What The HELL!! Calgary Taxi Situation

[FireFly]

Originally Posted by JD

I'd rather get through right away and know what I'm dealing with rather than spending all my time hitting redial and hoping.

But I'd be inclined to believe the call centres are understaffed, especially during the hours people are trying to get cabs.

However, then you have the issue of drivers selecting the runs they want. If there are 50 trips waiting, don't you take the quickest/closest so you make more money?

However, again, they did a story on this at Christmas. They have their call centres set up to accept only as many calls as they have cabs for. If your call is answered, you can expect a cab within 20 minutes. That's the way the system is designed. You can believe me or not, that's up to you. You'd like to prefer blaming the people taking the call, that's fine. Feel free.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by FireFly

However, then you have the issue of drivers selecting the runs they want. If there are 50 trips waiting, don't you take the quickest/closest so you make more money?

That sounds fine and dandy (sounding like a 70 year old woman for a second) but if you have the choice of picking up drunks at a bar or picking up people at the airport which would you choose?

If I'm the cabbie, I'm taking the airport pickup as those trips are almost always lengthy ones and you rarely have to worry about one of them puking in your cab.

[FireFly]

Originally Posted by Reaper

That sounds fine and dandy (sounding like a 70 year old woman for a second) but if you have the choice of picking up drunks at a bar or picking up people at the airport which would you choose?

If I'm the cabbie, I'm taking the airport pickup as those trips are almost always lengthy ones and you rarely have to worry about one of them puking in your cab.

And that's exactly what I'm saying. If the call centres let every call through and just answered them, you'll end up with say, 50 trips waiting. If I'm a cabbie, I don't give a rat's ass who called first, I care what's going to be the best trip... and that's the one I take. So would you really rather get through right away, knowing that the cabbies will then pick and choose when they want to pick you up? What if you live way the hell out in the middle of nowhere and there are no cabs in the area? How long do you think it'll take a cabbie to work his way out there?

[4X4]

As far as the call going through right away, I'd certainly prefer it. I remember a night when I burned my cell phone on hold, redialed with the woman's phone, killed that one too, and finally drove home hammered. I know it's no excuse, but wtf?

[Vulcan]

What happens is that at certain times, everybody is waiting for cabs in the burbs or they are waiting downtown. The cab company gets backed up, so they stop taking any calls. While all the cabs have picked up downtown and dropped off out in Timbucktu, fares are still waiting downtown. The cab company stops taking calls and the people out in the burbs can't get through, even though there are lots of empty cabs out there. The only way I can see out of this situation is if the taxi companies had a program where they could still take calls from areas of the city where they are not backed up. This is frustrating for the cabbies as well as the passengers.

[Tron_fdc]

Use Keys Please or Drivers Alternative. They're almost the same price as a cab, they drive your own car home, and they'll put as many people in there as you have seat belts. The wait has never been more than 60 minutes for me either.