To Taxi electric cab fleet hits the streets of downtown Montreal

Fifty electric cabs hit the streets of downtown Montreal today as To Taxi, Montreal's first e-taxi service, launched for aselect group of customers.

The first group of 500 beta testers signed up for theapp-based service before the taxis were even on the road.

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Noone is more excited about the launchthan the company'sfounder Alexandre Taillefer.

"When I started working on this project,I heard from friends, investors, and the community, 'You're crazy. It will never work,'" said Taillefer, managing partner at XPND Capital and a former "dragon" from Radio-Canada's version of the program Dragons' Den.

To Taxi quick facts:

• The main test fleet is comprised of Nissan Leafs and Kia Souls.
• All cars are equipped with metres and prices are similiar to those inother Montreal cabs.
• To Noir, the company's high-end service, is testing10 blackTeslasto compete with limousines in the city.

It's Taillefer's mission to turn Montreal's taxi industry on its head, creating better working conditions for drivers and dramatically improving service for customers.

"There's nothing you can say that empowers me more than,'You'll never be able to fix that,'" he said.

Hourly pay for drivers

To drivers get paid $15 an hour. They'll also get benefits, including paid vacation days.

"We found out the economic conditions of drivers was probably the number one elementwe needed to fix to make sure people could get the kind of taxi experience they deserve," Taillefer said.

Moez Dhifallah, one of the first taxi drivers hired by To, has worked16-hours a day for the past eight years. He now has a set, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30p.m. shift.

Dhifallah says the schedule allows him to have a balance between work-life and family-life, a change his four-year-old son Ahmed has already noticed.

"He's happy to see me [arriving] home at six o'clock and sharing activities and having supper with him," Dhifallah said.

For the next three months, To's service will be limited to the downtown core and only the 500 people who've already signed up for the app will be able to use it.

They'll provide customer feedback so that To Taxi can make adjustments before launching the service to all Montrealers in March 2016.

No fare hikes

To plans to equip every electric taxi with free wifi and a tablet in the backseat for customers to access TV news, newspapers and their choice of music.

It's part of the company's promise to offer "the best and friendliest service in town."

Rules for To Taxidrivers:

• Don't eat in your car.
• Don't smoke in your car.
• Cleanthe car every day.
• Don't talk on the phone if there is customer inside the car.
• Do not choose the music or radio station let the customer choose.

Taillefer says the fares for To Taxi will be around the same price as other cab companies.

A $65special farewill be offered to customers who pre-book round trips to the airport, to cut down on cabs leaving the airport with customers but returning to the airport empty.

The To app will take into account information about trains, airplanes, buses, strikes, events at the Bell Centreto make sure cabs are available where demand is high. Unlike UberX, To will not increase its fares during peak periods.

To Taxi hopes to have 1,000 electric cars on the road by 2017 and double thatby 2019.

"Recruiting the right people and putting the schedules together, making sure they treat the cars, the customers as they should is not an easy job," Taillefer said.

He says they're taking it one step at a time.

"The [human resources] aspect is what worries me the most but so far, so good," he said. "You see a lot of smiles on drivers' faces,"Taillefersaid.