It's against Uber or suburban taxis coming into the city, but a group of Vancouver taxi companies wants permission to run a part-time fleet of cabs when there’s high demand.
The Vancouver Taxi Association is applying for 200 flexible licenses to meet “unexpected demand situations” like Tuesday’s massive SkyTrain outage in the downtown core.
The rush-hour shutdown stranded thousands of commuters, prompting many to call cabs to get home – or at least to a SkyTrain station where trains were running.
The Vancouver Taxi Association issued a statement saying it needs to get more cabs on the road to meet demand, and says a flexible fleet of part-time city cabs would alleviate the pressure.
“We understand the frustration of taxi users in Vancouver. Vancouver needs more taxis,” it said.
The VTA, which represents Yellow Cab, Black Top Cabs, MacLure's Cabs, and Vancouver Taxi, is asking the City of Vancouver for the additional licenses. It hopes to have 200 more taxis available to meet the holiday demand in December, but acknowledges there are organization obstacles before that becomes a reality.
“We can solve the problem if the City and the Board are willing. We need to convince the regulatory bodies to move quickly to meet the public's taxi needs in Vancouver,” it said.
If granted, it's unclear when the flexible fleet would be allowed to operate.
The group has been an outspoken critic of allowing additional taxis to be brought in from other municipalities to meet demand on evenings, weekends and holidays. It sued the Passenger Transportation Board when it first granted licenses to suburban cabs in 2012.
The VTA also launched a lawsuit against the ridesharing service Uber when it was rumoured to be setting up operation in the city.
That suit was dropped in March of this year, but the VTA said they would refile their legal action if Uber set up shop in Vancouver.
