Residents of a small Okanagan Valley town are without cab service after the local council took its lone taxi operator off the road amid allegations of drinking on the job, slow response time and sometimes not showing up at all.
At a special public hearing on Tuesday night, the town council of Oliver, B.C., decided to take away Oliver Taxi's business licence to operate in the town of 4,500.
"We heard a lot of information that to us clearly demonstrated that we had a problem we needed to deal with as soon as possible," said Oliver Mayor Pat Hampson, adding that a file of complaints against the taxi service and its owner, Jeff Fenton, has been building for about a year and a half.
Concerns raised at the meeting included allegations of carrying passengers while impaired, not answering calls for service, showing up for fares hours after being called, and frequent refusals to drive some people who had been drinking.
The mayor said in an interview that he's concerned that a lack of taxi service could mean more people getting behind the wheel after a night at the bar, but that "it's not a situation we can just let lie and continue the way it's been going. There's a lot of risk factors involved."
Mr. Fenton did not attend the public hearing to refute the allegations against him.
"I refuse to go hat in hand and have to defend myself," he said in a phone interview. He said he has been providing taxi service in Oliver with a single car for five years. He did most of the driving himself but occasionally used a part-time driver.
"I'm really good at what I do," he said, responding to claims of unreliable service. He did say, however, that he sometimes refused to pick up drunk people. "I own the right of refusal."
As for the impaired driving accusations, Mr. Fenton said, "I don't want to comment on that."
RCMP Corporal Dan Moskaluk said police have investigated four complaints of suspected impaired driving against Oliver Taxi in the past two years. One of them, in late 2009, resulted in a 24-hour driving suspension, though Cpl. Moskaluk would not identify the driver involved.
Many of the complaints against Oliver Taxi came from Murphy's Pub, one of the town's two bars. Owner Shawn MacKinnon said that in the past, patrons who were borderline drunk but had problems getting a taxi sometimes "chanced it" and drove themselves home.
"We don't like to see it, but they had no option," he added.
Recently, the pub has started a "ride alive" program, where bar staff drive patrons home in exchange for a $10 donation to a children's charity.
At nearby Burrowing Owl winery and guest house, owner Midge Wyse said the lack of reliable taxi service in Oliver is a problem for guests who want to attend events in town or at other wineries.
"They don't want to drive themselves, absolutely not, they're here to enjoy the wine," she said. She recalled that she once drove a client to a wedding because she couldn't get a cab for him.
Mr. Hampson said that he knows of two people who might be interested in starting a new taxi service in Oliver.
However, getting provincial approval to operate in the area can take six months or more, said Jan Broocke, director and secretary to the Passenger Transportation Board of B.C., the provincial agency responsible for taxi service.
In the interim, a taxi operator in a nearby town, such as Osoyoos or Penticton, might be able to get a temporary permit to operate a car in Oliver relatively quickly.
But Mr. Hampson said the town has not yet approached any of those operators to gauge their interest.