Washington — Mike and John Schmidt long had dreamed of opening their own taxicab company in the Midwestern college town where their family had lived for several generations.
Opportunity knocked in 2010 when the business plan the brothers brought before the city council in Madison, Wisconsin, was approved without a hitch. They had startup capital from the sale of another company years ago, and a local dealer of hybrid Toyota Prius cars had already offered to sell an initial 10 vehicles to get the company going.
Green Cab of Madison took off, and a lot faster than the Schmidt brothers had ever hoped.
“It was perfect timing with all the Priuses hitting the market and everybody talking about going green,” said Amanda Schmidt, Mike’s 24-year-old daughter and Green Cab’s marketing manager. “We weren’t supposed to add the next 10 cars until we had been open for a year, but we had to add them right away. A lot of people really like us, and we’ve never even done any traditional advertising.”
Environmentally minded taxi companies have popped up in cities across the United States in recent years, appealing to riders who want to minimize their carbon emissions while on the road. In Arlington, Virginia, for example, a company called EnviroCab made a splash a few years ago when it opened as “the world’s first carbon-negative taxi fleet.” In Boston, the city has required all taxi companies to go hybrid by 2015.
With rising gasoline prices, such taxi companies are often able to offset high investment costs with lower operating costs.
Green Cab’s 20 Prius taxicabs in Madison get an average of 50 miles per gallon of gasoline (21.3 kilometers per liter). That compares with 15 or 20 miles per gallon (about 7 or 8 kilometers per liter) for a traditional American taxicab model, Schmidt said. Lower fuel costs translate into lower fares for customers; Green Cab now offers the best price in town for certain fares.
Of course it takes more than savings of a few dollars to get people to grab your cab, especially in a town with several other taxi companies. Green Cab tries to further distinguish its business with a high-tech taxi dispatch system that runs on a custom-made software program the company ordered to meet its specific needs.
HIGH-TECH DISPATCH
For customers who want to keep fares down and travel greener, Green Cab picks up other riders who are headed in the same direction. Customers can order a direct ride for a little bit more money.
Green Cab’s software system calculates the fare upfront when a customer calls in — taking into account the ride options and Madison’s complicated city zone system, which leads to an extra charge anytime a cab crosses a city zone border.
The call taker at Green Cab enters the rider’s phone number, address, type of ride and destination into the system, which then crunches the numbers. The fare has already been calculated and communicated to the customer by the time the taxi arrives.
The taxi fee is set, regardless of what route the driver takes or whether the car gets stuck in traffic. All cars are equipped with Apple iPad tablet computers that are connected to Green Cab’s booking software and that provide GPS navigation for the drivers.
“People getting into the cab are often taken aback when they see the driver using an iPad,” Schmidt said.
Another perk for green customers: Each car carries a bicycle rack to accommodate people who bike but want a ride one-way or part of the way.
“It’s important for the next generation that we think about the environment,” Schmidt said.
