A WHITE & YELLOW CAB, INC 1 - 2005

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11 Y INSIDE SECTION 5 H orosc we, .._. . _ -.3 .:om�s. _...._... _.. ._...c- aea• aoir; .. . anage. -. -_. _.._..._ _.......' Tie po C'Ossworc— .... .... 7 Schorling, general manager of A Taxi Cab dress as thev moose? MONDAY, SEPTEMBER I2, 1997 - Co., the company There are 17 other cab companies in that insists on the Orange County;' Schorling said. "If a driver dress code for its doesn't like our dress code, that dnver is Bob Greene drivers in Orange free to work somewhere else." 'When county. t�.:'.. �Paen�n� 'Travellers in American cities ex. MORE ON THE INTERNET: Wednesday at 9 yr See OW Millers, pest to get a cabdin p.m„ ion Bob Greene for a the nationwide they can't ver who looks like conversation on America Online. - ttetie ve their he lives in his cab, and smells {eke it t Chicago Chat w�,I too." Isn't that a rather Rick Schorling unpleasant picture to o Vl(� ''((..,, nY*�T taxicab iLU Sivl __ paint. true." he said' "It's true." he said r ,Most cab companies allow their drivers to dress any way they shocking SOS1lOCk1I1g want. A driver can wear a tank top' clothes he put on three or four days before, belie or no shire at all It doesn't matter to the it defies cab rontpanies -they lease the cabs to the drivers, so they make their money from the drivers, not from the customers. ANTA ANA. Calif -Get od your "When we started our company 10 years plane at the airport here in Orange ago, we decided to have a dress code. We Count} cam' your suitcase out of lease our cabs to our drivers -but we set the baggage claim area, walk out to the rules. U'they don't want to dress accor- the line of cabs ... ding to the code. they don't drive for us." And you see one of the most shocking. And the company enforces the dress code - belief -defptng sights in the United States Company-etnployed starters are on duty at today. A wave of unreality washes over the au-porl and if a cabdriver waits in the v'ou. you feel you are hallucinating. caught line of taxis unti he gels to the front. and in ;+ bizarre dream the starter inspects the driver's clothes and What you see is a line of cabdrivers finds them not up to the code, the driver is dressed in neat - -no. spotless -no. pristine- sent home without a fare. uniforms. Slack slacks. gleaming black "The shoes have to be dress shoes -not leather shoes, clean white shirts, red ties. black sneakers," Schorling said. 'The pants Not some of the drivers -all of them. have to be black dress pants -not black Cabbies clad to spit-and- polish, almost mill- jeans. The shut has to be a white dress tart', specifications, shut with a collar -not a casual knit shirt. "That's the miles of our company:" the It has to be clean. The red tie has to be driver who takes you toward your hotel pulled all the way up." says. "We have to dress this way or we Why do this' can't drive a cab - 'Ve want to be considered a professional But every cab' Every cab at the airport? company:' he said "The people who work "The company has an exclusive contract for us will look and act Ifke professionals. at the airport." the driver says. 'The way You have no idea how much the cab - riding We company got it was to promise to make public appreciates this. They have become the drivers dress like this." so used to the other that when they see our And the drivers go for it? drivers, they can't believe their eyes." "The customers go for it," the driver says. And the drivers don't complain' "It shows up in our tips. We don't mind "Not when they see how much more dressing this way:" manes they make when the customers are The fact that this would be newswor. impressed with how they look- Other cab thy- cabdrivers who all dress neatly, all companies are always looking for drivers. dress alike - probably says more about the We have a waiting list of people who want era in which we live than it does about the to drive our cabs, Apparently they don't particular taxi company that has the can• mind dressing according to our code." tract at the allpon in Orange County (an Is this idea destined to catch on around airport named for the late John Wayne), the US." It certaudy hasn't yet. If it had, the What Americans have come to expect imam cabdrivers at the airport here wouldn't be the stereotypical cabdriver is .. , stared at as if they were something out of a Well, stereotypes tend to be ugly and science fiction movie. unfair- But here are the words of Rtck What about freedom- people's freedom to Schorling, general manager of A Taxi Cab dress as thev moose?