Dodge Taxis In New York City
(all photos by the author)
My first real job was in the summer of 1964 when I worked for a taxi company in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I was paid ten bucks a day, a figure that my father thought exorbitant. In the morning I counted the cash envelopes from the drivers and entered the sums into a ledger. My boss not only taught me how to do this task, but how to swear in Puerto Rican, which I learned was quite different than the Mexican invectives that I had grown up with. Mexican swearing was pretty much profane, as it is in the US. In Puerto Rico it was very much sacrilegious. When I first processed “Me cago en la hostia” (I shit on the host), I knew that a lightning bolt was soon to make a direct hit on our office.
NYC taxi scene.
In the afternoon I did bodywork on the cabs. There was always work to do. But my favorite task was “hardening” the 1964 Dodges that the new ownership had purchased to replace the motley collection of aging Fords, Plymouths and Chevys that made up the fleet. The new owners owned a taxi fleet in New York City–all Dodges, so we did what was done in NYC. We removed all “crash parts”–outboard headlights and rear stop/turn signal lights and replaced them with thin aluminum block-off plates. The chrome-plated zinc headlight surrounds were put on the parts shelf until the cab was sold. Big bumper overriders were installed. The “1” and “2” pushbuttons were removed from the Torqueflite tranny selector and a block-off plate was installed. Who needs cabbie drag racers?
The Cab Lot at Chicago’s O’Hara.
I enjoyed doing the books and bodywork, but what I really wanted to do was drive. That would have to wait until I turned 21 while in college in Chicago. As soon as I could legally drink I was driving for Yellow Cab. The cabs that part-time drivers got (minimum, one day a week) were generally on their last legs. I was told by the dispatcher to drive a different car every day, find one that was worth saving, and let him know when I had identified my dream cab. He would then have any improvements made that I deemed necessary.
Your typical three year-old Checker
Body work wasn’t included in the desideratum. What I wanted was quiet brakes; shocks that worked; operational turn signals; and a tranny that shifted smoothly. I didn’t care about a working horn. Never used it. Gauges? Who cared? In Darrell Waltrip’s words “I never looked at the gauges, I was going to drive it till the bitch blew”. Yellow Cab #697 became my dream taxi.
The Dream Taxi.
Checker Motors, the manufacturer of Checker cabs in Kalamazoo, MI, prided itself in building the only “purpose-built” taxi on the market. Bolt-on fenders. Super-beefy frames. Huge rear seating area. But the truth of the matter was that the average fare was only 1.7 passengers. I didn’t need a limo. The jump seats in my cab were effectively rusted in the stowed position. I couldn’t use the trunk (didn’t even have a key for it) due to laws dating back to the Capone days of the bootleggers. Not even a spare tire.
One time at O’Hara (cabbies never called it “O’Hare–WTF?) I was dispatched from the cab lot to one of the terminals. The terminal dispatcher then assigned me to a woman with the most incredible amount of luggage I have ever seen, shades of Night at the Opera. I did my best to load all of this harridan’s crap inside my cab but I was woefully short of accommodating everything. She then began yelling, “why don’t you use the GD trunk you effing moron?” I told her that by law I couldn’t. She called BS on me at which point I called in the dispatcher an asked to be assigned another fare. He agreed and I left the airport with some crappy suburban job, but with a lot less baggage.
Were Checker cabs all that great? Maybe from a passenger’s standpoint. They were easy to get in and out of. But from a driver’s perspective (mine), I would have preferred a lot smaller package with greater maneuverability.
The Checker two-piece door.
Checker was proud of its two-piece door design with extruded aluminum window surrounds (same design as used by American Motors). The fact is that with accumulating miles, the frames would loosen and simply bang against the body. I don’t know anyone that wants to listen to that cacophony for 12-hours a day.
The Devil is in the Details.
From an operator’s point of view I would have taken Checker to task for the details that didn’t make it in the real world. Hood releases would crap out and require extreme persuasion to open up the hoods.
Cosmetic Dentistry.
Real world actuality was that cosmetic details were very low on the list of concerns. Passengers could care less and Yellow Cab knew it. Just drive the damn thing and pick up fares. I was instructed not to come back to the hack lot until I had at least $30 on the meter. Some days that was hard to do—we’re talking 1969-70. I took in 42.5% percent of the meter, and kept all tips, which came to 10-15 bucks a day (let’s not talk about “taxable income”). Doesn’t sound like much but my eight-room apartment was only $42 bucks a month, which I cut in half with a roommate. A large Ricobene sausage pizza was $2.50 and a six pack of Red Top beer was 99 cents. Life was good.
