FROM PAGE A1

naby only increased its bid
by three per cent on
that of three years earlier.

But they never had a
chance. For the first time
ever North Shore ° Taxi
entered the bidding for the
contract. And, to everyone's
surprise, they clinched it
without anyone else even

ing close.

The bid was based on the
company driving the routes
it would use to take the
children to school, metering
them out, adding an inflation
factor and totalling up the
costs.

Nobody im the company
had any idea whether the
total would be remotely
competitive and it was
assumed it would probably
be high.

But the bid of ap-
proximately $180,000 for the
three-year contract was
$72,450 less than Kays. A
fourth bid was more than
twice as high as the one
offered by the taxi company.

Whatever the savings,
Kays President Len Greer
doesn’t think much of the
idea:

“I think it’s pretty
shoddy when they allow a
taxi company to start hauling
kids around,” he says.

He used to use five buses
to get the children to school
each day and thinks that’s
the best way for it to be
done.

“There's the safety factor,
for one thing.” he says.

However, the safety
aspect looks as good to the
school board as the price,
since unlike on a bus, each
child travelling by cab would
have his own scat belt.

An accident with a cab
would imvolve only four
chikiren, all of whom would
have their own scat belts,
compared to up to 28
children without seatbelts on
a school bus.

Greer still doesn't accept
it.

“A school bus will take
more when it is hit. The car
will roll over, probably, but
the school bus won't.”

The fact is, the school
board checked out all the
safety factors with the
Ministry of Transport and
other licencing authoritics
and didn’t get back a single
ncgative reply.

According to schoo! board
coordinator Tom Carlile.
“principals, teachers and
parents of the special necds
classes were unanimous that

they would rather have
taxis.”
The reasons, he says.

amount to flexibility of the
arrangements and to
travelling timc.

QUICKER

Time spent by the children
in cabs will be considcrably
less than on the buses.
According to the school
board the absolute
maximum travelling time
works out to be 32 minutes,
from certain spots of Decp
Cove.

“From cverything we
could look at, it looks like it
will work out very well,” says
Carlile

“T don’t think as a public
instMution, we have much
choice but to go with the
lowest bidder Also, North
Shore Taxi as a North Shore
company ~

All five of the Kays school
bus drivers two from
North Vancouver and threc
from Burnaby - have becn
bed off, the buses were put

up for sale and Greer thinks
the loss of the contract may
put the firm im serious
financial trouble.

North Shore Taxi General
Manager George Hankinson
says he was as surprised as
anyone else that taxi
transportation worked out to
be so much cheaper than
bus.

He says it comes down to
matters of geography and
ingenuity.

“It’s not a fault of the
school bus,” he says. “It’s
just our flexibility and size.
We didn’t cut prices or rip
into anything. We were
really quite surprised we
ended up saving the school
board this much money.”

Distances are kept to a
minimum by the way the
routes have been divided up
to correspond to the location
of taxi stands in North Van,
he explains, meaning drivers
are closer to children’s
homes when they start out
each day.

“The time factor is cut
way down,” he says. “We put
im a lot of research and time
for studying the routing in a
way we could handle the 65-
odd children.”

Children who have got
used to seeing the same bus
driver each day are unlikely
to find their cab drivers
chopping and changing.

“We have given certain
undertakings that we will

School bus company never had

have steady people,” says
Hankinson. “We will do as
much as possible to have the
same driver on the same
route, so there is a

Ae RARE 24

FS

pas

familiarization.”

He predicts the children
will end up better off than on
the bus.

“We feel the children will get

Interior Thousands of rolls, hundreds of selected

Latex Patsst patterns for livingroom, bedroom. ..

every room in your home!

*" This ts the average regula
quality You can save the

Buy you decorshng needs trom Coto: Your World at 1/2 the price you would
etsewhore

Premuum quality.

water based for easy
clean-up Low sheen.

] sold hide finish

sold with our guarantees of quality

ice of competitive product: of compersbic
tferance Every Color Your World product tes

Also
Extertor
Oll Stain

All - Wednesday, September 8, 1982 - North Shore News

a hope in bids

terrific attention, compared
to the school bus,” he says.
“There is one capable driver,
for a much smaller number
of children.”

‘*your mind’

See
COMBINED
FURNITURE & APPLIANCES

1590 Marine Drive
North Van. 987-2251

Sligo

ts Fone een
tayo ian eae TODO
rere

‘enparaane
Renae Pree 20B4

2 blocks north of
Upper Levets Mery.

=

Saxe Murais

Fat Exterior Paint &
Stain Clearance
Save 30% off the Color Your Wond

E Low Proce on aff FE xtencor
and Stam

Save up to $16*
Wall Murals

$9.95 to $38.95

Afi patterns may not be avaliable in all stores.

Color Your World.

Sale ends Saturday, September 25, 1982.
2925 Lonsdale, N. Van.

985-5222

1887 Marine Drive, N. Van.

At Capilano Ra., east of
Plaza international Hotel

980-8567