[jipiboily]

This is sad. I live in Quebec Province, but not in Montreal. Quebec's laws regarding taxis are old and stupid, but they exists. I hope they will change, but in the meantime, sadly, this is their right to execute those laws.

The population (including me) wouldn't be so angry at the taxi industry if they embraced innovation instead of fighting with laws. Please, I want an app to know when my cab will be here, I don't mind that much about saving money, but I do want to pay easily and have a great and easy ride. That's all I want.

FYI, the taxi owners need a licenses, which I think is over $100k, and none were issued in a long time, so price increases. So, if I had one, yes, I would be super angry seeing Uber and stuff like that.

Still makes me very sad that this industry stagnated for so long and is not even trying to adapt now, but getting more laws :(

Edit: fixed typo.

[igrekel]

Hopefully, they'll be some pressure to change the laws. In the meantime it is to be expected that the law will be applied.

What is surprising however is that it is the Taxi Bureau doing this. The article does mention that they want the power to seize cars so its really unclear how it was done exactly since they need to get the police to seize the cars.

[nostrebored]

If Montreal is like most other cities, people driving taxis do not own their own permit -- they typically rent them from a small number of people who control a large number of permits.

[jipiboily]

That's indeed the norm I think in most cities.

[igrekel]

Which always make it funny when your Taxi driver gives you his card for Uber service.

Again, in this case its not Uber thats in question but UberX.

[rayiner]

> The population (including me) wouldn't be so angry at the taxi industry if they embraced innovation instead of fighting with laws.

They can't. I don't know the details about Quebec, but I'm willing to bet that an app wouldn't be complaint with taxi meter requirements, surge pricing would be illegal for a taxi company to do, etc.

[jipiboily]

This app could totally work with the taxi meters, not replacing them and the legal requirements. This is a non-issue to me. By innovation, I didn't think at all about pricing, just quality of service, being able to have service, ETA and easy payment.

[SilasX]

It's also illegal turn down fares by destination, to "nope" past black people, to play "credit card machine not working", to demand that you pay more than the meter reads ("tip"), etc, but that's never stopped them before.

[angryMontrealer]

It baffles me how very little cabs accept credit cards in the city, and even less with an electronic POS. many of them still use paper based forms (if at all) and they'll almost always be rude about it and demand an extra $2-3 on the fare.

[jipiboily]

Pretty similar to Quebec City. I used to always call and ask for a cab which takes credit card. The vast majority, like 95% of the time, they said the terminal was broken...I was like: "well, it's sad, I don't have cash, can we try?" and it ALWAYS WORKED. This is related though with the crazy fees they need to pay for credit cards, but it's stupid to play the game like that.

[jordigh]

I call Taxi Diamond because they're the only ones whose fleet can handle credit cards. When I phone them, they have already previously recorded my number, so a recording just asks me to press "1" to pick me up at my home.

I hate to sound like a paid shill, but I just don't bother flagging cabs anymore. I just call Taxi Diamond.

[laurentsabbah]

I've lived in Montreal my whole life, left two months ago. The city is pathetic, their old laws are ruining it. There's no progress, it's sad to see.