You won’t find many women driving cabs in the West Shore area near Victoria.
But Tammy Hogg is one of them — and now she and others have an idea for an all-female cab service to operate in the area.
Coverage of taxis on Globalnews.ca:
“Women on Wheels” she’s called it, and if realized, the company would see women fill all the roles, from drivers to dispatchers.
And it’s all in the interest of giving women a safe option to travel where they’re going.
“It’s all a gamble getting into a cab, anywhere in Canada, right?” Hogg told Global News.
“We’ve discovered that there’s a need in this industry, and we feel that we can certainly help with that,” proponent Shelley Evans said.
The women pushing this idea have a breadth of experience in the taxi industry. And they’re far from the first people to test an idea like this in Canada.
DriveHer is a Mississauga-based company that’s operated by female drivers, for female passengers.
“The underlying thing is it always comes down to the safety and comfort of women,” said CEO Aisha Addo.
READ MORE: All-female taxi services in Canada are getting mixed reviews
That service came after a high-profile case that saw a male driver in Halifax acquitted after he was accused of sexually assaulting a drunk passenger.
The #MeToo movement is another motivator behind the establishment of Women on Wheels.
The founders believe the service is needed now more than ever.
“We’ve had women contacting us, wanting to come drive for us, we don’t even have cars yet,” Hogg said.
The idea has been criticized for allegedly being discriminatory against men, but under the law, no rules are being broken if there’s a legitimate reason for the service to exist.
Women on Wheels now has an application before the Passenger Transportation Board.
“Their competition is good competition,” said association president Mohan Kang.
“Anybody is welcome to apply and be successful.”
But what might cars look like for Women on Wheels? Evans envisions a pink car with eyelashes on the headlights.
“I thought that would be cool!” she said.