One thing to rant about in Vancouver is taxi service. In my discussions with others about taxis in Vancouver, I’ve never once seen a situation where people were wowed by service or where those who I talked to had good things to say about the service.
Of all the companies in Vancouver, I now have limited my choice to one company which seems to do okay. They’re a smaller firm so sometimes the cabs take longer to come. This blog is a discussion on some of the malapropos behaviour I’ve seen from some cabbies in the city, outside of the unusual driving, foul language, foul smells, and the likes one may be subjected to while taking this form of transportation.
Company: McLure’s Taxi
Phone Number: +1 (604) 731-9211
Comment: Raj’s favourite, these guys are reliable and the drivers are professional
Company: Yellow Cab
Phone Number: +1 (604) 681-1111
Comment: Drivers can be unprofessional
Company: Black Top / Checker Cabs
Phone Number: +1 (604) 681-3201
Comment: Drivers can be unprofessional
Company: Vancouver Taxi
Phone Number: +1 (604) 871-1111
Comment: Drivers can be unprofessional
So, where to start? Well, I take the cab almost every day. One of the biggest issues I find is that the wait time for a taxi can sometimes unbearable. My rule of thumb is to call one company and if I have to wait for more than 15 minutes, I’ll call a second company and continue the cycle. Living on Robson Street (and in close proximity to the Westin Bayshore) also gives me the ability to flag a cab if I happen to see one.
Today I initially called Yellow Cab and then McLure’s. The Yellow Cab arrived after 20 minutes of waiting, so after getting into the car, I called McLure’s to cancel the trip since I had alternate travel arrangements. No problem with the dispatcher, they’re good that way. … the rest of the trip, however, was a pain in the ass. Mr. Cab Driver decided to lecture me about how he has to make a living and how unfair it is to call two companies since you’re wasting the time of at least one driver. Also how the cab company will black list me for such behaviour.
Another incident to speak about was where I was waiting for a cab, approx. 20 minutes this time. I’m waiting on Robson Street looking to flag down a vehicle. The cab driver asked why I was waiting accross the street. I told him that I was looking to flag. He gets pissed off and tells me that I should either be looking to take a car that I called or cancel the call and then look to flag. My response was that my time is valuable and I have no idea whether the cab was coming or not.
Oh, and then there’s the normally jovial cab ride. Cabbies in Vancouver make alot of money. It’s reported from my friends who work at the bank that it’s mostly owners of individual taxi licenses who are buying up big properties around Vancouver. Don’t be fooled people, these folks are making money hand over fist, next time you’re in, just ask. So, I did once. The cab driver mentioned to me that he likes to deal in cash and in the event someone pays with credit card, he’s likely to not pick up that person again.
One time I had to make a number of stops or errands. Hey, it’s bonus money for the cab, isn’t it? A stop at Van Lawn to pick up some tickets, a stop at Royal Bank to make a deposit, a stop at the office to pick up mail. All short stops. After the third stop, however, the cabbie informed me that he would not make any more stops for me, so I had to take another cab. So I paid by credit card and didn’t leave a tip. The cab driver was furious, he sent along some nice parting words.
So what’s the solution? There really needs to be more cabs on the road here in Vancouver. The density is increasing, there are less parking lots and the options are slim. There’s maybe four or five companies that service the area.
What prompted this? Well, I’ve taken cabs in many places around the world. It’s never been so bad as I’ve seen it in Vancouver, granted, I take this form of transportation ALOT. I recently read an article from Terrie’s Take #381 which reminded me of how good things are in Tokyo:
Riding in one of Tokyo’s ubiquitous cabs the other night, we had an interesting reminder of just how different Japan can be. This particular cab was participating in a product giveaway to salarymen returning home late at night. The product was a new energy health food bar from Otsuka Pharmaceutical. In handing over the bar, the cabbie apologized and said in Japanese, “Here have one of these — it doesn’t taste too good…” ??!!
