Vancouver Taxi Association applies to have more cabs on the road

Hailing a cab in Vancouver can be tough.Throw in the holiday rush and finding a taxi can be next to impossible.

But the Vancouver Taxi Association says it is trying to remedy that. The group has applied for more cabs to be on the roads to help move passengers around during peak times.

Yellow Cab President and Vancouver Taxi Association spokesperson Kulwant Sahota says, “In the morning when people need to get to work, they need to go to hospital appointments, we do get stretched thin especially with the rain..we get higher demand.”

Carolyn Bauer, who also speaks for the Vancouver Taxi Association, said they’re working on a solution.

“Taxis have been in demand for the last few months…the Vancouver Taxi Association recognized that about six months ago and started working on a plan to put an additional 200 taxis on the road,” she said. “We’ve been working with the city, mentioning it to the city, sending out letters, looking for support. We finally went to the Passenger Transportation Board after we got all of our materials together and we are hopeful.”

Extra cabs would offer a bit of relief for groups concerned with getting revellers home safely this holiday season. Organizers at Operation Red Nose, which has volunteers drive a person’s vehicle home for them, say they’re having a hard time keeping up with demand.

“There’s actually no Operation Red Nose chapter in the City of Vancouver so we get requests all the time to help out in Vancouver and sometimes we can help out, but as the demand gets greater we have to continue to service our specific zones,” said Andrea McDonald with the Burnaby, Tri-Cities and New Westminster group.

The industry has made other moves to make getting a cab easier, like introducing their new app-based reservation system, but it’s not enough. Now the association is waiting on B.C.’s Passenger Transportation Board to respond to its application. The hope is extra cabs will be approved to be on the road by the end of this week, traditionally one of the busiest times of the year for cabs.