Deal reached to keep cabs on road

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This article was published 25/01/2011 (5549 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

 A deal has been reached to keep Winnipeg’s cabs on the road.

Talks between taxi officials and the provincial government have resulted in an arrangement to have safety shields installed in all Unicity and Duffy’s taxis.

The industry and safety shield manufacturer have settled on payment terms, said Shannon VanRaes, provincial government communications, in a news release about 6:45 p.m.

“This agreement addresses the needs of the manufacture and the concerns of the industry, while meeting the safety requirements of the Taxi Cab Board. There will be no disruption of taxi service,” she said.

“Details of the agreement are not being released for commercial confidentiality reasons.”

Transportation Minister Steve Ashton had intervened on Tuesday in a showdown between the industry’s two biggest players and a provincial regulator.

Unicity Taxi and Duffy’s Taxi were set to pull their combined 400-plus cars off the road at 11 p.m. on Monday after failing to meet a Manitoba Taxicab Board deadline for installing or purchasing new taxi shields.

Facing a public outcry over the loss of service — in the middle of a Winnipeg winter — Ashton begged the companies late Monday night to keep their cars on the road while encouraging the two sides to keep talking.

The two biggest cab companies have been bickering with the Taxicab Board for months over the design and need for safety shields. Many owners balked at being required to install a full shield separating the front and back seats. So last week, the board OK’d a second design, essentially an extended or “three-quarter” side shield that also met the approval of the two companies and government.

The companies balked at having to cough up the full price up front for shields that — in the case of the extended side shield — have not been manufactured yet. The product would be produced locally.

Taxi owners who had not shown proof of purchase or installed new shields, which cost about $665, could have been yanked off the streets by the regulator.