Black Top & Checker Cabs

Booked a Van last minute around 11am on Friday to move about 8 suitcases (Large and small) within downtown. Booked using the app. Was fast and easy. Driver came on time and helped us with the bags. He took the shortest route to our destination and didn’t ask for any tips. Great service. Hope this continues.

Getting a cab in Vancouver is a Joke. Tried calling Black Top and Yellow Cab and was on hold for 5 – 10 mins, and still nobody answered.

Last night I had a truly terrible experience with this company. My roommate used the service to get home from Gastown and upon arriving at our home realized that her wallet had been stolen. She immediately told the driver and was met with doubt and then hostility. While I understand that some people do try to skip out on cab fare, this was obviously not the case. The driver forced my friend to empty her purse, a huge invasion of privacy, and then when she was showing him on her phone that she was trying to call a friend to come pay he took her phone from her and put it on the dashboard. When he finally gave her phone back and she was able to call me she was in tears and terrified of this driver. Luckily I was only five minutes away and was able to get there quickly and pay for the fare. Not only was the driver rude to me, he tried to tell me that I was LUCKY that he didn’t call the police. After I paid and the driver sped off, I spent the next hour calming my friend down after her terrorizing experience.
Our other roommate then tried to phone to talk to their «customer service» line and was met with more hostility and zero remorse on the company’s behalf.
I understand that if someone can’t pay their fare, calling the police is not unreasonable. What IS unreasonable and inexcusable is terrifying a young woman traveling solo, taking her things away, and yelling at her. The appropriate response would have been to understand that this was an unusual situation, ask if she would like you to call the police to both report the missing wallet and figure how to have the fare paid for.
We need a cab again tonight and there is zero chance that we will call this company. I truly hope that this company will go out of business when Über comes to Vancouver.

Took one ride from the airport and later used their BlackTop Cab iOS app to book another ride back to the airport at 4AM. Driver was right on time and app notified me of the pending arrival. App was a little flaky just before arrival time — response time was like 8 to 10 seconds between pages, but booking and execution were just fine. Recommended with those warnings. Driver was courteous and — free WIFI in the cab!

Cab driver (ecab reference #203) scammed me on Friday night. I used the ecab service and foolishly entered a tip of 20% via the app. The cab driver told me I had to tell him how much I wanted to tip so he could add it to the total amount. I countered, and said I think I just enter it into the app. He assured me that wasn’t the case so I had to manually tell him what 20% added to the fare equal led to. Sure enough when I got my receipt emailed to me, the total was an extra 20% on top of the already tipped price. The cab driver clearly new what he was doing. (he also tried to manually increase my tip. But I stopped him). Guy should be fired.

One star for occasionally showing up.
Most of the drivers are incredibly rude.
Über please!

Living downtown I can’t justify car ownership and take cabs regularly. I usually try to call a cab instead of getting one off the street, so I can be sure I get my preferred company — Black Top!
During peak hours you may get stuck on hold, but never for more than a few minutes. The dispatchers are friendly and their arrival time quotes are accurate. I also like that they call a few minutes prior to arrival so we have time to get our shoes on and out the door.
For the most part taxis will verify your name when getting in the taxi. On occasion someone has nicked my cab, but that’s just life. They will send a priority taxi if this happens, but not that common.
The drivers are clean-​cut, friendly and generally know their way around the city and greater Vancouver. Black Top’s taxis are the nicest in the city — never have odd smells or worn/​ripped seats, unlike other companies. Earlier this week I encountered a Black Top taxi that had a phone charger and Wifi available, which I thought was a great added value service.
In addition to being friendly and polite (none of this chatting on the phone while driving business) I find that Black Top drivers are excellent defensive drivers. Seriously, the kinds of sh*t I see other drivers/​cyclists/​pedestrians/​idiots do while on the road drives me insane, but I always feel safe with Black Top and the drivers always keep their cool.
I use taxis for Costco runs and day-​to-​day errands for my business. This means I often have boxes/​bags with me and I have never had a problem with Black Top. Every single time their drivers see me with any sort of luggage they jump out to assist — on both ends of the journey — even when I tell them it isn’t necessary. Even when I have one light (but often large) box they will get out and open the trunk and hand me my item.
In my book customer service reigns supreme and compared to nightmare experiences with other local taxis Black Top is the best Vancouver has to offer.

It’s annoying when called and you are put on hold or called and the line is busy. If you are going to a party and your taxi gets reimburse and everyone is taking the same taxi this is a nightmare. U have to fight for your cab. The guy just pick up who ever jumps in. No it doesn’t work that way. Worse is on rainy days.
Taxi is taxi and sometimes it worries me if after you called if they are going to show up. There was a couple times where I think my colleague stole my ride. Or maybe not my colleague but someone else. You can stand and wait forever. Grrrr

These guys are efficient! But their drivers seem to be a bit serious. Not the chatty type but perfect if you prefer silence.

First, I was on hold for about five minutes. When I finally received a response, a rude person refused to help me because I wanted something — as opposed to a person — delivered. I explained that I had an account with their company, and that I wasn’t in a hurry, and that my address was directly on the way to and from the airport — but I was flatly refused. When I mentioned that he didn’t seem very professional, he hung up on me. They turned down some easy money in a very unprofessional way.

The second worst taxi company in Vancouver. What is it with Vancouver and their crappy taxi service? Time for Über now and put these bastards into bankruptcy. Drivers always rude, speak little English or French, cars always dirty and smell like. Wishing Über come back to Vancouver.

