The Problem With Montreal Taxis
I'll be honest, I'm lazy as all hell, so I've taken an embarrassing amount of taxis. I've made my way around the taxi cab ringer in the short amount of time I've lived on this earth. With any service you encounter, you're always going to have good employees and bad employees. But Montreal in particular has some pretty awful taxi experience stories.
Hear me out. I've worked plenty of customer service jobs, and I totally understand how awful they are. Taxi drivers go through shit, dealing with drunk students, and snooty patrons who "forget to tip" at the end of the ride. People aren't always great to taxi drivers, I admit that. But I, like many other people, rely on taxis. And I don't think it should be acceptable to leave a girl in a sketchy area at 3am because they deem she's "not going far enough".
In Quebec, taxi drivers adhere to, and are protected by, the Quebec Act Respecting Transportation Service By Taxi. I'm happy that the rights of drivers are safe under this act, it's how it should be. But being a paying customer of this service, I feel my rights should be addressed as well. In British Columbia, taxi drivers are not allowed to refuse the rights of a patron "based on the length of trip, or proposed method of payment". I'm not saying that we have to adopt the exact model they use. However, it would be nice not scaring away 4 cabs in a row when I mention the word "debit".
Having customers in this grey area of "what's allowed" and "what's not allowed" makes it really easy to get taken advantage of. Ever had to pay a moving fare with a taxi? The only Montreal cab company that addresses a base charge on their website is Taxi CO-OP. They're also one of the only websites (including Taxi Expert) that doesn't make any promises to accept credit or debit, although Taxi Champlain asks you to call to request credit card use. I just think it's silly to have a whole section on your home page for "complaints", when all of this could be sorted out with some clarification on what our rights are.
If you want to check out what each company offers you, look on the websites for Diamond, Champlain, Hemlock, Coop De L'est, Expert, CO-OP and Atlas Taxi to learn more.
