This woman doesn't want too much

She wants to call a half hour before a DR appointment and get there on time, no matter the weather or road conditions, and she also wants the driver to show up with a child seat, no tall order.

The town of Bracebridge, Canada along with many other towns around the word are concidering adding to the number of taxi permits for the town.

Story is from the Bracebridge Eximiner.

Woman slams local cab company for lousy service
March 6, 2009 - by Matthew Sitler

A Bracebridge woman slammed local cab companies for being late and unaccommodating, during a recent council session.
The complaint was made at Bracebridge town council’s last meeting, during discussion about increasing the number of cab licences.

Kristy Kolyn, a Fairlawn Boulevard resident, said that having more taxi licences would be “a really good idea.”

“Since I started … calling taxis, I’ve waited 20-30 minutes,” she said. It’s even more exasperating to her when she has to attend a doctor’s appointment, she added.

“The doctor says ‘be here at 12 o’clock’ and I phone (for a cab) at 11:15 or 11:30 and the cab companies say ‘oh it will be a half-hour or 45-minute wait,’” she told council. “It’s like, ‘OK, I thought I’d given you sufficient time.’”

Kolyn thinks having more licences would allow for more taxis, and people might not have to wait as long.

Another one of her cab complaints concerns child safety seats.

“No taxi company seems to carry a child seat and not every parent with a child drives,” she said.

“You need a form of transportation to get around, either for grocery shopping or doctor’s appointments. Having a child safety seat available in a taxi would be very helpful. I’ve known people who’ve had to go grocery shopping and one person has had to walk home, while the other one takes groceries in the taxi.”

Kolyn said even though it might seem onerous for cab drivers, there should always be a way of at least offering this form of courtesy to customers.

Overall, Kolyn said, it’s great to see Bracebridge expanding, but she finds it odd the town has lost a cab company along the way. “In the ’80s, we had three taxi companies and now, we’ve gone to two,” she pointed out. “Everything is a lot more spread out, now that we don’t have the same town centre. Not everything is in walking distance for everybody now.”

Mayor Don Coates told Kolyn the town can’t govern the number of cab companies but, he noted, the new licences allow for an increase in the number of potential cabs on the street. “There is provision in this new bylaw for more taxis,” he said. “In fact, one of the existing companies has taken up one of those licences already, so that means there’s one more cab on the road.”

As for the child seat issue, Bracebridge chief bylaw officer Scott Stakiw told council he has discovered that taxi companies are specifically exempt under provincial legislation from the requirement to have car seats. “The Highway Traffic Act exempts them,” he said.
“The drivers are not responsible; it’s up to the caregiver to bring car seats.”

Further to this, Kolyn said she’s called cab companies and inquired about putting car seats in and she’s been “given a hard time about that.”

Councillor Edith Nichols weighed in on this last point, saying she, too, has received a couple of calls from people who say local cab drivers wouldn’t help with attaching child seats. “I can’t understand why they would not want to make sure the seats are strapped in,” she said.

Cameron Hoffman, co-owner of Bracebridge Taxi, said having drivers help put in child car seats becomes a legal issue.

“It becomes a legal issue where the parent or guardian needs to strap the child in,” he explained. “From a driver’s perspective, they can assist, putting the seat in the car, but they can’t do the connections of the straps and such.

The drivers can’t even strap the seat into the vehicle, because the tethers and such are so different from each seat to the next. They can’t be expected to know each and every one. It’s not that they wouldn’t be willing to do it, but we need to delineate the line — and that’s the line — they cannot strap the child in.”


Contacted Thursday, Century Taxi owner Jim Peake said it’s up to parents to provide child car seats but that, if they provide one, his drivers will help put the seats in. “If they (drivers) don’t, then I should be told about it and, if I’m not told, I can’t do anything about it,” he said.

As for cabs being late in Bracebridge, Cameron said cab companies can’t dictate the weather or road conditions. “We would rather get someone safely to their destination and from their destination,” he commented. People should know booking a cab ahead of time is usually a good way of getting to an appointment on time, he added.

“Calling 10 minutes before you need to be at a place is not a good practice,” he said, noting that calling half an hour prior to an appointment should be sufficient. “But, if you have an appointment, pre-book a car,” he stressed. “If you have an appointment booked the next day, phone the day before and book the car.”