On Guard

taxi driver: The Parking Authority takes over city cab services in April. Jimmy Weisbrod thinks it could be the end of his company, AvantGarde. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Small cab companies worry the PPA will put them out of business.

by Mike Newall

James Weisbrod, owner of AvantGarde Cab Company, takes a drag from the day's umpteenth menthol and captains his polished, forest-green Crown Vic through a congested Center City on Friday afternoon.

"We're a specialized company," he says through a plume of smoke. "We focus on a certain geographical portion of the city that we can handle — Center City, South Philly, Art Museum, Northern Liberties, Fishtown — and we serve it well. Very well. I tell you, there's a real strong interconnection between my customers."

Weisbrod's cell phone begins ringing, as it incessantly does.

"Afternoon, AvantGarde," he says. "Hiya Jerry, how're the kids?"

"Afternoon, AvantGarde," he repeats. "Hiya Christine. Time for work, huh?"

Weisbrod's operation went from a two-cab shop in 1993, when he'd park outside Moriarty's and take workers home one by one, to today's fleet of 25 cabs catering to a base of 500 regular clients programmed into his cell phone and scores of others who call in less frequently. Today, however, Weisbrod is worried about the Philadelphia Parking Authority.

On April 10, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission will transfer control of taxi and limousine services to the PPA. Weisbrod and other dispatchers decry it as a patronage grab orchestrated by Republican legislators in Harrisburg. They argue it will put many small cab-dispatch associations out of business. In an effort to consolidate Philadelphia taxi and limousine services, says Weisbrod, PPA concocted unreasonable regulations and raised service fees to levels that will make his business untenable.

"They can't legislate us out of business, but what they can do is make it impossible for us to stay in business. They are asking for a $10,000 bond from every dispatcher to cover any future fines," he says. "$10,000? The PUC never asked for any fine bond. Then they're asking for a $1,500 application fee, which may not be much for the larger companies that have 200 to 300 cabs, but it'll be extremely hard for the smaller ones. I asked, "Why not prorate it so smaller companies pay less?' But they never got back to me."

The PPA will also double the cost of medallion fees (for operating licenses) from $500 to $1,000. The application deadline for dispatchers and medallion owners for PAA forms and fees is Feb. 24.

"Smaller cab companies are going to be disappearing into thin air," Weisbrod predicts. "The drivers will latch on to the bigger companies. But the customers will lose the specialized service they had from the smaller companies."

And specialized service is what built AvantGarde.

"In a lot of cases, my clients are more like friends than customers," he says, stamping out his cigarette in a glass ashtray secured to the dash with Velcro. "I get to know the spouses, the kids. I know who smokes and who doesn't. I know if somebody's quitting a job before the boss does. I know if somebody's breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend before the boyfriend or girlfriend does. It's like a rolling social hour."

For more than two decades, Weisbrod has brought that unique, personal touch to the Philly taxicab industry. (Before opening AvantGarde, he drove for the Yellow Cab Company.) An engaging man with gray hair, ruddy cheeks and a quick laugh, he is an exacting cabbie. In 12 years, AvantGarde has never been fined by taxi enforcement. Cabbies call him "The Bunny," as in the Energizer Bunny, since he sometimes works 22 hours straight, fueled by natural energy, cigarettes, coffee and conversation. Once, in the early days of AvantGarde, Weisbrod worked an entire Labor Day weekend, 96 hours, stopping only for catnaps and food. "You'd be surprised what a 10-minute nap can do for a man," he says.

Despite its relatively modest size, AvantGarde seems to have a more devout customer base than other city cab companies. Many people in the city's service, entertainment and media industries use AvantGarde, and only AvantGarde, as a personal car service. For one thing, the cabs are clean. (Weisbrod is particularly proud of the forest green shade of his cabs and brags that none are defiled with the clunky rooftop ads that sit atop most taxis. "I call it the minimalist style," he says haughtily.) And they're reliable. The average arrival time is no longer than 10 minutes — far less than the 30 minutes or more larger taxi services routinely leave call-in fares waiting. Regular customers say the meters are accurate — 30 cents every two city blocks — and that the drivers take the quickest routes.

"It's the difference between fine dining and McDonald's," says Weisbrod, who himself is part of the attraction of riding AvantGarde. A fine conversationalist — erudite in history and politics — he is equally capable of regaling passengers with off-color stories, like the one about the transvestite hooker who held him up with a knife. "I started chasing him down an alley with my cab. I never did catch him, but it sure was amusing watching those heels fly."

AvantGarde isn't the only company affected by the transfer to the PAA. James Atalah, secretary for All City Taxi, is also worried.

"Many are not going to survive," he says. "They are making it so hard financially."

Michael Lieberman, president of Olde City Taxi, which has 190 cabs, says that while he's not happy with the looming regulations, he can meet the new service fees, "But if you're a little guy," he adds, "I guess it's not too good."

Weisbrod is also shocked by some of the arcane regulations that may be imposed.

"Cab drivers are independent by nature and they're Big Brother-ing us," he says. "We might have to wear jackets and ties. Try wearing a jacket and a tie while changing a flat in the rain. They want us to take a display ad in the city directory. A display ad in the phone book would kill me. Avant starts with an A. I'd be swamped with calls from all over the city. It would be hard for my regular customers to get through the maze of calls."

Further infuriating "The Bunny" and many other cabbies is that the PAA will attempt to regulate the amount of hours a driver can work weekly.

James Ney, director of the PAA's Taxi and Limousine Division, downplays the talk of weeding out smaller companies.

"The only intent here is better service and higher standards for cabs and drivers," he says. "There are problems with dirty vehicles, unsafe drivers and drivers that are not service-oriented."

Smaller companies, says Ney, will have to consider merging with two or three other businesses. The new regulations and a new global-positioning dispatch system that all cabbies are required to purchase in the next few years, adds Ney, will revolutionize cab service. Taxis will be cleaner and more reliable. The only cab associations weeded out, he says, will be the ones that provide poor service.

"By all accounts," says Ney, "AvantGarde has been a good-quality service provider. We don't want to see them fall by the wayside, and we will work with them to keep them in operation, but at this point it's very hard to say what's going to happen."

Weisbrod says he'll try his best to service regular customers as long as possible, but he's not optimistic.

"A year or two from now may be the end of the game for me," he says. "What they're doing is depersonalizing the cab industry."