Checker Yellow Cabs

It is kind of funny how the only good reviews are coming from people who don’t live in Calgary, or take a cab once a year. DO NOT LISTEN TO THOSE. They got lucky.
Here is what you can likely expect from Checker Yellow Cabs:
Stinky cabs, I have come across multiple drivers who have horrible B.O. I mean roll the window down and practically stick your head out it is so bad B. O (yes I have done this).
No clue where the popular destination you told them is, still no clue when you give them an address, hesitation when you say «go and I will direct you», and then they will often still get lost. This is your job… where is your GPS?
An average of 10 km UNDER the speed limit, and up to 20 minutes to arrive for pick-​up when the car is within a couple km’s away.
Crude or offensive conversation or outbursts. Yes, it is frustrating driving around Calgary, but I don’t need to hear a rant about it over the length of my trip. Nor do I want to converse with chauvinists.
You’ve been warned. I understand these all relate to individual drivers, however the above experiences were collected over time from multiple drivers. I recommend Mayfair instead, much more pleasant experience.

There is a reason people want über, Car2Go and keys please. This company is a big part of that.

Checker cab with license plate K 57 339 — the driver last night is nothing short of a disgusting pig and I did report this to the police cruiser parked a block away. I was parking my car before dinner and I see a man peeing in the parking lot. I assumed he was homeless and thought nothing more — that is until I see he is peeing all over a newer Jeeps front bumper.
Before I had a chance to get out and say something he runs across the street and jumps into his car. He was the driver and was waiting in line to hopefully get a fare from the hotel. Instead of using the public washroom inside the hotel which was even closer he thought the front of this jeep would save him time and still allow him to stay in the line up of cabs.
Some lucky customer handed him a credit card to pay not knowing that this guy just pissed in a parking lot over someone elses car and didn’t wash his hands.
I know first hand that 1 bad apple can ruin it for the bunch in a customer service industry. This review is not knocking the company or other cab drivers whom I have had a pleasant experience with however the 1 * rating is directed towards the despicable actions of the 1 driver therefor it also attaches to the company whom employs him.

Lovely! I don’t think I have ever ridden in a checker cab before– but they will be my go to now. Today, my daughter and I were running late for the bus and missed it by just a few seconds. A cab was just coming out from the car wash and saw, and offered us a ride on his way home. It turned out where he was going was across the street from our home, so we graciously accepted. He was lovely, and talked to my daughter and myself. When we got out, he refused a tip and said he just wanted to help. His cab smelled lovely (like when you test drive high end cars), he was polite and that was very unexpected. Thank you for rescuing us on this chilly day!

Bad. Bad. Bad. There’s the 1% of drivers who are friendly and keep a clean cab. Then there’s the other 99%. Smelly, dirty cabs, late, take you on wrong routes for longer rides… or how about that one time the guys car started smoking so he told me I had to get out and find another way. Didn’t call me a back up AND had the balls to make me pay him the $ 10 we had driven. Checker cabs can suck it! So glad Über is here!

In Calgary, this cab line is by far the nicest I have experienced! Nice cars, nice drivers, a good experience.

Just in town for work. Downloaded your app after hearing about it on the radio. Amazing! Have used it twice already today and waited less than 10 minutes! Great service from both drivers. Cars were clean and the drivers were courteous. Love the suits! Big shout out to the Checker and their drivers: 1125 and 235!

I flew in from Houston and used Checker Cab many times due to how many cabs there were in the city. I heard they had about 850 cabs so I downloaded their app. Fast service with the APP and I enjoyed the suits and happy drivers! I will recommend to everyone coming from the Houston area for Gas and oil… or the stampede. I heard it is a trip from the driver.

Terrible cab service. Called and they said my cab would be there in 5 – 10 minutes. I waited 20+ minutes or so and then called them back on the whereabouts of my cab. And they said it’ll be another 5 – 10 minutes. I cancelled it and I’m never going to try call them again.

