Taxi drivers told to use dispatch system or face fines

The city plans to target taxi drivers who are breaking the rules by failing to book fares through dispatchers.

That is one of the problems contributing to a perceived shortage of taxis in Calgary during peak periods, according to Marc Halat, the city’s chief livery officer.

This year the city began using GPS technology to track taxis and gauge the situation on the roads.

The tracking revealed that 33 per cent of drivers who are on duty say they are not available to take fares from the dispatcher – violating a requirement under the city’s taxi bylaw.

Drivers might feel justified in taking a flag trip off the street instead of a call made to dispatch, Halat said.

“If you called three companies, you've got three cabs coming and we've just taken two more cabs out of service that need to be somewhere else.”

It’s is a real problem, said driver Dawit Gebremeskel.

“You go there. Nobody there. You wait 10 minutes, 15 minutes, you might not get it. You come back. You have to book in again. Wait another turn again.”

Kurt Enders, president of Checker Yellow Cabs, said his company's drivers encounter 15,000 to 18,000 such no-shows per month. 

"So the drivers get very frustrated, and say 'I have no faith in the system' so they're just going to go flag and pick up customers in the downtown core or wherever they can find a passenger," Enders said. 

The city is going to launch a campaign to make sure drivers know what their licenses require them to work within the dispatch system, Halat said.

Otherwise they could face fines or lose their licenses.

But taxi companies and the public need to be part of the solution as well, he said.

Enders said dispatchers maintain a black-list of customers who have repeatedly called more than one taxi company to an address, taking the first cab that comes. 

Checker Yellow Cabs is working on an app that will show customers how close their cab is after it has been ordered. 

We have enough taxis, top official claims

Halat maintains that Calgary’s taxi troubles are not caused by a shortage of taxis on the roads at peak periods.

“We have an adequate supply. Where we're falling short is managing that supply,” he said.

In the past three decades, the number of taxis has increased very little compared with Calgary’s booming population.

In 1986, the city capped the number of taxi plates at 1,311. Today there are about 1,525 — 60 were added this fall —while the city’s population has increased by almost half a million people.