What can I do if my cab driver is talking on a cellphone?

What can I do if my cab driver is talking on a cellphone?

Dear Urban Decoder: What can I do if my cab driver is talking on a cellphone?—Maeve Grady, Eglinton West

First off, know your rights. Chapter 545 of the municipal code, as well as the rule books at most cab shops, forbids drivers from making calls while taking fares. Of course, anyone who has watched a cabbie conduct a phone conversation while sipping a double-double and navigating rush hour knows the no-cell rule is often ignored. “We have a strict policy against it,” says a customer service rep at Beck: drivers who break the rule are taken off the air for four hours. Beck encourages fares to ask drivers to hang up, but if anonymous revenge is more your style, just jot down the driver’s number and call the cab company in question. Or try the city’s licensing and standards division, which may issue a summons resulting in a $105 fine or a demerit point. And take heart: there’s a good chance the province-wide driver cellphone ban will be here before you can say “Dalton McGuinty loves to legislate.”