A group of mostly Ethiopian transplants, with a combined total of 50 years in the American transportation industry, have fulfilled their longtime dream of opening their own taxi cab company thanks to the city of Aurora.
Last week, All Cities Taxi opened at 10 S. Havana St. after years of planning and regulatory hoop-jumping that members of the nine-person board of directors say was a learning experience that was 100 percent worth it.
“America is the land of opportunity, and we all had this dream to build our own company here,” said Teddy Kebede, public relations manager for All Cities Taxi. “The nine of us sat down and started looking for opportunities. We held meetings to get other drivers interested in the idea, and we got a huge response of interest in our concept. After a year or so, we had this dream come true.”
Chuck Hahn, with the Aurora South Metro Small Business Development Center, helped the group write a business plan to launch a large-scale, owner-operated cab service that carts fares around in seven counties from Denver and Arapahoe to Broomfield, Boulder, Jefferson, Arapahoe and Douglas counties. “We helped them get their certification through the Public Utilities Commission and worked with them on finding opportunities now and in the future to grow their business,” Hahn said. “They’ll have about 250 drivers who have all their own vehicles. It’s a big addition to the city, and we’re very excited.”
As of their launch Dec. 2, the cab company has 20 drivers who are all members and shareholders of the enterprise. To be a member, drivers are required to make an upfront investment of $2,500 and provide their own car, which must also be wrapped or painted to reflect the All Cities Taxi colors of green and yellow, or black with a decal logo on the side of the car.
That investment will be used as upfront operational costs for administrative and dispatch components. Because the founding members have all been driving limousines or specialty service vehicles in the U.S. since the 1990s and early 2000s, they say they understand how transportation companies should serve their clients and their drivers.
“One of the reasons that those nine people came together is because the existing taxi companies that we’ve worked for either go straight downtown or straight to the airport, ” said Haileyesus Desta, president of All Cities Taxi. “That leaves the suburbs very underserved. We noticed that and we’re here to fill that gap immediately.”
He said the cab company is also different from newer transportation services like Uber and Lyft in dozens of ways, including state certified background checks for all drivers, in-car security cameras, a fleet of Americans with Disabilities Act accessible vehicles, diverse payment and reservation options, and versatile dispatch systems that customers can either call into or request via cell phone apps.
“Uber and Lyft drivers are not professional drivers,” Desta said. “We together have decades of experience in the American transportation industry and we know what works and what doesn’t. So we’re pulling those experiences to provide a better personalized service to transcend the increasingly competitive transportation industry.”
All payments for fares go to the company, which then pays out its drivers.
“Large taxi companies charge the driver an unbelievable amount money, like $500 and $600 a week,” said TJ Teklewold, the company’s secretary. “Ours is only $125 a week and that includes insurance. Uber also takes a big percentage of fares from the driver. Our drivers are going to make more money. We are totally different than large companies and we understand their flaws and have corrected them in our own business model. Overall, we are less expensive in fares and fees and exponentially more professional.”
Inside their modest headquarters on Havana Street near East Alameda Avenue is a dispatch center, small garage for some company vehicles and a training center where drivers learn to use detachable tablets that communicate confirmed fares, appointments and busy areas where drivers are needed. Customers can also request specific drivers if they only want to use their services.
“They understand the local market and they understand those who use the taxi services,” Hahn said. “They’re also exploring some unique opportunities that maybe other transportation services might not be looking at. I think that’s really important.”
All Cities Taxi has contracted with certain health care institutions like University of Colorado Hospital to have drivers stationed in the area at all times to provide prompt, reliable medical transportation.
Molly Markert, former Ward 4 City Councilwoman and current contract manager with the health care nonprofit Colorado Access, worked with the group for years.
“This goes all the way back to getting letters of support from University Hospital and from Children’s Hospital and the Medical Center of Aurora and a lot of the clinics saying how difficult it is to rely on transportation for medical appointments,” Markert said. “From the hospital’s standpoint for discharges, patients can wait hours for a vehicle to pick them up, and it wasn’t working. So the notion that there’s someone waiting just down the street who can hop right over was very attractive. It was a crucial part of developing this service for the city.”
Desta said that partnership with area medical providers inspired other types of specialized services that All Cities Taxi drivers will eventually try to corner.
“We’re working on things like veteran medical transportation, non-emergency medical transportation, special-needs students transportation, senior transportation and so on,” he said. “As we begin to build, we will venture out of traditional taxi service and seek to become the premier, personalized transportation service in Aurora and the metro area.”
All Cities Taxi: 720-440-7000