I never write reviews so this company was so bad that I had to write my first ever review. This company will:
1) Call you multiple times to try and figure out your address over a 30 minute period
2) Then never show up (without letting you know)

There’s only a few things out there I’m known to spark into a heated rant about and the crummy state of the taxi industry in this car dependant city is one of them. So here we go!
I’m just waiting for the day an independent Taxi alternative transportation company comes along and makes this sad, disorganized dinosaur of a company and system extinct. Give me Über, give me Lyft, or give me a local version like that.
If you’re able to flag a cab down and you have cash, you might be able to get a ride, but other than that, Checker Yellow Cabs are a joke of a service. It’s funny how many cars just happen to have a broken debit/​credit machine and will only take cash. Here’s an insider tip: They just don’t want to claim the trip and they’re lying to you. If you tell them you have cash, the debit/​credit machine will magically work when you reach your destination. They’ll be mad at you, but they’ll somehow figure out how to fix that machine.
If you’ve ever wanted to cruise down your residential street at 90km/​hr you’ll love Checker Yellow Cabs.
If you’re looking for a great excuse to miss your flight, you should definitely call Checker Yellow Cabs. They’re happy to not show up at all.
If you want to listen to someone complain about the dispatch system non-​stop (and rightfully so!) give Checker Yellow Cabs a shout, they’ll rant far more than I’m doing right here.
Yes, these are all first hand experiences that I’ve been fortunate to experience multiple times.
To the drivers who are awesome, friendly and do their job very well — I hope changes come along that benefit you.
Yes, many of these problems have to do with the drivers but I don’t blame them one bit. I’m sure they’re inherently good people, but they aren’t receiving incentive in the proper way. There’s no accountability to either drivers and passengers. I want taxi drivers that show up, and they want customers that also show up. If there was someway to reward the ones that do ( Unilocal style rating system perhaps? :D) for both drivers and customers I think we’d be better off. Instead they get to act however unprofessional they want because what are you gonna do about it? Customers also get to act badly because what are the drivers going to do about it?
During peak hours, unless you’re downtown and able to flag a ride, don’t count on getting a taxi. They don’t take calls and even if they did there’s aren’t enough cars to go around. Calgary taxi companies always seem to explain that it’s a balancing act. They can’t put more cars on the road because then there are way too many cars in the non-​peak hours and then drivers starve. What I don’t get is why it seems like every single car needs to be run by a full-​time driver. If you only make money when there are available fares, why are you wasting your time sitting around looking for passengers when there are none? Why can’t classic supply and demand balance this out? If you’re not making an acceptable amount of money, go do something else. When there’s money to be made in with your cab, get out there and get some! This will balance the number of cabs out so that we have the right amount on the road all the time. Instead, we’re stuck with far too many full time time cab drivers during slow hours and not even close to enough at the peak hours. So much so that there are gypsy cabs everywhere in Calgary. People see a market for more cabs, so individuals are out there illegally offering people rides in exchange for money. Cab companies, why don’t you want to cash in on this? Gypsy cabs are dangerous because you have no idea who you are getting into a car with. But, if there was some sort of regulatory company to legitimize the drivers this would be an insanely profitable venture!
At the end of the day, what are you gonna do? Until one of these companies sees the benefits to overhauling their system we’re stuck with one crummy cab service. It’s only a matter of time before the legalities of a cab alternative get ironed out. I think it would be wise to make some quality investments in making yourselves relevant.

Filthy van with animal hair on the seats, dirt and grim on the doors and handles and stuff splattered all over the roof. Not to mention our cab driver was 10 minutes late, barely spoke English, and didn’t know how to get to the airport ! He expected us to give him directions as to how to get there ! Never using checker cabs again.

