Dear Editor:
Apart from occasional trips to the airport I seldom use taxi service on the North Shore. On two occasions this year, however,I experienced very poor service from two companies that operate in our community.
On both occasions I called for a cab to take my wife and I from Dundarave to Folkestone Way and ended up waiting for over an hour on both occasions.
Our most recent example with a call to Sunshine Cabs at about 11 am on a recent Saturday morning. They promised a pick up in 10 -15 minutes. After 3 further calls and 45 minutes I cancelled when I was told that they had 10 cabs in North Van but only 1 in West Van and we would have to wait further until he could get to us.
I then called North Shore taxi and was promised a car in 15 minutes. After 2 further calls and 30 minutes a cab did arrive. The driver was very apologetic and explained that many cabs will ignore a call for a short, local run, preferring to wait for a longer run to Vancouver or the airport.
Having recently returned from a visit to several European cities I can safely say that our local taxi service is extremely poor by comparison.
The taxi industry will only have itself to blame if government steps in with tighter controls or allows services like Uber to fill what is an obvious gap in the market.
North Shore residents deserve better service.
Andy Molloy
West Vancouver
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