The explosion in the number of “illegal” taxis at Montreal-Trudeau airport calls for immediate action, believes one of the largest taxi groups in the city, lamenting that it has simply “become too easy” to improvise an authorized driver and make money from it.
“It’s mushrooming, literally. It has become far too easy. Honestly, the government has opened up a jungle with all this,” says Taxi Coop general manager Jean Fortier in an interview with The Press.
Thursday, columnist Maxime Bergeron revealed that nearly 400 offenses have been listed since January alone for the presence of these “illegal taxis”, whose drivers are sometimes harassing, or even seek to defraud the user by increasing the price arbitrarily. .
Aéroports de Montréal (ADM), which is concerned about passenger safety, formally asks Quebec to urgently review its regulations.
For Jean Fortier, everything has changed since Quebec adopted in 2019 the Act respecting remunerated passenger transportation by automobile. “Before, we knew how many people had a license in Montreal. It was legislated, it was clear. There, there is not even really any more inventory. Anyone can become a licensed driver,” he says.
The manager believes that “perhaps” it will be necessary to set up a new group of taxis to put pressure on the government. “There must be actions that are taken quickly. We can’t do much. Me, if I go over there and start checking, it’s chaos. It becomes very complicated to manage,” insists Mr. Fortier.
In his eyes, a solution can easily be put in place. “We are talking about an acute situation in one place in particular, with certain groups. I don’t see why we wouldn’t be able to come up with something. It’s about the government having a good ear, a good listening ear,” he adds.
“Worrying”
On Twitter on Thursday, the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, for her part stressed that the situation reported by The Press “is worrying”. “I am meeting with airport management today to take stock and assess possible solutions,” she said.
ADM’s demands are as follows: first, that the ban on solicitation that previously existed be reintroduced, that we once again be able to require that taxi drivers working at the airport be all accredited and, finally, that traffic controllers can act as soon as they observe the solicitation, and not just a transaction.
Without the help of Quebec, the organization says it is powerless in the face of the situation, among other things since the Bureau du taxi, which previously exercised close surveillance, ceased to exist four months ago. “Our greatest concern concerns the safety of authorized drivers, but above all, that of passengers, who can find themselves in very unfortunate positions”, for her part illustrated Anne-Sophie Hamel, director of communications at the airport.
In an attempt to calm things down in the short term, ADM has also launched a poster campaign inside the terminal. She reminds travelers to always use well-marked taxis and Ubers, which continue to operate legitimately.