Marin taxi company abruptly shuts down, leaves 60 people jobless

Marin taxi company abruptly shuts down, leaves 60 people jobless
http://www.marinij.com/business/20150503/marin-taxi-company-abruptly-shu...

Marin - Sonoma Taxi Cabs are parked at their offices at 49 Industrial Way, Greenbrae. The company has shut down, leaving Marin taxi drivers without jobs. Friday, May 1, 2015. (Robert Tong/Marin Independent Journal)
By Megan Hansen, Marin Independent Journal
POSTED: 05/03/15, 5:49 PM PDT | UPDATED: 16 MINS AGO10 COMMENTS

Jim Hite talks with a dispatcher on Friday, May 1, 2015 at The San Rafael Transportation Center. Marin - Sonoma Taxi Cabs has shut down, leaving Marin taxi drivers without jobs. Hite was lucky enough to get a job with North Bay Taxi. (Robert Tong/Marin Independent Journal)
Marin taxi drivers are scrambling to find new jobs and keep up with demand after one of Marin’s largest taxi companies closed abruptly, leaving about 60 people out of work.

The Greenbrae-based Marin-Sonoma Taxi Cab Co. — which encompassed A1 Taxi, Belaire Cab, Radio Cab and Yellow Cab Marin — closed its doors April 24 without warning. Its umbrella company, On the Move, a van transportation fleet, also shut down.

Taxi driver Don Malvey, a San Rafael resident, said he was lucky enough to get a job with the former company’s biggest competitor — Marin North Bay Taxi in San Rafael. Having worked for the Marin-Sonoma Taxi Cab Co. for 23 years, he was surprised to come to work one day to find a note on the door saying the businesses had closed.

“It created a pretty serious situation for a lot of drivers who have to pay rent and buy food. It’s not like we’re the top 1 percent of the economy,” Malvey said. “It left a whole lot of drivers with nothing. No warning whatsoever. It’s just a shame that somebody has to operate a business that way.”

Greg McCord, owner of the Marin-Sonoma Taxi Cab Co., was short on details about why he decided to close the business.

“There’s not really much to report, we just closed it. I’ve been doing it a long time and that’s the benefit of owning your own business. You can sell it, close it, do what you want when you’re done,” McCord said.

Robert DeWalt, former operations manager for the Marin-Sonoma Taxi Cab Co., said he feared the business would decline after his retirement last year.

“I worked for the company through about three or four owners for about 40 years,” DeWalt said, adding McCord was more interested in operating Hattar Motorcycles in San Rafael and his other motorcycle shops than running the taxi business. “Over the years, he just shaved all the company off to buy his motorcycle shops.”

Taxi dispatcher James Hite, a Richmond resident, said the closure of his employer’s business was the last thing Marin taxi drivers needed. He said they’re already struggling to stay afloat with the mobile app-based transportation networks of Uber and Lyft cutting into their business.

“This is very heavy on my heart because we were fighting with North Bay for all the business and our business was totally eroded by the apps, but it didn’t kill us,” Hite said.

‘A BASIC NEED’ FOR CABS

He said the mobile apps are often used by a younger crowd looking to go out to dinner, but what most people don’t realize is all the work taxi drivers do for seniors, schools and hospitals.

“People think driving a taxi cab is very easy. Uber won’t pick up little old ladies and take their groceries up to their doorstep for them,” Hite said. “There’s a basic need for taxis in our society and a myriad of social work done by the cabs.”

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Hite was able to get hired on with North Bay, but knows some of his coworkers weren’t as fortunate.

Bruce Swaim, of Santa Rosa, hopes to be hired by North Bay after working for the Marin-Sonoma Taxi Cab Co. for 23 years as a driver and dispatcher. He said the closure of McCord’s business came as a shock to everyone.

“There was one employee there, a dispatcher, who sent me a text message saying the business was closed,” Swaim said. “I was surprised.”

He agreed with Hite that it hasn’t been easy to be in business in an age where rideshare apps are popular. But he remains optimistic.

“I think the traditional cab companies will survive,” Swaim said.

COMMUNITY IMPACTS

Dennis Petri, executive director of the Marin Pupil Transportation Agency, said On the Move used to transport about 24 children for the agency, which is in charge of coordinating county buses.

Petri said he wasn’t pleased to receive a call about the van business shutting down.

“They took care of my kids that day, but I had to scramble over the weekend to make arrangements for Monday,” Petri said. “It wasn’t done right at all.”

Randy Kokke, president of the Marin Airporter shuttle service, said everyone was scrambling to figure out what happened when McCord’s business closed as taxi cab drivers frequently drop people off at the Airporter’s pickup sites. He said things have returned to normal since that first night.

“The other companies have stepped up and closed the gap,” Kokke said.

Larry Farnham, co-owner of Marin North Bay Taxi, said his company, which mainly provides dispatching and billing services for taxi drivers with their own vehicles, already has 30 drivers and will only be able to take on about six additional people. He said its unfortunate to see so many people out of work who will likely have to retrain for other jobs.

“We’re taking all that we can,” Farnham said. “We’re now organized enough so that we’re operating at a fair level. We’ll do better during the next few weeks.”

Follow Megan Hansen’s blog at http://blogs.marinij.com/bureaucratsandbaking.