Adapted Transport : a taxi company is afraid of losing its drivers

ZECHARIAH GOUDREAULT/24 HOURS/QMI AGENCY

Zechariah Goudreault

Tuesday, 23 January 2018 22:24

UPDATE
Tuesday, 23 January, 2018 22:27

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A taxi company specialized in the transport of adapted fears the loss of drivers if they are not better paid for serving the users with reduced mobility of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM).

“Summer or winter, I have to help the customer to cross the street, climb the stairs of his house and return home. If I’m in charge of someone, I have to at least be paid, ” says the Taxi driver Para-Adapted, Abderazak Bounediane.

A user of the paratransit pays $ 2.70 to $ for each ride on paratransit. Taxi drivers receive the amount shown on the meter at the end of each race, which is first charged to the STM so that the taxi company then pays its drivers.

The taxi driver, however, receive no money for having to accompany his client up to the front door of his home.

In comparison, drivers who exercise in the middle of the health are paid about $ 20 for the support of a client.

“The drivers are tired. They have no choice, they turn to Uber or even the health community, ” said the president, Taxi Para-Adapted, Yung Cuong, who would have lost 20% of its workforce last year.

Mr. Bounediane note the impact of these departures on the users.

“You haven’t heard of users waiting for an hour, two hours? This is because there is a lack of drivers. It takes the succession! “, he launched.

Mr. Cuong hoped that the negotiations surrounding a contract for more than $ 45 million between the STM and 13 taxi companies, which will expire in December, will improve the working conditions of drivers.

Respond to the request

While the STM provides more than four million trips on paratransit will be made this year, the director general of Taxi Coop Montreal, Sabrina Ohayon, finds a decline in the number of drivers who opt for the suitable transport.

“For us, drivers have the choice to make the [transportation] as a regular or adapted transport. In the end, if they have the choice, they will do what is easier, ” she said.

The STM, meanwhile, said by email that “the resources available to meet the planned demand” and that there is no need to worry about the decrease in the number of taxi drivers.