(DRUMMONDVILLE) En cette période de l'année où se préparent les bals de finissants, les policiers du poste de la Sûreté du Québec de la MRC de Drummond vont distribuer des coupons prépayés Cool Taxi et ce par tirage, le tout représentant une valeur de plus de 1550 $. Cette initiative de la MRC de Drummond et de la SQ s'adresse à toutes les écoles secondaires de la région.

Cette année, l'objectif de la campagne est d'offrir une option supplémentaire pour le retour à la maison de ces jeunes qui seraient tentés de monter avec quelqu'un qui n'est pas en état de conduire ou encore qui décideraient de prendre le volant sous l'effet de l'alcool ou de la drogue.

Aussi, les promoteurs souhaitent amoindrir les sources d'inquiétudes des parents lorsque leurs jeunes sortent pour la soirée.

Source : Cyberpresse.ca

Reason to go to university?

“People with fewer qualifications are prone to age more quickly, a study [that] looked at 400 men and women says,” BBC News reports. “DNA evidence suggests cellular aging is more advanced in adults with no qualifications compared with those who have a university degree. Experts think education might help people lead more healthy lives. The British Heart Foundation said the London-based study, in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity, reinforced the need to tackle social inequalities.”

Not your father’s general

“Serious intelligence failures meant British commanders were unprepared for the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan as soldiers ‘turned up a hornets’ nest,’ three of the country’s most senior military officers have said,” reports The Guardian. “General Sir David Richards, the chief of the defence staff, told MPs the British had got involved in a very serious situation, adding: ‘War is a bummer.’”

Kinder, gentler horns

“Out-of-control horns are one of the biggest complaints about taxis in New York,” says The New York Times. “So thousands of ringing ears perked up last week when the city announced that its high-tech new taxicab, the Nissan NV200, would include a so-called ‘low-annoyance’ horn, which promised to reduce ear-splitting honks. But what would a ‘low-annoyance’ horn sound like? Nissan, which is responsible for figuring this out, had no immediate answers when a reporter called last week, and even City Hall officials had trouble articulating exactly what they were looking for. ‘Less grating, less sharp and jagged,’ said David Yassky, the city’s taxi commissioner, when asked to describe his ideal beep. ‘Mellifluous might be aiming too high,’ he added.”

21 summits of Everest

“A Nepalese Sherpa on Wednesday broke his own record for most climbs of Mount Everest by scaling the world’s tallest peak for the 21st time,” Associated Press says. “Apa, who is leading an environmental expedition that plans to carry down tons of garbage left behind by past climbers, took advantage of good weather to reach the 29,035-foot [8,850-metre] summit with a group of other climbers. … [He] began carrying equipment and supplies for trekkers and mountaineers at age 12. He first climbed Everest in 1989 and has repeated the feat almost annually.”

Want some kitty ears?

Leah Chernikoff of Fashionista reports: “I saw this mind-blowing promo video for this new product from Japanese company Neurowear that came to my attention via The Daily What. It’s cat ears on a headband and the ears actually move and wiggle like real cat ears in response to your emotional state by reading your brainwaves.” The ears stand up when the wearer concentrates and lie down when the wearer is relaxed. “And we know, from watching the video, that the ears also go down when you feel rejected. Who would reject a woman wearing cat ears that move?”

Armpit stains? A puzzle

“With summer a little more than a month away,” says The Wall Street Journal, “count on sweating ruining at least one shirt with a yellow armpit stain. … Underarm sweat may bother you, but it fuels an industry of deodorant, stain remover and absorbent shield makers. Many admit they’re still struggling to discover a true cure for this common sweat zone and its resulting shirt stains. Deodorant makers, detergent manufacturers, stain-removal companies, doctors and textile professors disagree on what exactly causes the pesky underarm yellow stains. One factor may be the critical ingredients in the antiperspirants themselves.” Brian Johnson, director of training at the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute, recommends washing rather than dry-cleaning shirts with yellow underarm stains. “The stains are water based, so you need water to get them out,” he said.

