Vancouver Taxi Cabs

[RocketMan275]

Read lots of complaints about taxi cab drivers trying to scam passengers in Fort Lauderdale.  Is this a common thing in Vancouver.  Taxi from airport to port and return.

[nancygp]

has not been an issue for me previously

 

Nancy

[martincath]

Common? No, but it's certainly not unknown - the fixed rate fares have seriously reduced the potential for abuse since they came in though. At the airport, you'll pay CAD$36 to get to the pier - there should be a map hanging on the back of the front passenger seat showing the zones, but if it's not there it will have been 'forgotten' about and be in the drivers bag or 'have fallen under the seat' no doubt. But basically if you 'remind' them that it's fixed rate fares from YVR they will comply.

 

From port to airport it's metered by law, should average to the same as inbound but of course your particular trip might be a little less or more - the 'runaround' long trip might happen but on cruise days it's more profitable to just get you there ASAP so they can then pick up another cruiser at the airport and lather, rinse, repeat. Just ask whether Oak or Cambie have better traffic today when you get into the cab at the pier, showing you know the two main routes (and due to bridge locations, the only two sensible routes from the downtown core) and the driver should then avoid any temptation to take you on a sightseeing tour.

[bcash52]

I have heard horror stories of hour long waits for taxis at Vancouver airport to downtown. Is there any truth to this or is it a scam by limo drivers 

[martincath]

Preemptive TL;DR version - nah, it's probably not impossible to wait that long but it's extremely unlikely.

 

Wafflier explanation version - at the pier, absolutely, hour long cab waits can definitely happen on busy days. But at the airport, thanks to the requirement for all cabs which have an airport medallion to actually make minimum numbers of airport pickups there is a stream of cabs coming and going at all times - even before the fixed fare zones when some cabbies chose to just leave when the 'behind the scenes' cab staging area queue was too long they only did that at quiet times when it could take an hour for them to get to the front and get their next fare (this is actually why there is a rule about how many airport pickups they have to make to keep their medallion, too many were avoiding YVR trips because of the delay waiting for passengers when they could be making money elsewhere instead, and worst case they got to the front and the person getting in jst wanted to get to an airport hotel without waiting for the shuttle to come back around so the cabbie earns a whopping $10 for the last hour of his time!). Now they're guaranteed every trip will make at least $20 even if it's to a super-close airport hotel, and if it is one of those they're back at the airport within 10 minutes to potentially get a nice long fare the next time.

 

The cab queue at YVR can certainly get long - to the point we have taken a look at how many pax are in it and said "Screw this for a game of soldiers, there's nobody in the limo queue let's pay the extra!" - but I'd ballpark the line at maybe 20mins when we've done that, it was far more about just being exhausted after a long day of travel, the limo queue being zero, and that dropping $60 vs $36 (to our house, incl tip) to save 20mins and have more legroom on the ride seems like perfectly acceptable value to us when we're puggled.

 

You certainly could get stuck in an hour long queue for immigration at YVR, but I doubt you'd have to wait even half that for a cab unless they go on strike to protest Uber etc. (and if that happens, it will mean that Uber etc. are actually operating so hopefully you have other options!!!)

 

Personally I've never heard limo drivers claiming that cab queues hit an hour, so if this is a scam it's a new or uncommon one here - but I've heard a lot of visitors complain that it took them two hours to get to their hotel from touching down at YVR, so there may simply be some conflation/confusion of the various wait times they had to endure... which would usually break down more like 5-10 mins walk from the gate, 50-60mins for immigration, up to 10 mins finding their bags because the conveyor has been cleared and bags stashed off to the side due to the long immigration delay, 20mins waiting for a cab then 30-40mins drive time to a downtown hotel. Since the last hour of that would be waiting for or actually inside a cab I can totally see people just passing along that story as "...and after all that I had to wait an hour for the cab!"

 

[ell52]

I love @martincath's detailed explanation and agree.  I have never experienced an hour wait for a cab from YVR. Even when the queue looks like a Disneyland line, it moves steadily and quite quickly.  Maybe it does get to twenty minutes, but we've never experienced more than a 10-15 minute wait, tops and more usually under 10 minutes.  

[xlxo]

If the taxi wait becomes nasty.... you can use the subway (aka Canada Line).  Longest YVR wait for a cab should be around 8 minutes for me.

 

Scams?

• sometimes they play games where the credit card machine is broken.  Perhaps let the driver know ahead of time you plan to be paying by credit card.
• I got into a cab last Tuesday.  I noticed he flips on the meter... I yelled "flat rate!" from YVR.  He instantly turned off the meter.
• I sometimes have large delegations that can't fit in one cab.  I get two cabs.... why does mine always get there the fastest and most direct.  The second cab gets long hauled!

Biggest cab scam is in Vegas where they long haul you across the tunnel for a strip hotel.

Edited September 23, 2019 by xlxo

[Milhouse]

Here's a Vancouver airport taxi scam making news today:  Driver trying to charge a $15 moving (luggage) fee on top of the fixed fare to downtown. 

[martincath]

Yeah, I've seen a couple of posts over the years with CC members, and spoken to a few other visitors, about 'luggage fees' in taxis - ironically they're usually very complimentary about the driver and just mention a buck a bag in passing! $15 is much higher than anything I've heard of before.

[xlxo]

Wow... that $15 fee is like the tunnel surcharge for Vegas cabs.

 

I also remember a $8 minivan surcharge some driver tried to slap on me when I had two suitcases many years ago.

 

If anyone feels a scam, note down the vehicle number and time/date you are travelling.  Call the dispatch afterwards to confirm your suspicions.