Cab from Hillsboro to PDX (Portland, Beaverton: home, neighborhood, school districts)

[UKjay]

Just an FYI regarding Portland and one particular cab company.
I talked to Pacific Cab three times to arrange for a cab from Hillsboro to PDX at 8am. I was told once by the owner, June, and the second time by the dispatcher, no problem and to call the day before I needed the service. Well, I called the day before and was told that NO WAY, that time frame was completely booked by school runs. School runs? Portland uses cab companies to take children to school? Seriously. I guess the emissions saved by using a cab and not a individual car makes a difference.
I thought Austin was odd, Portland a tip of the "hat."

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Originally Posted by UKjay

Just an FYI regarding Portland and one particular cab company.
I talked to Pacific Cab three times to arrange for a cab from Hillsboro to PDX at 8am. I was told once by the owner, June, and the second time by the dispatcher, no problem and to call the day before I needed the service. Well, I called the day before and was told that NO WAY, that time frame was completely booked by school runs. School runs? Portland uses cab companies to take children to school? Seriously. I guess the emissions saved by using a cab and not a individual car makes a difference.
I thought Austin was odd, Portland a tip of the "hat."

Cab companies are very unreliable. Using ride share off CL is worse. I needed a short ride to the airport in the wee hours of the morning and after being turned down by a cabbie, I went to Yelp reviews and found a highly rated company and no problem.

[EnricoV]

Originally Posted by UKjay

Just an FYI regarding Portland and one particular cab company.
I talked to Pacific Cab three times to arrange for a cab from Hillsboro to PDX at 8am. I was told once by the owner, June, and the second time by the dispatcher, no problem and to call the day before I needed the service. Well, I called the day before and was told that NO WAY, that time frame was completely booked by school runs. School runs? Portland uses cab companies to take children to school? Seriously. I guess the emissions saved by using a cab and not a individual car makes a difference.
I thought Austin was odd, Portland a tip of the "hat."

Pacificab is located in Hillsboro, not Portland. That's a smaller city in the suburbs. Just the fact that you talked with the owner, ought to have clued you in that you're not dealing with a huge fleet of cabs.

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by UKjay

School runs? Portland uses cab companies to take children to school? Seriously. I guess the emissions saved by using a cab and not a individual car makes a difference.
I thought Austin was odd, Portland a tip of the "hat."

Not Portland specifically, but various State and County agencies use cab companies to pickup mentally disabled children, and young adults and adults who are in the Foster Care system to take them to school or "jobs." These are people who born with mental disabilities and will never be fully productive members of society, yet they are nowhere near capable of taking care of themselves.

It's cheaper to send a cab to pick them up then a bus.

[oldtintype]

Kids in foster care as part of the various state/fed laws are encouraged to stay in the same school whenever possible. Sometimes that means (for example) a child living in a Beaverton foster home while their parents are working thru whatever their issues are is allowed to stay at the school he/she previously attended in Portland. Sometimes the only way to do this is via cab. And since schools generally don't accommodate kids with disabilities in their neighborhood schools, you might have a child in outer SW attending a school in outer NE due to federally mandated FAPE (Free and Appropriate Education) or LRE (Least restrictive environment). If the other kids attending the program all live in NE or SE it makes no sense to send a bus to get the kid in outer SW. Hence a cab. Saves the school districts a lot of money but the cabs are contracted to be there at an exact time every morning in exchange for a regular fare. The cab drivers that participate have to go thru the same background checks and often training that school bus drivers do.

[Minervah]

Also, when the TriMet Lift Service that picks up disabled students and adults vans are overbooked they use cab service. I qualify for and sometimes use this service when necessary and have had the Broadway Cab Company come and pick me up in lieu of the TriMet van when this has happened. This is another example of when cabs are used for other than just personal pickup service. My pre-purchased ticket for the Lift Service is then used for the cab.