1982 Checker taxicab in green and cream with Checker's trademark checkerboard trim.The Checker Taxi (Checker Cab) was the American taxicab produced by the Checker Motors Company of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Checker Taxis were used by its founder Morris Markin in the taxi service that he owned and operated under the name Parmalee System. While Markin's competitor John D. Hertz coined the term Yellow Cab, Markin's Checker, particularly the 1956-82 A8/Marathon, remains the most famous taxi cab vehicle in the United States. It is comparable to the London Taxi in its nationally renowned styling, which went unchanged throughout its use, and also for its iconic status
HISTORY CHECKER CAB
Morris Markin, a clothier from Chicago, Illinois became the owner of a Joliet, Illinois auto-body manufacturer when its owner defaulted on a $15,000 personal loan from Markin. The facility made bodies for Commonwealth Motors who marketed the vehicles to cab companies under the trade name Mogul.
Concurrently, Checker Taxi — a privately-owned cab company in Chicago that had no affiliation with Markin — placed a large order for Mogul cabs with Commonwealth. Commonwealth itself was on the verge of bankruptcy, so Markin merged the two companies in order to honor the contractual commitment with the Chicago Checker Taxi. Markin named his concern the Checker Cab Company. However, there was no overlap in ownership.
John Hertz began in the taxi business in 1910, both building Yellow Cabs and operating the livery service. Because of plant overproduction, Hertz used the excess cars by renting them to patrons through his "Yellow Drive-Ur-Self" division (the forerunner of Hertz Rental Car). Seeing Hertz's success, Markin began buying up Checker's rolling stock in 1924, gaining full control of Checker Taxi Cab in 1937.
Markin also followed Hertz's business plan in having drivers open doors for the fares, and outfitted each driver with a uniform. Competition for fares was fierce in the 1920s, and the easily spotted drivers began ganging up on one another between fares. The fighting between the two cab companies escalated to the point where Markin's home was firebombed. This prompted Markin to buy the Dort Automobile factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan and relocate Checker.
Under Markin, Checker became the first cab company to hire African-American drivers and the first to require that drivers pick up all fares, not just white ones.
Hertz had sold his Yellow Cab to the Parmalee Transportation Company, but in 1929, after a suspicious fire at his stables killed his prized race horses, Hertz left the cab business, with Markin buying Hertz's shares and then acquiring another one-third in the company from Parmalee, thus taking control of both Parmalee and Yellow Cab.
HISTORY CHECKER CAB
The Yellow Taxicab Co. was incorporated in New York on April 3, 1912. Among its directors and major stockholders were Albert F. Rockwell and the Connecticut Cab Co. In 1908, Albert Rockwell, founder and General Manager of the New Departure Manufacturing Co. of Bristol, Connecticut, traveled to Europe to evaluate their taxi systems, hoping to develop a similar one in Washington, D.C.[1] By later that year the new Rockwell cabs were being sent to several major cities including New York. W.C.P.[2] was the first livery to introduce the yellow cab to Manhattan streets. By March 1910, the Connecticut Cab Co. (essentially the directors of New Departure) assumed operating control of W.C.P.'s taxis.[3] Shortly after incorporation the Yellow Taxicab Co. merged with the Cab and Taxi Co., and with the strength of Connecticut Cab with whom its name was interchangeably used, the young business assumed a large share of the New York market. Its corporate life was fairly short, however, as fare wars and restrictions forced a merger with the Mason-Seaman Transportation Co. on March 3, 1914.
The Yellow Cab Co. (of Chicago) was founded by John Hertz in December 1, 1915. The related Yellow Cab and Yellow Truck and Coach Manufacturing Company acquired Walter L Jacobs car rental business. The Yellow Truck Company and rental car business was sold to General Motors in 1926.[4]
None of these fully suited the taxicab industry, so on December 31, 1914 the first Yellow Cab Manufacturing Company Cab was designed, and the Model J was released in August 1915.
Hertz ran the taxicab company until 1929, when he left to found another rental car company, Hertz Rent-a-Car, which still uses a yellow logo as well.
The taxicab company was purchased in 1929 by Morris Markin, who had established Checker Cab Manufacturing Company, with the Checker Taxi, a driver's cooperative.
The company was sold again in 1996 to Patton Corrigan, who in turn sold controlling interest in 2005 to Michael Levine, a third-generation taxicab operator from New York City. The Levine/Corrigan group has also purchased the Checker Taxi Affiliation in Chicago, to reunite the two companies once again
COLOR
According to Yellow Cab Co. tradition, the color (and name) yellow was selected by John Hertz as the result of a survey by the University of Chicago which indicated it was the easiest color to spot.
While Hertz may well have consulted with the University of Chicago on a desirable color, there were yellow taxicabs already in major American cities before 1915, to the credit of Albert Rockwell. Bristol Engineering, a subsidiary of New Departure Manufacturing Co., produced its first yellow cabs in 1908. It is very likely that when John Hertz bought and borrowed cars for his fledgling business, older yellow cabs from the Chicago area were among his acquisitions. The popular story goes that the wife of the President of New Departure, Nettie Rockwell, particularly liked the color yellow and it therefore became the color of the new Rockwell taxicabs. The Rockwell Service Cab became the Yellow Taxicab when Mrs. Rockwell selected that as her choice of color for the auto.[5]
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