The Belleville City Council has decided that the taxi monopoly will soon be gone. Companies like Uber and Lyft will be allowed to begin operating within the city limits. The Council cited years of complaints about poor taxi service as the reason for the change.
People have reported that wait times for taxis from two of Belleville’s main taxi companies “Central Taxi” and “Bluebird Taxi”, can sometimes be in the three-hour range. Many residents prefer to use such services over the holidays to take pressure off Operation Red Nose to prevent drunk driving and to keep the community safe. However, long wait times and poor service are finally changing people’s minds regarding the somewhat controversial ride share companies.
Recently, 62 Canadian forces troops were heading from CFB Trenton to Kuwait and Iraq. They were staying in Belleville hotels and when they called a cab to head to their plane, they had to wait over an hour. This held the plane up, and in a way, it also held up our military operations. Who knew taxis were this vital to the country?
The taxi companies in Belleville defended themselves stating poor service in the city is not for a lack of trying, and the COVID-19 challenges are making things worse. Hanif Patni, vice-chair of Coventry Connections Inc., the company that owns and operates Central Taxi, stated “We’ve always had trouble with drivers, we’ve had trouble communicating that it’s a great job.” He also said “It’s a flexible job and you make good money. You make reasonable money. You’re not going to turn into a millionaire … but what you are doing is serving customers.”
Belleville residents have been quite happy with how the downtown Belleville area has been completely revamped over the past few years, which has led to an increase in tourism and helped small businesses, but the lack of reliable taxis is starting to put a bottleneck on its growth.
Belleville has been in contact with a Thunder Bay ridesharing company formed in 2017 called “Uride”. It is expected to start services in Belleville in early 2021.
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