El Oucho!
Bolt-on fenders are one thing, but serious damage generally required more work. The front end of this cab looks as though it will require more than an alignment. Cabs of this age generally weren’t repaired and became parts donors. Notice the badge on the hood? It’s called a “medallion”, without which you can’t operate a cab in Chicago or New York. In 2010 Chicago medallions were going for around $250,000, in New York City, which has restricted the number of medallions, a cool million.
Structural Masking Tape.
No gas cap and masking tape on the brake lens. Something tells me that this cab won’t be dispatched in the morning.
The Passenger Repositorium.
Checkers had very tough interiors, but so did Fords, Dodges, Plymouths, and Chevys. Seat belts were never used. Notice the high-mounted brake lights. This was not a universal feature, probably installed by the previous full-time driver.
Command Post.
The only gauge ever looked at was the Rockwell taximeter. All others were irrelevant as far as I was concerned.
Write What You Know.
I used my two years of driving a hack to inform the subject of my senior design thesis in product design. Ain’t gonna show what I came up with cause some of you might be a bit hard on it.
Ever wondered why Yellow Cabs and Hertz Rental Cars share the same corporate colors? Didn’t think so. But I’m going to tell you anyway. It’s because both companies were founded by John Hertz (born Sandor Herz in Ruttka, Kingdom of Hungary). In 1929 Hertz sold Yellow Cab to Morris “The Pantsmaker” Markin, another immigrant born in Smolensk, Russia. Markin was already manufacturing cabs in Kalamazoo, MI at his Checker Cab Manufacturing Co.
Scary!
There are lots of stories of fares that offered compensation for transportation other than cash. Not to me. But I did pick up a foursome in the Loop after lunch one day (from their behavior, a liquid one), and one of the women asked me, “Kevin, how old are you?”. Fares never referred to the driver by their surnames (my license was displayed on the dash as required by law). It was either “driver” or “cabbie”. I said that I was 21. She then asked me if I knew who she was. I said that I did not. She then told me she was “Mrs. Robinson”. OMG! A Cougar! She then said that her husband was out of town, but that she was having a party at her home that night. Would I like to come by? I respectfully demurred (I was going to drive to Manteno that night for a bang fest with my girlfriend). I would really like a 35-year old to make a similar proposition today.
Chicago’s North Michigan Ave, The Million Dollar Mile.
So what’s the point of all of this? As a taxi paradigm, the Checker didn’t really cut it in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Its design was based on requirements from New York City in the 1930s and ‘40s. It was too big, too cumbersome, too thirsty. By the late ‘60s it was running Chevy inline sixes and V8s so its engine wasn’t exceptional. Don’t know who made the transmission but it was probably a GM unit as well. In Chicago, both Yellow and Checker were owned by Parmelee Transportation, which was owned by Checker Motors of Kalamazoo. All other taxi companies ran one of the Big Three taxi offerings because they were cheaper but equally long-lived. Checker Motors by 1970 wasn’t making a living selling taxis—it only sold about 2-3000 cabs a year at best, mostly to its own operating companies. It’s main source of income at that time was sheetmetal stampings and frame assemblies for Chevy and GMC pickups. That’s not to say a contemporary Crown Vic is the cab of choice. You kidding? Give me a Peugeot 404 diesel with a Powerglide and power steering. And a trunk that I can use.
Really wonderful pics !!! I didn’t know there was a law about not using trunk in taxis, pretty strange stuff
Alot of people are unaware that Checker also made regular everyday cars for the ‘average’ car owner. Of course they still looked like a cab but without the taxi meter.
Yeah, one time in the ’60s, my father was looking closely at Checkers at the Chicago Auto Show. I don’t recall if this was when we ended up with a 66 Monterey Breezeway, or the 70 Catalina, but my father occasionally marched to a different drummer.
Note: we were in K-falls yesterday, and saw the early part of the migration to Burning Man. So far, the participants were more interesting than the vehicles (onther than some rather nice older RVs). Only one pickup with lots of framework for mutant vehicle-hood. FWIW, there were some really nice bicycles lashed on the vehicles.
Checker used to run small ads in the back of National Geographic. I wrote in to the company, requesting a brochure, and got a call from the local Checker dealer. When he realized I was a 7 year-old he asked to talk to my Dad and I was warned not to do that again. Never got the brochure, either ….
The only other nation I know of that had a purpose built cab -and still does- is the UK.
In Japan they still sell, or at least used to sell, a large square early 80′s vintage styled sedan, like a Cressida, that was mostly only a taxi service car.
