Montreal’s airport cabbies will have to step up their wardrobe game starting this fall, when a business causal dress code comes into effect.
Taxi drivers who pick up fares at Trudeau Airport will have to wear either a collared shirt or a polo with dress pants and shoes – no more flip flops, Bermuda shorts or t-shirts.
Stanley Bastien, a cab driver and member of a consultation committee working with the airport on policies for taxi drivers, said he advocated for the code because he thinks it will project a better image of the city.
“We are the first contact with people coming from all around the world, and when we are not properly dressed we give a perception or misinterpretation of what Montreal is,” he said.
Bastien also said the measure will about more respect for taxi drivers and prompt the drivers to have more pride in their jobs.
“It’s like a police officer dressing in a uniform. You feel like you can rely on that person and that’s why I wanted it,” he said.
Dory Saliba, president of the Montreal chapter of a provincial taxi lobbying group, said she hoped the new policy will improve Montreal's image among visitors.
"At the aiport there is over a million pick ups a year," she said. "We thought that it would be very interesting just to make the dress code a bit better so it's a better welcome for the tourists."
Most airport cab drivers CTV News spoke to Friday have no problem with the measure.
Cabbies also won’t be able to apply for airport permits if their vehicles are more than four years old, and there will be be more green cars at the airport – more than 100 taxis out of the roughly 300 in the fleet will be more environmentally-friendly, either hybrids or electric.
