Satellite system stonewalled

Robert Brummer's continuing crusade for taxi security

By PHILIP PREVILLE

According to former taxi driver Robert Brummer, the most difficult part of any Code 13 situation is actually sounding the alarm. "It's hard for a driver to alert his dispatcher when he has a knife at his throat," says Brummer. "It's not the best time to start talking on the radio. Besides, in most cases, the first thing the assailant does is sabotage the radio."

Then there's the problem of the independently owned and operated cabs, the hundreds of "phantom" cars labelled only "A-11" who roam the streets with no dispatch radio. "How are they supposed to make a distress call?"

Brummer says his company, Concorde GPS Taxi Systems, has the answer. Brummer wants to outfit all Montreal taxis with a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) locator and a hidden panic button. The panic button would relay a signal via satellite to a 24-hour monitoring station, while the GPS locator can track the vehicle's whereabouts down to the nearest streetcorner.

Brummer insists his new-and-improved security device, which also equips cabs with a debit/credit card reader, is the best there is. Concorde has signed letters of intent with eight companies representing about 2,000 taxis.

"I think Brummer's GPS system is a good idea for safety and for Code 13s," says Armand Doganieri, assistant director at Montreal's oldest taxi training school.

And, says Brummer, it wouldn't cost anyone a red cent. The whole thing could be paid for through corporate sponsorship, in exchange for advertising space on the cab's rear window.

The problem: current regulations forbid advertising on cabs.

For four years he's been lobbying industry associations, the MUC Taxi Bureau and the Quebec Ministry of Transportation, to no avail. He feels stonewalled. "No one has ever said anything negative about the system itself," Brummer insists. "The reaction is always, 'It's not my department' or 'It's against regulations.' But if my system will improve security, why not change the regulations? Sometimes I think they'd prefer to have a cabbie get a knife in the back."

Frustrated, Brummer now wants to take his proposal to the people he says matter most: he wants the MUC Taxi Bureau to conduct a binding poll of all taxi owners to ask them what they think. "Let them vote according to their own self-interest," he says. "If they turn it down, I can live with that. But they should have the final say on their own security." :