New data show the number of rideshare vehicles in Toronto doubled to more than 35,000 between 2022 and 2025, suggesting an increased component of traffic volume.Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail
Rideshare drivers in Toronto carry passengers for only half the time that they are on the road, spending the other half waiting for trip bookings, according to newly released data from the City of Toronto.
The publicly accessible data sets include some of the most extensive and detailed figures about rideshare usage in Toronto over the past five years, shedding light on the soaring use of apps like Uber Technologies Inc. UBER-N and Lyft Inc. LYFT-Q and the growth in the number of people who rely on these platforms for income.
The City of Toronto terms the amount of time rideshare drivers spend without a passenger as the “deadheading rate.”
In 2025, the deadheading rate for rideshare vehicles was 50 per cent, compared with 40 per cent in 2022.
Data from 2020 and 2021, during the pandemic-driven lockdowns, show that rideshare vehicles did not carry passengers 57 per cent and 49 per cent of the time, respectively.
Rideshare drivers only get paid for “engaged time,” that is, the time spent accepting a trip assignment from the app, to dropping off a passenger. The data then suggest that between 2022 and 2025, the daily wages of drivers could have declined given the growth in the amount of time they were operating without a passenger.
Related: Two new rideshare companies try to compete with Uber and Lyft in Toronto
Recent changes to labour legislation in Ontario for digital platform workers, which took effect in July, 2025, guarantee an hourly minimum wage for rideshare drivers (which, in Ontario, currently stands at $17.60), but hourly pay is pro-rated to their “engaged time” on the road.
A report released on Monday by the non-profit group RideFair Toronto, based on the City of Toronto data, showed that the increase in deadheading rates between 2022 and 2025 has amounted to a 17-per-cent cut in driver wages. RideFair Toronto has long campaigned for more stringent regulation of rideshare apps, and for rideshare drivers to be classified as employees instead of independent contractors.
“Instead of being paid for 36 minutes of each hour – 40-per-cent deadheading rate in 2022 – they are earning money only 30 minutes in each hour, because of the 50-per-cent deadheading rate,” wrote Tom Slee, an independent Toronto-based researcher and author of the report.
Related: Rideshare drivers look for work elsewhere as gas prices soar
A 2024 study conducted by the City of Toronto based on data they had requested from the most popular rideshare apps in Toronto – Uber and Lyft – showed that drivers earned a median hourly wage of $5.97 in the first four months of 2024, after accounting for deadheading, gas, insurance and other vehicle maintenance costs. That figure, however, does not include tips received by drivers. In public statements, Uber has often stated that drivers can be paid between $20 and $30 an hour when tips are included.
The new City of Toronto data also showed that the number of rideshare vehicles doubled between 2022 and 2025, from 17,500 to more than 35,000, suggesting that rideshares are an increasing component of traffic volume in the city.
In 2025 alone, rideshare vehicles drove 1.1 billion kilometres, carrying passengers on 87 million trips. The number of yearly rideshare trips has grown sharply from 2022, with 46 million trips recorded that year.
The sharp growth in rideshare usage is not just confined to Toronto – public filings from Uber and Lyft indicate that since mid-2022, when most cities ended pandemic-driven lockdowns and gathering restrictions, the usage of delivery and rideshare apps began to increase annually across the globe.
But ridesharing, like many other non-permanent jobs in the gig economy, tends to have a high turnover rate. The City of Toronto data showed that the number of drivers was steadily increasing between 2022 and 2025, peaking at almost 80,000 drivers in Toronto in the second half of 2025, and then dropping to just under 70,000 by February, 2026.