Cabbies reap rewards after this week's storm
Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Mar 23/01) - Angela Haller barely pauses between calls, beside her the dispatcher barks street addresses into a small microphone. Outside the snow keeps falling as cabs criss-cross the city fielding almost double their usual calls.
Haller, head dispatcher for City Cabs, scribbles the caller's address on a little sheet of yellow paper and passes it to the dispatcher who relays it to the next free cab. Haller, in a rare break between calls said this week's snowstorm triggered a between 400 to 500 spike in the amount of calls fielded every shift.
Haller said at one point callers had to wait up to 50 minutes for a cab.
"People were late for work," said Haller.
On Tuesday City Cabs received 1,063 calls during the morning shift and 1,341 in the afternoon shift.
John Dalton, owner of Yellowknife Cabs said his company's calls jumped by 30 per cent this week.
"It's been very steady," said Dalton.
"In the morning more people have been taking cabs to work ... the morning rush is very intense," he said.
Dalton said he doesn't reap the rewards of this week's snowstorm.
Instead the cab drivers do because they pay a flat rate to use the cars and pocket the difference.
"There was no financial gain to this company," he said.
Sandra Geolenbeck,who drives for YK Cabs, drove almost around the clock during the worst of the snowstorm.
On Tuesday she started in mid-afternoon and finished at 9 a.m. the next morning.
She said her average daily income doubled, but it didn't come without its troubles.
"I got stuck in Dettah and Kam Lake," she said.
Four years with the company, Geolenbeck said aside from the recent snow storm, this winter doesn't stick out in her mind.
"There's been nothing extraordinary about this winter," she said.