Putin as Paul

“Vladimir Putin has become the object of veneration for a bizarre Russian all-female sect whose followers believe that the tough-talking prime minister is a reincarnation of the early Christian missionary Paul the Apostle,” The Daily Telegraph reports. The sect says Mr. Putin is on a special mission from God. Father Alexei, the priest in the local village church, has dismissed the sect. The founder’s “so-called teachings are a nonsensical mixture of Orthodoxy, Catholicism, the occult, Buddhism and political information,” he said. Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Mr. Putin, said: “It is impressive that they think so highly of the prime minister’s work but I would like to recall another of the main commandments: Thou shalt not worship false idols.”

Thought du jour

“Destiny is carried out, fate is suffered.”

– J. Christopher Herold (1919-64), U.S. author and editor

Source : The Globe and Mail

The head of Toronto’s taxi-licensing committee is drafting a blueprint for the complete overhaul of the city’s deeply divided taxi industry, making good on Mayor Rob Ford’s campaign pledge to explore killing the two-tier permit system that’s blamed for a decade-long rift among cabbies.

Would-be reformer Councillor Cesar Palacio is entering territory riven with infighting over a convoluted system that deems some licences worth as much $350,000 and others completely worthless, in an industry that has enriched a few and denied a decent living to many.

Mr. Palacio is calling on city staff to launch a round of stakeholder consultations that will likely end in the death of those valueless licences, also known as Ambassadors, which were launched 13 years ago as a saviour for an industry in crisis.

“The introduction of the Ambassador program in 1998 created a rift,” states Mr. Palacio in a motion obtained by the Globe and Mail that will go before the committee on May 31, “and is one of the most pressing issues that needs to be addressed if we are to move forward in any meaningful way.”

Even before Mr. Palacio’s announcement has gone public, some drivers are predicting calamity.

“Depending on how it’s done, this could put a nail in the coffin of the Toronto taxi industry,” said Gerry Manley, a driver for 39 years.

The root of that divisiveness lies, in part, with the Ambassador program, ushered in by councillors Howard Moscoe and Denzil Minnan-Wong when the industry was seen as unsafe and exploitative. The sole form of cab licence in the city – the Standard, of which 3,500 remain on Toronto streets – had become a valuable commodity. Through leases and sub-leases, many cabbies essentially became rent-a-drivers with little stake in the cars they drove, a situation that resulted in shabby cars and poor service, according to Mr. Minnan-Wong.

The Ambassador licence attempted to undo that. It was issued by the city to owner-operators with the understanding they alone drive the cab. Because drivers could not swap or lease them, the new licences had no value. “It put the customer first by ensuring the owner of the car is behind the wheel,” said Mr. Minnan-Wong. “We know that owner-operators provide the cleanest cabs, the safest cabs, because there’s pride of ownership.”

Today, with 1,400 Ambassadors plying Toronto streets, that reputation remains. They are the taxi of choice at upscale places like the Royal York Hotel. Drivers take months of classes on Toronto topography, winter driving and first aid.

But deep problems have arisen. The Ambassador model restricts car operation to one driver, or about 12 hours a day, giving them half the earning potential of a Standard licence-owner. And Ambassador drivers complain that their income is cut off entirely if ever they get sick.

“How can we run a business if we aren’t allowed to hire anyone?” begs Farzad Bakhtiar, who drives a silver Toyota Prius affixed with the cartoonish Ambassador logo on the door. “When the Standard owners retire, they can sell or rent their licence, we cannot. We have to give our licence back to the city. And we starve.”

Those complaints have reached a tragic climax of late. In February, an Ambassador cabbie was hospitalized after a brutal stabbing. During his long recuperation, he has had to return his licence to the city, leaving his cab idle. Other Ambassador drivers have had to do the same while battling cancer.

“You literally have people dying at the wheel because they have no other way of making a living,” said Jacob Leibovitch, Executive Director of iTaxiworkers, a union representing 700 cabbies. “And if a driver dies, that leaves nothing for the family. Nobody else can drive under that licence.”

