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Supercharger Taxi Overuse - What to do?

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Hello,

As a Tesla fan from the beginning, I've been a lurker in these forums for several years, and enjoyed reading about your experiences as owners, and of course learning lots about the cars.

Full disclosure first: I drive for Current Taxi in Kelowna

I completely understand the owners point of view on our commercial use of the Kelowna (and Victoria) Superchargers. I've had many conversations with owners when they have questioned me on this issue. What was posted above that detailed what our owner said is correct, and is a topic of daily discussion amongst us drivers. We are limited to 2 cars at a time at the chargers, and we co-ordinate internally when one of us is heading there to charge. Yes, if its a slow time of day, such as early morning, you might see more than 2 plugged in during a shift change as we are required to hand over the car to the next driver with at least 250kms on it. But this is closely monitored by us and we will not deny a spot to an owner ever. During especially busy times (New years eve, busy christmas party weekends just before Christmas etc) we were told we could have up to 4 at once, but again, only if there was at least 1 spot free for owners, and we would need to relinquish those spots for owners as required.

This has become more of a challenge lately as one of our competitors has also started driving Model 3s. We will unplug if one of their Model 3s is plugged in and there are no spots left. I don't think that other company will do the same.

As we grow, I've heard rumors of our own SC getting installed for our own use, this would be great for all of us, drivers and owners alike.

If you see us at the SC, come talk to us, most of our drivers are just as big fans of Tesla as you, and we also have the unique distinction of having a lot of experience with the S, 3, and X models. I've showed new owners all the nuances of their cars, shown first timers how to plug in and charge, and had great conversations about the EV world in general. We are driving them for the same reason you bought them, because we believe in the future of EVs.
 
Hello,

As a Tesla fan from the beginning, I've been a lurker in these forums for several years, and enjoyed reading about your experiences as owners, and of course learning lots about the cars.

Full disclosure first: I drive for Current Taxi in Kelowna

I completely understand the owners point of view on our commercial use of the Kelowna (and Victoria) Superchargers. I've had many conversations with owners when they have questioned me on this issue. What was posted above that detailed what our owner said is correct, and is a topic of daily discussion amongst us drivers. We are limited to 2 cars at a time at the chargers, and we co-ordinate internally when one of us is heading there to charge. Yes, if its a slow time of day, such as early morning, you might see more than 2 plugged in during a shift change as we are required to hand over the car to the next driver with at least 250kms on it. But this is closely monitored by us and we will not deny a spot to an owner ever. During especially busy times (New years eve, busy christmas party weekends just before Christmas etc) we were told we could have up to 4 at once, but again, only if there was at least 1 spot free for owners, and we would need to relinquish those spots for owners as required.

This has become more of a challenge lately as one of our competitors has also started driving Model 3s. We will unplug if one of their Model 3s is plugged in and there are no spots left. I don't think that other company will do the same.

As we grow, I've heard rumors of our own SC getting installed for our own use, this would be great for all of us, drivers and owners alike.

If you see us at the SC, come talk to us, most of our drivers are just as big fans of Tesla as you, and we also have the unique distinction of having a lot of experience with the S, 3, and X models. I've showed new owners all the nuances of their cars, shown first timers how to plug in and charge, and had great conversations about the EV world in general. We are driving them for the same reason you bought them, because we believe in the future of EVs.

Hey, thanks for replying. I couldn't imagine (un)officially replying as an employee online for any company I work for!

If you're officially limited to 2 or 4 depending on times and business, it does seem like not everyone is respecting that. Especially if the 4 vehicle cap is only for those truly crazy days like you mentioned, and not just a regular daily rush hour period or weekend spike. Perhaps the "not denying a spot to someone" is the difficult part - as someone needing a charge, I'm not going to actively walk up to one of the Current vehicles and ask you to unhook. I move through my life interacting with and impacting as few people as possible, and I'm sure others attempt this to some extent as well, haha. Anyhow, something in this situation is not working even if the official policy implies it should be fine right now.