You’re thinking of the Toyota Crown, also used in Hong Kong and other countries. Nissan has the Cedric, a VERY similarly styled competitor. Both are still in production and I found them a lot of fun to ride in, being a fan of vintage Japanese iron even though these were “new” old-style cars…
That would be the Crown Comfort model. An unintentionally retro ’80s model. I think they’re pretty neat. How about sending it to the US market? I’d be a lot more interested in one of these than a Camry.
From the Japanese Toyota site:
As a frequent visitor to Hong Kong, yes, they use the Crown Comfort model, which is specifically designed for fleets, and old-school – the dashboard looks like it hasn’t changed in 20 years. But its long wheelbase, tall interior and decent interior space makes it well suited for hack use. Due to the LPG tank, the trunk space isn’t particularly generous though.
Old trusty 130-Series Crown Sedan is no more.
Y31 Nissan Cedric, that came out in 1988 or so however, is still being made for fleets.
Having had some experience with them in fleets, I can say that they were just impossibly sturdy – and forgiving. Ours were M1990 of specially ordered spec – 3.0V6 without a catalyst and with manual gearboxes. Awesome cars.
There was another Nissan taxi-only specialty, made up unitl 2007 or so, called Crew. It had the left rear passenger door that was longer than the right one. Optionally it would be fitted with the remote door opener with industrial-grade-looking lever.
What a hoot. One of my all-time favorite CCs even before I got to Mrs. Robinson and the “bang fest”!
A fun and fascinating tale. Always having lived in smaller cities, taxis were pretty foreign to me. I may have had 2 cab rides in my entire life. Interesting bit about how most purchases of Checker taxis was by Checker-owned cab companies. The first of my two cab rides as a little kid was in a Checker in the early 1960s. This was back before we had 2 family cars. Dad had the car at work, and Mom called a cab for a doctor’s appointment that somebody had. I remember how high the seat was off the floor and the industrial grade floor and upholstery material.
I always thought of the Checker as the kind of car International Harvester would have built if it had built passenger cars. There would have been a real car – a Checker Marathon with an IH 392 and a Torqueflite.
Kevin Martin – I think that you must be the second-most interesting man in the world (after the guy in the beer commercial).
Yup that would have been something a SV backed by a 727 in a Checker would have been a recipe for the longest lasting car in history. Of course you’d be hard pressed to get a 392 out of IH in the mid 70′s. There was a reason the 401 was installed in some 73+ 1/2 tons and that was the fact that the 392′s production line was running as fast as it could. Plus I’d say a 345 would be all that was needed.
You are so right! A 345/727 combo would seem appropriate for one of these cars. A neat shot would be an early 70′s International pickup sharing a garage with a Checker.
Speaking as a long term taxi operator, such a combo would result in fuel bills I would not be willing to pay. There is no need to drag race a taxi in city traffic. In fact, discouraging this is what you do, since such antics come right off your bottom line.
The taxi business is all about revenue per km put on the car. Right after this comes customer satisfaction. What the driver likes is last.
great story. i’ve spent a lot of time in the back of checkers but never driven one. they are a pleasure to be driven around in. much better than the crown vic. the chevy caprice bubble cabs were possibly more comfortable but they never had the style or the jump seats of a checker. btw, nyc jump seats were different than those in the diagram in the article. they were very low and rear facing. i don;t think they had seat belts.
a checker once made a left in front of my dodge dart and tore up my right fender, the over-sized aluminum bumpers actually had a hook shape at the end which you can see in gman’s photo above. pulled the checker’s bumper half off. i did get some insurance money but just banged the metal on my dodge back into some semblance of a fender with a hammer and my boot.
Awesome write up!
The village of Bedford Park tested a Checker as a squad car in the late 70s. It didn’t work out too well and the car wound up rusting away under the water tower. I always found it odd that they didn’t even try to auction it off.
Ricobene’s is a bit more expensive these days but just as good as ever! The Breaded Steak sandwich and hand cut Fries is something to go out of your way for.
Actually, the new A8 for 1956 (Superba, later Marathon) was specifically designed for new NYC Limousine Commission rules. Those were only changed in about 1970, after which non-Checker cars started to make serious inroads there.
Count me with those that miss Checkers, or their modern equivalent. Always hated having to duck down to slide into the low rear seat of a Chevy Caprice or Ford Panther. But the new Nissan van NYC taxi will eliminate that.
word on the street is that the taxi of tomorrow nissan thing isn’t going to happen. most new yorkers hate the design and are hoping it gets buried when bloomberg is done. as bizarre as it sounds, our comptroller thinks that the taxis should ALL be wheelchair accessible. then again, we don’t have public bathrooms because the pols can’t satisfy all the constituencies that need to sign off on their construction.