Now, if you’ve been in Japan for a while, you’ll know that this could either mean, “I’m being forced by the firm to give you this, but my advice is don’t eat it,” or “This is pretty good, but I’m being polite and am talking the product down. Now you just have to try it to find out for yourself, right?”
Receiving the bar, we did indeed try it out after alighting, and found that it actually wasn’t too bad.
Munching away, we started thinking about Japanese taxi culture, especially here in Tokyo. Despite the low wages, long hours, difficult city lay-outs, and drunken, sometimes sex-crazed passengers, Japan’s taxi drivers are the salt of the nation, and 99% of them are unfailingly polite. Indeed, one cab company, we forget which, even has its drivers leap across the passenger seat, race you for the door, and open it from the outside for you. This sudden series of movements by the cabbie can be a bit of a surprise when it first happens to you — and even more so when it is pouring with rain. But it certainly does make you remember the extreme politeness of drivers from that particular firm.
There are apparently about 380,000 taxi drivers in Japan, most of whom seem to be servicing Shibuya-Roppongi and the other 5 major centers on the Yamanote line, after 23:00. They belong to 8,048 different companies, about 100 of which operate in Tokyo — so competition is alive and well. Actually, the competition really took off after the government removed both price and licence-limiting controls in 2002, thus causing a surge of newcomers into the market.
There are cab companies of all types, including those with pet taxis, for taking your poodle or chihuahua to the vet — or out on a date. One such company is Taikoh Taxi, which is located in Aichi, and charges JPY2,500 for the first 10km then JPY200/km after that. Although the initial cost is high, riding with your pet for any distance beyond 10km is actually about 2/3 cheaper than a regular cab. In addition to transporting pets, Taikoh also provides pet-sitting, pet-trimming, and pet-feeding services. www.taikoh-taxi.co.jp. Not yet in Tokyo, unfortunately.
Among the other types of services are bridal taxis, which have special cars with high roofs and wide doors to accomodate the bride in her full traditional wedding gown. If you’ve ever seen a bride with her oval headpiece, the tsuno-kakushi, you’ll know what a pain it must be to get into a regular cab. See http://tinyurl.com/gc4ct for an image of the headgear. Other services include non-smoking cabs and welfare cabs — i.e., those fitted out for disabled people.
Probably the best thing about Japanese cabbies is their integrity. Despite drivers traditionally saying, “please don’t leave anything behind,” we have personally forgotten bags, notebook PCs, company files, and books, realizing only later that we’d done so. In EVERY case, we’ve been able to call the cab company and the driver has either directly come back or has passed the package on to another driver to hand-deliver to our address. In other instances, and this happens regularly, if a cab driver picks the wrong route and as a result we get stuck in a traffic jam, he will refund some of the fare from his own pocket, all the while apologizing for not having known any better.
But this is not to say that every cab driver strives for excellence. With the economic setbacks of the 1990′s and the traditional winter migration of workers from the frozen north, there is an increasing number of drivers who simply don’t know where they are going — or they are drunk. The Nikkei recently reported a new cell phone accessory by Tanita, which is an alcohol detector that attaches to any of DoCoMo’s 3G FOMA handsets. Apparently the cab companies plan to make their drivers breathe into the thing at random intervals, and since the FOMA handsets have a camera, the dispatcher can see the person actually doing the breathing.
Although off-season country drivers who don’t know Tokyo present no major challenge to those of us who have lived here for any period of time, it is disconcerting for foreign businesspeople who are new to the city. One way to cope with a lost (or drunk) cabbie this is to be forearmed. We suggest newcomers consider a rental phone from Go Mobile. For a very reasonable JPY150/minute, Go Mobile’s Concierge service provides you with a help desk that will translate cabbie directions and complaints — to/from English and Japanese. http://www.gomobile.co.jp/index_e.html.
As we get closer to Olympic time, infrastructure will either make or break the city. Cab licenses in Vancouver are worth about $1,000,000. The price needs to come down, they need to be more accessible to the average joe like they once were and more cabs need to be on the street, otherwise we’ll see yahoos driving drunk and more instances of road rage.