It hurts a little to say this, but that company newly using a Model 3 would definitely be in violation of the Supercharger terms of service. An argument can be made that Current is grandfathered in, but not the new company. That said, that's quite unfair to that company when Current can use it. I can see why Tesla doesn't really want to get involved and just lets it happen. I'm extremely torn with all of this.

You won't get your own Supercharger (Tesla has done this nowhere else, to do so for Kelowna would be shocking), but plenty of 50kW CHAdeMO stations exist that your employer could install for private use. This could've been what you meant though, not sure.

Good to know that most of the drivers are Tesla/EV fans though. Wasn't sure if it's "just a job" to most of you (which is totally fine, and honestly what I expected) or if you actually really liked driving around an EV for work. Maybe I'll say hi next time, I have all sorts of questions (like how many times the battery has been replaced on that original Model S, or how much range it gets these days...).
 
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Téo Taxi got their own Superchargers: Tesla Superchargers Debut at Montreal-Trudeau Airport for Téo Taxis

I'm sure others could get them as well.

Huh, very interesting. Other discussions on this board have basically led to the inevitable Tesla response of "no, Superchargers are public only" even in the context of people with a lot of money that just want their own personal fast charger. It sounds like these stations were installed years ago and the taxi company no longer exists.
 
Téo Taxi got their own Superchargers: Tesla Superchargers Debut at Montreal-Trudeau Airport for Téo Taxis

I'm sure others could get them as well.

Huh, very interesting. Other discussions on this board have basically led to the inevitable Tesla response of "no, Superchargers are public only" even in the context of people with a lot of money that just want their own personal fast charger. It sounds like these stations were installed years ago and the taxi company no longer exists.

Here's another article with more information on the private location that was installed in Montreal: Tesla to deliver its largest privately-owned Supercharger station to a taxi fleet in Montreal - Electrek . That mentions 12 stalls but I'm guessing they never got that far? It does mention the 12 would've been limited to 60 kW...but I guess this was back before Urban Superchargers were out.

I think I've heard of another private location in Europe and yet another in the Middle East but haven't tracked those down yet.
 
Here's another article with more information on the private location that was installed in Montreal: Tesla to deliver its largest privately-owned Supercharger station to a taxi fleet in Montreal - Electrek . That mentions 12 stalls but I'm guessing they never got that far? It does mention the 12 would've been limited to 60 kW...but I guess this was back before Urban Superchargers were out.

I think I've heard of another private location in Europe and yet another in the Middle East but haven't tracked those down yet.

Ohhh, so these aren't "real" Superchargers but some weird shared 60kW stations. Going the CHAdeMO route would have a lot of benefits at that point, at the sacrifice of only 10kW maximum and semi-permanently attaching the adapter unless there's a Nissan Leaf or something in the fleet.
 
Hey, thanks for replying. I couldn't imagine (un)officially replying as an employee online for any company I work for!
I thought twice about it, but in this case its a relatively small community, and at the end of the day I personally would like owners to feel good about what we're doing. I'm hoping one day to change careers completely to be more involved in green transportation inititives.

Perhaps the "not denying a spot to someone" is the difficult part - as someone needing a charge, I'm not going to actively walk up to one of the Current vehicles and ask you to unhook. I move through my life interacting with and impacting as few people as possible, and I'm sure others attempt this to some extent as well, haha. Anyhow, something in this situation is not working even if the official policy implies it should be fine right now.

We would definitely vacate a charging spot the moment you pulled up if there were no empty spots, and we do our best to police ourselves and limit usage to 2 at a time. Unfortunately however, people being who they are, not every driver may be complying 100% of the time to this, and I can assure you we are most definitely working internally to resolve this.

It hurts a little to say this, but that company newly using a Model 3 would definitely be in violation of the Supercharger terms of service. An argument can be made that Current is grandfathered in, but not the new company. That said, that's quite unfair to that company when Current can use it. I can see why Tesla doesn't really want to get involved and just lets it happen. I'm extremely torn with all of this.