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-05-02/news/31543218_1_number-of-accessible-cabs-cab-owners-yellow-taxi-medallions
Does this new can have sliding doors? There was always very strong resistance to sliding doors for taxi use and the need a lot of adjustments and service to keep them working.
Great job, Kevin. Enjoyed this story immensely.
It was a great tragedy that Checker got out of the taxi business. We are in New York this week. Most of the cabs are now Ford Escapes. What a disaster.
The rear door of the Escape is small, and high off the ground. It is not easy for somebody with a bad back to get into or out of.
I have taken to calling them No-Escapes.
I understand that New York has now contracted for a new Taxi by Nissan, based on NV200 cargo van platform, that has not been sold in the US. I am sure it will be a great improvement over the No-Escape. It even has its own web page:
http://taxioftomorrow.com/web/index.php
Travis Bickle likes this article.
Gee, I don’t know how to take that. Now that Jodie Foster has identified herself as a vagitarian, I am conflicted.
One hot, humid afternoon, I was hailed by a young large woman in a sun dress. I picked her up (I might mention to the lascivious amongst you that I was driving my cab, not freelancing). She settled herself in the middle of the back seat. Once we were on our way, I took a look in the rear-view mirror. There she was, spread-eagle, airing it out. I damn near drove into a parked car. She said “driver, don’t you be lookin’ at my monkey!” I nearly plotzed.
I had no idea why she would have had a simian with her.
Another great article from Mr. Martin. I’ve only ever ridden in a cab twice in my entire life: The first time was in 1978 in London, in a properly black Austin driven by a properly cockney drive with an encyclopedic knowledge of pubs. As I was 18 at the time, I found this man rather useful. The second time was in Seattle in 1992, and the driver was of course a polite and mild-mannered Sikh, properly turban’d. I was really hoping that the Sikh gentleman would pull up in a Checker, but alas, it was just a white-bread Ford. One thing that I remember from London is that none of the cabs were dented-up or in obvious disrepair. London must have had some sort of a “cabs in good nick” ordinance.
London hack inspections were, and possibly still are, incredibly stiff. No visible exterior damage nor any dingleberries on the interiors are tolerated. I had to tip the gas guy extra to hose out my interior floors if one of my fares had puked up their evening’s entertainment. That’s why the jump seats were rusted in place–frequent hosings.
The body damage evident in my photos would never have been tolerated in London.
Certainly London has nice taxis. The also have the fares to have nice taxis.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/taxi-fares-guide.pdf
A one mile taxi ride, depending on traffic, runs from 5.60-8.60 Pounds, or $8.85-$13.60.
I could make a very nice living on those fares and drive a mighty nice car.
You’re kidding about the diesel Peugeot, right? Philadelphia Yellow Cab actually tried using Peugeot diesels in the early 1980′s. They didn’t last long.
The nice thing about that was they were replaced by whatever big sedans the cab company could get their hands on, which led to some interesting cabs on the streets. There was a ’73 Caddy Fleetwood Brougham in regular taxi service in Philly till around 1990-ish. I got to ride in it once. As I recall it had the original green leather upholstery.
Thats how Miami was and is, you can see everything from a Camry to an HHR, in additon to the fairly common Crown Vic and increasingly common mini-van version, which include anything from now elderly Astros to Caravans and Siennas.
It’s rather surprising to hear that Peugeots didn’t cut it as Philly cab. 504 sedans (and latter wagons and pickups) was VERY popular in Africa, because of their durability, on par with Mercedes W123.
Perhaps it was a question of inadequate service of diesel engines?
The taxi operator in Fort Wayne, Indiana went to the diesel Peugeots about that same time. Same result, I think that they were replaced by Chevys fairly soon.
The problem with such vehicles as a 505 for taxi use would be training grease monkeys to wrench on them, a near impossible task. With a Peugeot, you’d be stuck with dealer service and long waits. It’s a non-starter.
Hi from Paris, i am a french Peugeot 504 enthusiast and i am desperatly looking for information, pictures, press articles, brochures about Peugeot Taxis in NYC in the late 70′s and early 80´s. I’ve also heard of them in California … If you can help, please contact me. Thank you ! Fred
Ask our Founder and Editor-In-Chief Paul Niedermeyer for info. He is a Peugeot 404 enthusiast and ex-cabbie.
