About Taxis: Introduction

The taxi (or livery transport) industry has a long and (if you pardon the pun) checkered history.

Some have even described the industry as “fascinating” for all its players, participants, regulations and governance challenges. In many ways it defies easy description.

Nevertheless, Voters for Taxis believes that in order to engage in meaningful dialogue, and especially when it comes time to propose or debate useful options to the current delivery of service in Calgary, a primer on what the taxi industry is all about would be helpful.

This and the following sections will describe in some detail, the theory and practice of taxi service delivery. Some history will be presented as well as myths that need to be debunked. We recognize that for some, this will entail more detail than the average consumer might want.

On the other hand, there is a well held belief that if a service or product is in short or limited supply in a period of high demand, someone somewhere will jump in and meet that demand. A basic rule of economics.

If you want to know why that basic rule does not apply in the taxi industry, read on.

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