It’s not often that I have something nice to say about taxis in Toronto, but this is one time that I say Bravo Co-Op Cabs. They have taken very important steps in making transportation more accessible to people with disabilities in Toronto. Most of us who are able-bodied have no idea how difficult it is to do something simple like get into a cab. In case you think that this is not a major problem have a look at these statistics.

You may be surprised to know that:
• Over 1.5 million people in Ontario have a disability
• Only 4.8% of taxis in Ontario are accessible to the disabled
• Many people with disabilities in Ontario rely on public transit

A year ago Co-Op Cabs began a pilot project with the TTC’s Wheel-Trans program to increase the quality of service to Wheel-Trans clients. The program was a cooperative effort between both companies with Co-Op Cabs handling over 110,000 TTC Wheel-Trans rides between March and December, 2007. The joint effort guaranteed a portion of disabled accessible rides to the Co-Op drivers who were trained to provide the service and who had disabled accessible vehicles. As all Co-Op Cabs are owned and operated by independent contractors, this provided incentive for drivers to up-grade or to replace their vehicle with one that was accessible. The program is a resounding success for Co-Op Cabs and TTC Wheel-Trans. Co-Op Cabs has since set up a separate disabled accessible division with its own call centre and customer service reps that have had special training.

To contact Co-op Cabs follow the link below.
http://www.co-opcabs.com/