Day 7 - Taxi, Taxi

Victoria seems well served by taxi companies, with Blue Bird, Yellow Cab and Victoria Taxis.  Plus two or three other smaller companies like AAA who seems to have one huge American cruiser car that wanders around downtown at night looking for fares.

I have my own rule that I never drive after drinking, not even after a single beer.  That can mean a beer at a friends house can be an expensive drink when you couple in the taxi fare.  But I'd prefer to pay it (or go without drinking) than the real expense of hurting someone in an accident that might have happened due to a slightly slower reaction time.  My friends know I have a rather puritanical approach to drinking and driving.  I don't mind if they want a pint and then drive home a bit later. They can even drive me, if they offer. I just don't, and dealing in an absolute here serves me fine.  It doesn't have to work for you.

I use Victoria Taxi pretty much exclusively when trying to get home after a beer or three downtown (or at a friends house).  Their new aqua green cars and 'modern' logo look out of place to me, and would be more at home in Seattle or Victoria.  But I don't get cabs for their aesthetic appeal, and the drivers have always gone the little bit extra when needed.

A few years back, I broke my ankle in the snow.  This idiot Brit, unused to the peril of Canadian weather went out in inappropriate footwear after a couple of inches of snow fell.  Stepped on some ice, turned my ankle, and fractured the very lower end of my fibula (or tibia, I forget which, but one of those two bones in the lower leg).  Left with a plaster cast after eventually going to ER, I got BlueBird to pick me up from the Royal Jubilee for the 4 block drive home.

Driver was annoyed it was such a short fare.  Didn't help me in or out of the car, not even opening the door as I struggled with new crutches.  Sorry mate, I know short fares suck, but that's part of the business.  If I could have walked home, I would have.

Four weeks later, downtown enjoying my birthday and still in a cast, though a modern plastic walking cast. I'm off the crutches but still walking with a stick, and limping.  Finish at the bar and call Yellow Cab from the reception desk at the Bedford Regency.  I let the dispatcher know I'll be outside, and the guy with a cast on.  Thirty minutes later, I call back and the dispatcher claims they couldn't find me.  Sends another cab, but fifteen minutes later, its the same story 'sorry, he couldn't find you'.  It's not like I was running around downtown.

I finally call Victoria Taxi.  Driver calls one minute out to check I'm still there.  He gets out of the car, and opens the door.  Makes sure I have enough room.  I'm fine, but it's nice that he paid attention.  And I've used them ever since.  The driver's are always friendly, and always will take a minute or two if they can't find you ready and waiting.  They don't like taking a different fare if theirs is not there yet.  Add in the very nifty online Booking App, and I continue to use them for my drinking-related chauffeur service home.