We do work closely with Tesla, so they are fully aware of our activities. I'm not privy to the details at all, and have no idea what the situation is with the other company, but at the end of the day, this can ultimately be good for everyone as it will force Tesla, Current, and the other guys to come up with solutions. EVs are still relatively in their infancy and the industry has a lot of growing to do. I'm starting to see other commercial use Teslas charging at the SC, so its a problem that's not going away.

You won't get your own Supercharger (Tesla has done this nowhere else, to do so for Kelowna would be shocking), but plenty of 50kW CHAdeMO stations exist that your employer could install for private use. This could've been what you meant though, not sure.

As I understand it, they aren't cheap, but it is doable. We would have to pay for it.

Good to know that most of the drivers are Tesla/EV fans though. Wasn't sure if it's "just a job" to most of you (which is totally fine, and honestly what I expected) or if you actually really liked driving around an EV for work. Maybe I'll say hi next time, I have all sorts of questions (like how many times the battery has been replaced on that original Model S, or how much range it gets these days...).

There are a few drivers where its "just a job" but the majority of them really do believe in EVs and enjoy driving the cars. I'm doing this job BECAUSE its a Tesla, and I truly do love driving them - I still giggle to myself as soon as get in to start my shift. Its great talking to our passengers about them, and answering their questions. I swear, half of my job is Tesla Sales rep. I've had passengers book a ride because its the closest they can get to a test drive around here.
 
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Thought I would chime in, first time charging in Kelowna as I was low (I live in Kelowna) - 6 of 8 stalls were all being hogged at 5pm by current taxi, literally all of them at the same damn time. I get they need to charge, but do they all have to do it at the exact same time? Seems really rude and not necessary during busy rush hour periods. Also forced everyone to charge at 70kwh or less due to shared stalls. I hope Tesla add another SC spot in kelowna or West K as for my second SC ever, it was less than ideal.
 
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Thought I would chime in, first time charging in Kelowna as I was low (I live in Kelowna) - 6 of 8 stalls were all being hogged at 5pm by current taxi, literally all of them at the same damn time. I get they need to charge, but do they all have to do it at the exact same time? Seems really rude and not necessary during busy rush hour periods. Also forced everyone to charge at 70kwh or less due to shared stalls. I hope Tesla add another SC spot in kelowna or West K as for my second SC ever, it was less than ideal.
Tesla doesn't care (I've been chasing this for some time). As for Current, I don't know if it's that they have so many employees that it's just a rare occurrence to each, but the above stated policies are clearly not being followed.

While against official Supercharger fair use policy, Tesla seems happy with Current's operation. Probably free advertising to potential owners, at the cheap cost of inconveniencing some of today's owners.

I don't blame the drivers at all. They just need to do their job. Current pays to charge there, and Tesla is happy to allow it. Current owners/exec needs to put their foot down, and it's really not in their best interest to.

There were talks about a Vernon Supercharger but I can't find any info on it.
 
Tesla doesn't care (I've been chasing this for some time). As for Current, I don't know if it's that they have so many employees that it's just a rare occurrence to each, but the above stated policies are clearly not being followed.

While against official Supercharger fair use policy, Tesla seems happy with Current's operation. Probably free advertising to potential owners, at the cheap cost of inconveniencing some of today's owners.

I don't blame the drivers at all. They just need to do their job. Current pays to charge there, and Tesla is happy to allow it. Current owners/exec needs to put their foot down, and it's really not in their best interest to.

There were talks about a Vernon Supercharger but I can't find any info on it.

Yeah, please do not take the statement as an attack on the drivers or anything. I just found it a bit concerning that so many were all there at the same time, struck me as a bit odd. In all fairness, I think only 1 car waited for a little bit so it was not a big fuss, I was more just thinking long term as more cars in the area that things like 6 fleet cars charging at once could be really frustrating for people travelling and such. I have a 240 volt charging situation at home so its super rare I even SC, I was just taken back from a sea of taxis. I am all for taxi being EV and not polluting and such of course.
 