Take ANY cab other than checkered. They are the absolute worst for customer service. My recommendation to avoid checkered cabs like the plague is based off of several terrible experiences with them.
Tonight was the worst experience. The driver got angry that I was paying credit and not cash, then he started verbally harassing me saying I have no right to pay credit and that it costs him extra. I don’t tolerate being treated like garbage as a customer so after a few minutes of him acting extremely rude to me I asked for my credit card back and told him to cancel the transaction. I then stepped out of the car and said I’m paying credit or your not getting paid. His reply was nothing but cussing, cursing, and racial slurs. I decided to alert him that I was not paying for his services and advised him to call the police if he fealt that would sort things out. He then called me a thief and pushed me into the street (my girlfriend watching everything was starting to get worried but I told her everything was ok). So now he was instigating violence, but I was the better man and brushed it off. I took pictures of his license plate and of him. He ended up charging my credit card so I had to call my credit card agency to cancel the transaction and report an incident of credit fraud with the police (I didn’t sign or approve the transaction but he must have ignored that fact). The answer is YES I got my money back, but still doesn’t make up for everything. I will NEVER get in a checkered cab again.

Wow, I hardly know where to begin, so maybe I’ll abuse an old cliché…
:: : THE GOOD: : :
Checker seems to be the biggest cab company in the city. I see more of their cars than anybody else, and the estimated arrival times show that. I’ve called Associated a few times only to be basically told they had no idea when they could get a cab to me, or that it’d be over an hour (usually in bad weather or late on a Fri/​Sat night) then called Checker and had one within 20 minutes or so.
They also typically keep their cars very clean and pleasent, typically arrive on time, etc.
The call center is about as good as any other cab company — if it’s late on a weekend or snowing, you’re gonna be stuck calling back 438 times, and they’re going to be very abrupt and to the point, but they get the job done.
:: : THE BAD: : :
You know the old cliché about freshly immigrated drivers that barely speak English? Well, Checker may or may not have started that tradition, but they definitely perfected it. I can’t remember the last time I had a driver in a Checker cab that I *didn’t* have to repeat myself on every instruction I gave. This has, more than once, lead to them completely missing turns and having to take big detours, requesting a specific route and having them take another one entirely, or at the very least just a lot of confusion on their part and frustration on mine.
They’ve also started a new procedure where they give your phone number to the driver and have them call you a few minutes before pickup to confirm that you’re still there. I understand that it could be frustrating if somebody calls for a cab and, by the time they arrive, the person has already flagged down another one… but as somebody with more sympathy for service workers I find it rather tiresome, especially when I’m likely busy with something or have my hands full, to have to answer another call (usually from someone who I end up having the aforementioned communication problems with) just to confirm that yes, I still want the cab I just called for a few minutes before. Give me a break.
:: : THE UGLY: : :
it’s one thing to still be learning English, that’s not something they can really help… but call me crazy, if you’re driving a cab, you should either a) know the city or b) Use a GPS. This is what you do for a living. I shouldn’t have to pull out my phone, google maps locations, and give the person who’s job this is turn-​by-​turn directions… and yet this is something I’ve had to do dozens of times. Between this and the language problems, I’m convinced they’ll take just anybody who has a valid license. It’s irritating.
…all that being said, I’ve had literal NIGHTMARES with Associated that Checker has saved me from on more than one occasion… so they get less than ½ points cause they still suck, but they get the second star for being the lesser of two evils.

worst cab company I’ve ever experienced. I take cabs 1 – 3 times a week and will gladly take my business elsewhere.

Unreliable, rude service, one of the most popular and most undeserving of all the cab companies in Calgary. I’ve travelled and used cabs a lot and This company is one of the worst.
I’m so tired if bad treatment and the final straw was can #867 who, in his ignorance and rudeness, caused me more distress than I or anyone in a similar situation would deserve, I can’t be bothered even wasting another breath on their poor review even.

