A year after the Taxi Bill of Rights came into effect in Metro Vancouver just how is taxi service in the region?
In 2007 and 2008, CTV News carried out an investigation and found that many passengers were being left out in the cold because drivers were refusing to take fares.
The Bill of Rights was brought in to show passengers what they should expect from using taxis -- and was also meant to spell out how drivers should be treated by clients.
Minister of Transportation Kevin Falcon said he was pleased with the results, saying that service has improved.
"We've undertaken about 400 hours of sting operations and during those 400 hours of sting operations we've only issued 11 violation tickets for trip refusals. That suggests to me there's been a marked improvement," he said.
But Falcon admits it's not perfect -- and that is why he hopes people who are left stranded will speak up.
Some of the 236 calls received by the province's taxi hotline have been complaints about bad service.
Topping the list of complaints was driver behaviour, followed by trip refusal and wait time problems.
The good news for those who use taxis is that in an impromptu CTV test during Wednesday's rush hour and early Saturday morning the improvements clearly showed.
Most cabs we hailed had no problem taking us to the suburbs, and accepting credit cards. However, two drivers told us they couldn't accept credit cards because of machine problems, and one turned us down because it was too close to the end of his shift.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Maria Weisgarber.