The union has planned a demonstration for June 3 at City Hall to press their case for transferring Ambassador licences to Standard licences. And they have the influential backing of Gail Souter, owner of Beck Taxi, Toronto’s largest cab brokerage, who has hired a lobbyist to convince Mr. Palacio and the mayor to swap existing Ambassador licences for new Standards.

That nudge may have helped convince Mr. Palacio to pen his motion.

But a hasty conversion would prompt just as many protests as it would silence. Most drivers already believe there’s a glut of cabs on Toronto streets, and adding 1,400 Standard licences would only exacerbate the problem

“You convert 1,400 cars that work 12-hour days to 1,400 cars that can work around the clock and that’s a lot of extra drivers on the road,” said Mr. Manley, the Standard owner-operator. “A lot of drivers are already going home with only 50 to 75 dollars in their pocket. Now they want to add more drivers to the mix. It would kill the industry.”

The other quandary is how to deal with the sudden windfall of converting worthless licences to those worth six figures. “The program wasn’t designed so that the owners of the plates could make hundreds of thousands of dollars by selling them,” said Mr. Minnan-Wong. “By allowing this, you would allow for the deterioration of the system where you have cars leased to taxi-drivers who don’t have pride of ownership. But we will see.”

Source : The Globe and Mail

A taxi driver was involved in a three-car accident on the de la Montagne exit of the eastbound Ville Marie tunnel Wednesday at the height of the afternoon rush hour. The taxi hit a first car in the rear, which then hit the car in front around 5 p.m., Sureté du Québec Sgt. Geneviève Bruneau reported. Two persons had to be hospitalized as a result of the collision, but their injuries were minor. By 6 p.m., normal traffic flows resumed, she said.

Source : The Gazette

En réponse à la lettre de Marie-Andrée Baril: Un p'tit vomi, c'est pas la fin du monde publiée samedi.»

Pendant 11 ans, j'ai travaillé pour une compagnie de taxi et j'ai été chauffeure de nuit pendant quatre ans. Des p'tits vomis, j'en ai vu, et j'en ai senti! Chère madame, avez-vous seulement déjà vu quelqu'un après une soirée très arrosée? Ce n'est jamais des petits vomis et l'odeur est tenace. Je m'excuse auprès des coeurs sensibles...

Deuxièmement, il est faux de croire qu'un chauffeur de taxi est obligé d'accepter un client même s'il a l'argent pour payer le trajet.

Les chauffeurs ont amplement le droit de refuser un client. La plupart sont des travailleurs autonomes, c'est-à-dire qu'ils ont un pourcentage sur chacun des voyages effectués.

Donc, chaque appel compte et perdre une demi-heure ou trois-quart d'heure à nettoyer une voiture peut leur faire perdre d'autres voyages tout aussi importants pour la sécurité des gens. Et pendant ce temps perdu à nettoyer, un autre jeune ne patientera pas pour le taxi qu'il a commandé et qui prend du retard, et ce même jeune décidera de prendre son véhicule.

Autre chose: seriez-vous intéressée, madame Baril, de vous asseoir dans un véhicule qui sent le vomi?

Ou encore vous asseoir sur un siège humide parce que le client précédent a uriné alors qu'il était trop saoul pour se rendre compte qu'il s'échappait? Et ce genre de situation est arrivé souvent.

Je suis tout à fait d'accord avec le fait que les gens doivent être plus responsables sur la route. Oui, les billets Cool Taxi sont une excellente initiative. Sans compter le service de raccompagnement (taxi deux chauffeurs) offert par certaines compagnies de taxi.

Mais il ne faut tout de même pas profiter du fait que les taxis sont là pour boire à s'en rendre malade. Soyez raisonnable avec votre consommation d'alcool.

Si vous buvez, prenez un taxi, ou un raccompagnateur. Mais s'il vous plaît, prenez conscience qu'un chauffeur de taxi, c'est avant tout un être humain. Un être humain qui n'est pas obligé de supporté un p'tit vomi qui pourrait l'incommoder, lui ainsi que le client suivant.

Source : Cyberpresse.ca