Yeah, please do not take the statement as an attack on the drivers or anything. I just found it a bit concerning that so many were all there at the same time, struck me as a bit odd. In all fairness, I think only 1 car waited for a little bit so it was not a big fuss, I was more just thinking long term as more cars in the area that things like 6 fleet cars charging at once could be really frustrating for people travelling and such. I have a 240 volt charging situation at home so its super rare I even SC, I was just taken back from a sea of taxis. I am all for taxi being EV and not polluting and such of course.

Completely agree. The argument in favour of Current is "well, it's travel season, people use taxis more, may as well be EV" and our argument is "well, it's travel season, so people need Superchargers more too". Depending which you value more, there is no right answer :p

As far as using EVs for taxis, I'm not enamoured with their continued sole use of Teslas, but it makes sense (especially back when they started) as a marketing move. Of course, when they started, it was the only real option as well. But now, especially if they get their own charging stations that are CHAdeMO or CCS (like they've said for a while now), there's no reason to use Teslas alone. It would be interesting if they expanded their EV choices.
 
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These guys have a terrible reputation in Kelowna for this.
Every single time I head to the supercharger, they’re using at minimum 4 of the stalls, oftentimes cars are parked waiting. Not to mention they’re inconsiderate to the charging dos and dont’s, oftentimes parking directly beside you even though they could stagger making charging more efficient.
The other day I was parked here, a current taxi pulled up directly beside me even though there were two spots available. I unplugged, and moved over to take advantage of the faster charging. They were all laughing about it.
It’s very very common to see current taxis idling here throughout the day, not leaving room for independent owners.
Their agreement is totally fabricated. They have an agreement to horde the trickle chargers at best western, not the Tesla chargers.
 
With respect - Isn't this what the whole EV Movement is about? To reduce dependancy on fossil fuels is the ultimate goal. Montreal has one of the best adoptions of EV's I've seen in my personal travels. I've been to super chargers there, where out of 12 SC's 10 were in use and 2 of those users were taxi M3's. It's all good. Everyone has to charge, whatever the "deal" is. This is an eco-system which is on its way to achieving a degree of critical mass and I personally an happy to see more EV taxis.

Again with respect, if this is your reaction now, how will you feel when Tesla opens their network to non Tesla cars, through CCS? I think we have to expect the network to continue to expand - just like petrol stations.

Peace out.
 
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Good points but this location has been a problem for me as well. I book hotels based on their level 2 chargers and expect to be able to fill up while I sleep. Most of the time I find those units are either broken, ICEd or have a taxi using them.
Gone are the days when I could drive Calgary to Vancouver and not meet anyone at a supercharger to chat with.
 
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So a big part of the problem is these current taxi drivers will actually leave their cars there unsupervised for long periods of time not even plugged in, awaiting the new driver to take over.
Just found out you can plug these cars in regardless of the owner being around so moving forward any current taxis i see at this location that aren’t plugged in will be getting some pretty large idling fees.
 
So a big part of the problem is these current taxi drivers will actually leave their cars there unsupervised for long periods of time not even plugged in, awaiting the new driver to take over.
Just found out you can plug these cars in regardless of the owner being around so moving forward any current taxis i see at this location that aren’t plugged in will be getting some pretty large idling fees.
Without supercharger access these taxis would be dead in the water. There would be too much downtime to charge with any other system. Idle fees only come into play if the SC is largely full. Maybe it is the cost of doing business. As more Tesla are on the road there, the availability to charge randomly throughout the day will hamper their service. At one time, Tesla did not support commercial use of superchargers, but that is likely in the past now.
Leaving a vehicle unattended for long periods should be reported to Tesla FWIW.
 
So a big part of the problem is these current taxi drivers will actually leave their cars there unsupervised for long periods of time not even plugged in, awaiting the new driver to take over.
Just found out you can plug these cars in regardless of the owner being around so moving forward any current taxis i see at this location that aren’t plugged in will be getting some pretty large idling fees.
How will you open the charge port door if the vehicle is locked?