Gilroy
– At least five times a week, Antoinette Conrad calls Union Taxi
Co. for a ride to visit her husband at Gilroy Healthcare and
Rehabilitation Center. Almost as often, Patty Gonzalez rides Union
to her job at Hometown Buffet.
Gilroy – At least five times a week, Antoinette Conrad calls Union Taxi Co. for a ride to visit her husband at Gilroy Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center. Almost as often, Patty Gonzalez rides Union to her job at Hometown Buffet. Every day, dozens of local seniors and the disabled ride with the Yellow Checker Cab Company to senior centers and physical therapy classes.
While Gilroy roads will never resemble the yellow-streaked streets of New York City, the city’s cab business is growing with its population, and what used to be strictly a mom-and-pop enterprise is starting to resemble big business. The days of single-driver cab companies are ending, with small but growing outfits like Union and Golden Taxi dominating business, and Yellow Cab planning to start Fiesta Taxis, a side-company aimed at South County’s Hispanic populace.
“There is a lot of competition in Gilroy,” Brian Doyle said recently. Doyle is the sole proprietor of South Valley Cab, which he operates in Morgan Hill and San Martin. “The city got permit-happy and started licensing everybody who came along.”
Doyle used to have a permit in Gilroy, but let it lapse because he couldn’t afford it. To register each of his three cars would cost about $200, but he said he would eventually like to expand as far south as Hollister.
According to the Gilroy Police Department, there are now 43 permitted cab drivers in Gilroy. Sgt. Chad Gallacinao said the department doesn’t maintain old permits, “but there are definitely more permits and definitely more drivers.” The police have also been conducting more criminal background checks, which are required for permitted drivers. The sergeant said cabs are being taken by all segments of Gilroy’s population.
“I see elderly people and I see [taxis] up and down Monterey on Friday nights, but I also see them over at the [Krazy] Koyote,” he said.
Yellow Cab, a San Jose company, has the most cars – 10 – licensed in Gilroy, but the company offers very little traditional cab fare. Most of its business is through contracts with the county’s Outreach program, which provides discounted rides to seniors and the disabled.
Matilda Ortega, 81, takes Outreach to meals at the Gilroy Senior Center and to go shopping at the Eastridge Shopping Center in San Jose two or three times a week.
“They’re very helpful and very nice,” she said of the drivers. “I like it a lot, but I do wish it would go to Salinas.”
Those who don’t qualify for those services depend on Gilroy’s regular taxis. Conrad, 86, moved to Gilroy from Palo Alto two months ago after her husband suffered heart failure. Conrad suffers from optic migraines and hasn’t been able to drive for two years. When her husband got sick, she moved to Gilroy to be close to her daughter. Nearly every day she calls a taxi to make the short trip from Wheeler Manor on Sixth Street to Murray Avenue.
“The drivers are very polite, very nice,” Conrad said. “I go at different hours [so I don’t always have the same driver], but I see several that I’ve known before. I call when I’m ready to go and they come right away.”
Gonzalez takes a cab to work whenever she can’t find a ride because the bus doesn’t always work with her schedule. She said through an interpreter that she doesn’t mind paying the $5 each way.
Spanish-speakers are frequent taxi users. So much so that Yellow Cab is about to launch Fiesta Taxis to take advantage of the business in east San Jose and South County.
“What we’ve found in Gilroy is that it’s feast or famine,” said Dave Logan, operations manager for Yellow Cab. “I’m hoping that with Spanish-speaking drivers and Hispanic operators to answer the phone, we’ll be able to be successful.”
Gilroy’s cab companies are for the most part operated by Hispanics, so Fiesta will have to either find an untapped market or take business from Golden and Union. Pedro Virgen, a driver for Golden, said business is always up and down.
“This is a crazy job,” Virgen said one day last week as he waited for fares at the Caltrain station. “I make good money on Friday and Saturday nights.”
Virgen’s best clients are the ones who want to go clubbing in San Jose. It costs about $70 to get there. And from a business perspective, Virgen, who is from Mexico, prefers white customers because they tend to tip better than people from other cultures.
“White people will tip $10 on a $5 ride,” Virgen said. “Latinos don’t tip. A lot of them they don’t have any money, and in Mexico it’s different. There’s no tipping there.”
