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St John - Guides no longer able to drive?


nw_man
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Hi all,

 

We have an excursion booked in St John for October 17th i.e. 12 days from now..The tour company has just emailed us this :

 

I regret to announcethe City of St. John has suddenly and without warning changed their policyregarding tour guides and the transportation they use to deliver tours.Unfortunately, this will affect the way your upcoming tour is delivered – notin the content, but in the transportation arrangement. In short, Mike will notbe able to drive while he provides your tour.

They have offered us a couple of not very satisfactory options / solutions. One of which is a member of our party drives a rental vehicle, the other is a shared van with strangers.

We booked a private guide for the 5 of us, and paid a lot of money for it.

I am not saying their is anything untoward here, but call me suspicious, I find it difficult to believe the city has done this with immediate effect and no prior warning.

Any locals out there hearing anything?

Edited by nw_man
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We did a taxi tour of Bar Harbor in 2014 that was prebooked. The guide talked with both hands, while driving up the mountain with a cliff to the right down to the ocean! I can see where the rule might not be a bad idea.

 

Did they offer you a discount? It seems as though you providing a rental car or sharing a tour would be priced differently.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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We did a taxi tour of Bar Harbor in 2014 that was prebooked. The guide talked with both hands, while driving up the mountain with a cliff to the right down to the ocean! I can see where the rule might not be a bad idea.

 

Did they offer you a discount? It seems as though you providing a rental car or sharing a tour would be priced differently.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Alas no discount 😠

 

Due to the timing etc we are reluctantly taking the sharing tour as we feel we have little choice.

 

We can totally understand the fact that driver guides can be distracted - in Rome they have drivers and guides and never the twain shall meet - but the timing of the announcement makes us suspicious.

 

Call me a cynic, but i see too many people wanting an excursion and this company thinking, you know what, we can stick them all together and get a lot more $$$ for it.

 

Thanks for your reply. 😊

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This sounds very strange. Cities have no authority here to make regulations about driving, that is a provincial responsibility.

 

I'm also guessing you are going to Saint John, NB not St John's NFLD.

 

Correct, Saint John NB.

 

I also smell a rat !

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In Boston, they have a rule not allowing tour guides on certain vehicles to also be drivers. Specifically on Duck Tours due to a couple of accidents in the past.

 

Not had the pleasure of visiting Boston, it is on my list though :)

 

I know this kind of thing does exist, just finding it strange in this instance.

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Well to glad to know the tour company was being honest and there was no 'rat' as far as they were concerned.

 

Yes very happy to read the article, well not happy as such, feel for poor Mike and others but happy that the company appears to be 100% legitimate.

 

I am sure we will still have an awesome day :)

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They were telling the truth. We had a huge problem with our private tour in Saint John last week, and a big part of the mess was because of the new city rule.

 

We requested and were granted a 50% refund, because there were 11 of us in two vans with only one guide. The vans were actually taxis the company contracted with since their guides were unable to drive.

 

We were not at all happy with our experience in Saint John. In addition to the problems with our tour, the city as well as the fishing village of Saint Martin were completely overwhelmed because of three large ships in port the day we visited.

 

I would be hesitant to spend money for a private tour until companies get new procedures worked out. In our case, I felt like the company tried to go ahead with the tour but didn't have a good plan for how to make sure everyone had a guide in their vehicle. We switched off, but certainly didn't feel like we were given a great tour. During the times that our vehicle was without a guide we rode in silence with no idea what we were looking at.

 

 

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this really solidifies me getting a rental car and doing things on my own. and probably explains why the place next to the ship is sold out and i have to go to enterprise, a bit further away.

 

We have rented from Enterprize both times we were in St John. No biggie since they pick you up.

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This sounds very strange. Cities have no authority here to make regulations about driving, that is a provincial responsibility.

 

I'm also guessing you are going to Saint John, NB not St John's NFLD.

 

Cities DO and CAN make regulations for driving taxi and other public conveyance. For example, a taxi in Fredericton can not be a vehicle more than 3 (or maybe 5) years old. I can't recall which city here has a rule drivers must wear a shirt with a collar...... My guess is Saint John has decided to "regulate" the industry to create a revenue stream or has classified the private tours as taxi...which has its own rules, regulations and of course....a fee once a driver or company meets all their expensive "licencing" criteria. They need the $$$ for city coffers. (I was born and brought up there so I this does not surprise me.)

 

I doubt that your tour you booked was shady.....I suspect that there has been a lot of bureaucratic red tape that has been suddenly added not giving providers enough time to get their ducks in a row before your arrival.

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Cities DO and CAN make regulations for driving taxi and other public conveyance. For example, a taxi in Fredericton can not be a vehicle more than 3 (or maybe 5) years old. I can't recall which city here has a rule drivers must wear a shirt with a collar...... My guess is Saint John has decided to "regulate" the industry to create a revenue stream or has classified the private tours as taxi...which has its own rules, regulations and of course....a fee once a driver or company meets all their expensive "licencing" criteria. They need the $$$ for city coffers. (I was born and brought up there so I this does not surprise me.)

 

I doubt that your tour you booked was shady.....I suspect that there has been a lot of bureaucratic red tape that has been suddenly added not giving providers enough time to get their ducks in a row before your arrival.

 

What the change was figured out in an earlier post, thanks for your input.

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We have rented from Enterprize both times we were in St John. No biggie since they pick you up.

 

since we get in at 5 and they open at 8 i'm gonna get to the door by 8. i have a drive to st martins and dont want to miss low tide. i dont trust the timeliness of people driving to pick me up. they likely only get to work at 8

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What the change was figured out in an earlier post, thanks for your input.

 

 

I'm sorry about that....when I was looking on my device I was only seeing up to the post I quoted. I now see (now on different device) there were several posts in between my response and what I quoted which clarified the situation..not sure why they didn't show up.

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