I have very little info, but I can tell you that Peugeot taxis were used by Yellow Cab in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a moderately sized city in the midwestern U.S. I grew up there and remember the fleet of Peugeot diesels that replaced a bunch of aging Checkers. The cab company was owned by a guy named Haskell Schultz. He was an abrasive no-nonsense sort, and figured that the Peugeot would be just the thing to cut fuel and maintenance costs in a city that was not really all that cab-friendly. The cars turned out to be expensive to maintain, and they were replaced by Chevrolets. I have very little info on him, other than that he wrote a small book on defensive driving ( http://books.google.com/books/about/A_design_for_safe_driving.html?id=UIdTAAAAMAAJ ) and that he died in 1985.
All I know is that a pretty good number of them were introduced into the NYC taxi fleets. And most didn’t stay very long, due to high maintenance costs. I would keep googling, and perhaps there’s a way to access the New York Times archives? I’m sure they must have done at least one or several stories on them.
Good luck.
Dear all, thank you so much for your replies ! I am still surprised by the little information and documents it is possible to find on the net about the subject … Especially pictures of vintage NYC Taxi cabs. Except the Crown Victoria which is everywhere, nothing much about the 60´s, 70´s and 80´s. I will try the New York Times archives and i will try to contact yellow cabs in Fort Wayne hoping they have interest for their history.
Over the years i have collected some pictures of Peugeot cabs, some on the web, others from enthusiast people and also some extracted from movies.
I would like to produce a modelcar 504 NYC cab, but also 505 and maybe american cars like Dodge Monaco. Is there a lost of cars that have been used for cabs during the last 50 years ?
Thanks again for your interest and help.
Fred from cold Paris (never been so cold spring since 1887).
PS : i am a bit surprised by the high maintenance cost and low durability of Peugeot cabs. Here 504 has always had an indestructible reputation, they are still used in many african and middle east countries as taxis. It seems that NYC is the worst condition for cabs, even worst than african trails … (?). Maybe Peugeot has not been aware of the importance of low priced servicing and parts when trying to sell to taxi fleets …
From the time I was born ’til around 1987 or so, my father worked @ O’hare & we would often take trips since we flew free (standby). We moved from Lombard to West Chicago around ’78 which put us about an hour away from the airport.
When we went on longer tips, It was actually cheaper to rent a Limo than to take a cab so that’s what we did. Some of the really cool Limo drivers had free doughnuts.
While at the airport waiting for a ride, I always eyed the Checker cabs and thought they were the most interesting vehicles. For years I always wondered what wheelcovers those cars came with because every one I saw had many variations of the “Big Three” wheelcovers. Few cabs had matching wheelcovers…One car would have a Buick LF, Ford LR, Dodge RF, Pontiac RR…and so on. All of them had body damaage of some sort.
Nice job, Kevin. Those pictures are priceless. I often think, “why didn’t somebody go around and take random pictures in the ’60s and ’70s?” Of course I was thinking more of Imperial, Volvo and Studebaker dealerships, but this is cool too.
My father was a cab driver in Chicago in the late 1920′s. He would never talk about it though. Maybe that’s analogous to war veterans who don’t talk about their experiences.
When we visited Hawaii in 1977, the taxis in Honolulu were all Cadillac and big Buick sedans – quite different from what I was used to seeing.
See the “Roaring Twenties” with Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney. Ostensibly the film is set in New York City, but it could easily have been in Chicago. Hot bricks were the only heat the cabbie had in the winter. Don’t know about the passengers.
Great piece.
I feel in love with Checkers the first time I piled in back in NYC.
And in my swnky Chicago suburb a favorite sight was a forest green checker and on the roof top checker light spelled out the owner’s name, “Bunny.”
The Bunny Mobile!
Up until ’94 or so it was still possible to get the odd Checker in NYC on a street hail. I remember waiting for a Checker and waving away Caprices with my mom once a little earlier than that. In ’98 they changed the NYC taxi laws, requiring that fans needed to be replaced at specific intervals. The last two Checkers rolled up until then. Was a sad day, much lamented and reported, a couple of years later when the last stopped its duties.
Interestingly, as a promo HSBC has bought a Checker and offers free rides to its customers on the NYC streets. It’s pretty cool to see the ol’ girl doing what she was meant to. I see it around town a lot.
Lastly, in San Rafael, CA, one of the local taxi guys drives a ’76 Checker. It’s in perfect shape and when I met the guy at a Whole Foods parking lot I was sure he was pulling my leg when he told me he wasn’t a collector, but a real live taxi driver.