada.
Behind it: Gail Beck-Souter and her daughter, Kristine Hubbard.
In an industry historically dominated by men, they looked at the arrival of Uber and saw something different.
Not an outdated industry.
A regulated one.
And they believed the rules were worth defending.
Born into it
The story starts long before ridesharing.
In 1967, Jim Beck launched Beck Taxi in Toronto's Beach neighbourhood, painting his cars Omaha Orange and Banana Green so they could be spotted from a distance.
His daughter, Gail Beck-Souter, grew up in the business.
She started working in the industry at just 16 years old.
When Jim died in the 1980s, Gail inherited a company with fewer than 200 cars and transformed it into a citywide institution.
Then came the third generation.
Kristine Hubbard wrote the LSAT and considered law school before the family business pulled her back.
In 2013, she appeared on Undercover Boss Canada, going undercover inside her own company.
What made Beck unique was its structure.
The company doesn't own the taxis.
It operates the brokerage.
Each Beck vehicle is independently owned and operated, with drivers paying a monthly fee to access the dispatch network, technology platform, and brand.
Every Beck car on the road is a small business.
There are roughly 2,000 of them.
Holding the line
The defining move came before Uber ever arrived.
In 2011, Kristine attended a technology conference in San Francisco.
Uber had just launched.
She returned to Toronto and immediately hired a developer.
Beck launched its own mobile app before most Torontonians had even heard the word "rideshare."
That early decision helped the company survive what became more than a decade of trench warfare.
They:
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Lowered meter rates after a driver-led petition.
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Created the first taxi driver training program in partnership with Centennial College.
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Advocated for industry relief during the pandemic.
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Became Toronto's only provider of true on-demand wheelchair-accessible taxi service.
Own the rails
Uber spent on:
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Subsidized rides.
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Driver incentives.
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Lobbying.
Beck invested in:
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Technology.
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Dispatch.
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Driver training.
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Accessibility.
The bet was simple:
Own the rails, not the race.
The unsexy moat
No venture funding.
No exit strategy.
No acquisition offer waiting in the wings.
Just a family business compounding for nearly 60 years.
The moat was never the cars.
It was the infrastructure behind them.
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Dispatch systems.
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Driver relationships.
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Regulatory expertise.
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Local trust.
At its peak, Beck had more than 1,700 taxis available 24/7, connecting over eight million passengers with drivers in a single year.
Gail's favourite place remains the dispatch floor.
Answering phones.
Talking to drivers.
Sweeping the floor if it needs sweeping.
The culture never scaled away from the work.
Loudest voice in the room
Kristine Hubbard became something most taxi companies never had:
A public face.
She debated Uber executives directly.
Testified at City Hall.
Appeared regularly in the media.
And transformed a dispatch desk into a platform.
In October 2023, Toronto City Council passed a cap on rideshare vehicles under Mayor Olivia Chow, a restriction taxis had operated under for decades.
For Hubbard, the issue was simple:
Equal rules for equal businesses.
Then came 2025.
As Canada debated tariffs and economic nationalism, Beck joined local competitors in urging Toronto to include taxi companies in its Buy Local campaign.
Hubbard's argument reframed the entire industry.
Every Beck driver is an independent, licensed Canadian small-business owner.
Uber is a San Francisco technology company extracting revenue from the local market.
Fifty-nine years of brand equity repositioned as local economic infrastructure.
That's not nostalgia.
That's strategy.
The next fight
Today, Gail is largely retired.
Kristine runs operations and leads the public fight.
The next challenge is accessibility.
Ninety-eight of Beck's 100 wheelchair-accessible vehicles are expected to age out of city requirements beginning in 2026.
Without additional financial support, Hubbard warns many drivers may not replace them.
The larger question is whether Toronto still values locally owned transportation infrastructure.
As cities reassess their dependence on global technology platforms, Beck is betting that:
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Local ownership still matters.
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Accessibility still matters.
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Accountability still matters.
The orange-and-green cars never left.
The city may be rediscovering why.
The BFT take
Founders get celebrated for building.
Almost nobody gets celebrated for holding.
For more than a decade, Gail Beck-Souter and Kristine Hubbard defended a business against a competitor with effectively unlimited capital.
And they're still here.
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Largest taxi fleet in Canada.
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No outside investors.
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No pivot.
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No reinvention story.
Just relentless execution.
The lesson isn't sentimental.
It's structural.
Beck Taxi survived because the moat was never the cars.
Hype built Uber.
Infrastructure kept Beck Taxi alive.
That's not a taxi company.
That's a masterclass in staying power.
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