WAY better than Yellow Cabs,
We called Yellow Cabs to get more rice home, and HOWEVER, Yellow Cabs took TOO LONG to answer.
We tried calling Black Top Cabs. They took long but actually answered, and only took about 20 minutes. The cab driver said that Black Top was better.
I agree.
The dude said they got 400 more cabs.
AWESOME

If I could give zero stars after the way I was treated today I would. I called at 3:08 for a cab from the museum of anthropology back to downtown at 3:30 I called just to get an ETA they said the cab would arrive soon. Several cabs came and went offering me rides but u said no because I would hate for my cab to come and me not be there at 4 I called again. The operator claimed the cab had come and I was not there and had called. They did not call and I was sitting in front the entire time… Anyways they said that they would send one and I would be priority. By 4:30 I was over it I called again to get an ETA the operated hung up in my face mind you I was polite and I never yelled or sasses just asked excuse me sir explained the situation and asked for an ETA. He was like you are second in line and hung up. For the rest of the day I took yellow cab they actually came when I called in 10 minutes and the drivers and operators were much nicer.

I hate using this cab company — everytime I get into a cab they ask me how I’m paying and when I say «Credit» they say that their machine isn’t working and they would prefer cash — when I say I don’t have cash, they always ask if I would like to go to an ATM.
Turns out, cab drivers don’t like credit cards, not just because they are afraid they will decline but because they have to wait until the end of the month to receive the money. This is what a few cab drivers told me.
Use McClures.

After riding our bikes from Seattle to Vancouver, my cycling partner and I needed a cab ride to the train station early the next morning. The hotel staff called the night before to reserve a ride & specify the room-​for-​2-​bikes requirement. Come morning, the taxi was there — but it was a hatchback/​wagon, not a van, and the driver refused to fold down the back row of seats to let us try to load our bikes. Ditto for the next driver — we could have fit the bikes in his wagon, but he refused to try. The train would be leaving soon… more frantic calls by the hotel staff got some story about «they didn’t tell us they’d pre-​approve the $ 15 charge for the 2^nd bike, so we haven’t sent a van…»
I ended up sending my partner ahead to the train in one cab. After more anxious waiting a van finally arrived, and I was able to get myself & the bikes to the train with literally not a minute to spare.
After that experience, I’ll never take a Black Top again.

The last 4 times I’ve used blacktop to get where I needed to go, the cab driver didn’t know where he was going and kept asking me for directions and making wrong turns. In the end what was a normally 20 min commute was an hour! They used to be my favourite cab company but now they cost me too much money to be worth it anymore. :(
Goodbye Blacktop, it’s not me, it’s you.

I wish it was possible to rate zero stars. Was quoted 5 – 10 minutes for a cab. When one hadn’t arrived after 30 minutes, I called another cab company, which arrived within minutes. Of course, I took the cab that came. I received a text several minutes later, simply saying «fyi your number has been blocked at black top»
I texted back explaining the situation, but also explained that that was an absolutely inappropriate thing to text, and that I will be «blacklisting» this company by telling all my friends and family to avoid it at all costs

This company picked me up at the airport and took me to a Richmond location. It should have taken less than 10 mins based on the traffic at the time and it took him almost 30 and in the end he was going to take another turn and make it longer.
At the end of the ride the meter read $ 18.40 I gave him $ 20.50 and asked for my change. He said that was the cost! I said what his meter read and then he said «airport rate» WTF!!! I have never been so angry as I was after this ride. Not only did the driver rack up the cost because of his «short cuts» he STOLE the two dollars!!!
I called the company and I still have had no response to this action. Not because of the amount but the lack of ethics this company shows, I will never use this cab company again. The only reason they have 1 star is because I have to leave one!

My friend who is visually impaired left her groceries in the cab yesterday and immediately notified them. She has yet to receive a call from them for the return as they wanted to charge her for inconvenience SHE has caused.
I called them last night to confirm her story and THEY AGREED. However when I told them I was doing a report on them they immediately said they had tried to contact her which was a lie as I had just asked her about this.
Please share this story and called all the papers to complain about this heartless company.
I will NEVER Ever use them or recommend them.

Grrrrrrr
Normally, I have few or no complaints. However my last experience really had me upset.
I called, they said to come right down. Normally, a cab is waiting for me. If not, then it arrives shortly.
I wait, and wait. I call back to check the status. The dispatcher said that someone had snagged my cab, and that he was sending another car.
Within 5 minutes, another cab pulls up. Before I can get to it, a couple that had come out of my building jump into it. I asked the driver if the cab was for me (I tell him my name) but he shrugs his shoulders, and takes off.
I am not happy. I call back, tell a different dispatcher the situation and ask for another cab. The dispatcher says it is really up to the driver to ask names.
Obviously the last two did not care.
I wait, and wait, I call back. At this point I am about ready to walk. They tell me that car 137 will be there to pick me up in 90 seconds. About 3 min pass maybe more. I get a call. It’s the driver asking me if I still need a cab.
Yes please. He asks again– the answer does not change!
He finally arrives. I give him the address. He asks me where it is ! I tell him that he is the driver — not me. I pull up google maps, and hand my phone to him. He alternates between talking on the phone in a foreign language to asking me personal questions that I did not appreciate.
We drive and he asks me where it is — he had driven way past the destination, and has to turn around and drive back. He drops me off about half a block away. By this point I am furious — and it takes a lot to upset me.
Let’s hope that this was just an off night, because normally its not this bad (see my previous review)