Let me start this out by commending the cab driver I had. He was a great dude. He was not my designated cab driver but he helped me out when I was in need so the cab driver alone deserves a solid 5 star rating.
But a whole other thing can be said about the operating staff.
So lets just paint this pretty picture here. It’s a Saturday Night. On one of the coldest snoweyist nights of the year (honestly why did I decide to go out in the first place?) I’ve been in this situation before, I know It’s going to be hard to get a cab. I live in the way North East of the city so I take transit as close to home as I can and then get a cab. My usual spot to meet cabs is the Whitehorn train station. I’m on the train leaving downtown so I call Pound Taxi and they transfer me to Checker. That’s cool I «HAD» no preference to cab companies until this night. I’m on hold for at least 10 mins understandable. Someone finally answers the phone as I near the Marlborough Station.
I tell him I need a cab to the Whitehorn train station. He replies with «which side the East or West?» I know I’m going to sound stupid but I don’t know which side is the east or west so I said «The side with the parking lot off to the left of the train station.» To which he replies «well where are you?! Are you not at the station?!» I said «no its really hard to get a cab on a Saturday night I’m thinking a head I am really close though.» Anyone who knows the area knows that the Marlborough Station and Whitehorn Station are close to each other within minutes of each other actually. So he fires back with «well you should be more responsible because it can be there in 10 minutes.» I wont lie I’m getting irate at this point the attitude is unnecessary I realize its probably not the nicest job but the rude-​tude is not needed. So I responded with «that’s fine cause I’ll be there in 9 minutes.» I was then told he didn’t need to deal with me and transferred me to someone else. Probably a blessing in disguise.
The lady who answered the phone next was actually pretty nice so kudos. By this point in time I was at Whitehorn I told you within minutes. So I ordered my cab and all was fine it would be there in 20 minutes. Yeah! I get to go home!
So keep in mind I’m a girl, by myself, it’s midnight, a blizzard, and in a sketchy neighborhood. Not the safest place to be. But whatever I’m a big girl I made my own decisions. 20 minutes rolls around, no cab. That’s cool it is a blizzard after all. 30 minutes rolls around no cab, okay that fine. 40 minutes rolls around getting annoyed, getting scared a sketchy looking dude just asked if I wanted to buy illegal items off him. Okay that’s it I had enough. There’s a 711/​gas station a few blocks away I walked over there hoping to find a cab parked/​filling up.
Oh PRAISE! There was ironically a Checker Cab there filling up. I asked if he was the cab driver for Brittany going to the Whitehorn Station. He said no, he had no clue what I was talking about. So I asked if there was anyway he could take me home because I had been waiting for so long. And he did. What a dude. I like him.
I thankfully get home. Yeah! I crawl into my nice warm bed and fall asleep.
The next morning I wake up to one missed call at 3 am from. guess who, Checker Cab. Angrily asking me where I was and my cab had arrived.
Keep in mind I called and asked for a cab at MIDNIGHT!!! And it apparently arrives at 3 in the MORNING! So that means I would have been waiting outside, in the cold, in the dark, by myself for 3 hours.
So all in all the cab driver who went out of his was to get me home safely is a damn champ! But other than that I have nothing nice to say.

I knew it would happen eventually from everything I have read…
My husband uses this company to take him to a Calgary airport hangar for fly in-​fly-​out jobs and he obviously cannot be late for the plane.
It worked the first 2 times he had to do this, the cab showed up at our home.
This morning — NO-​SHOW and the pickup arrangements are always made the night before. Not acceptable. My husband called the Co. twice this morning wondering where they were to hear, «The cab is on the way» X 2.
He had to drive himself at 530am and try to find a place to park in time to catch his plane.
Not a cool way to run a business Yellow Cabs, way to go leaving your customers high and dry.

Rude drivers! Arrogant! Always complaining!!!
Stay away from this taxi company

I took a Checker Cab yesterday from the Sheraton Eau Claire to the Calgary Airport (YYC). I suspect he padded the fare a bit as 5^th Avenue was a more direct route to the Deerfoot Trail than this guy’s up to 9^th Avenue and back down option. However, since I was anxious to get home and on expense account, I decided to enjoy the ride.
This cabbie turned out to be an interesting guy to chat with. Apparently, an earlier fare was apparently none other than Kofi Annan, who he described in great detail. I was enthralled until he started talking about meeting Bill Clinton, at which point I suspected that I was being shined. No matter, as I was safely deposited at the YYC curb for the start of my journey home.