Flying the colors, building an Army

Today is the due date for new individual Passenger Vehicle Licenses (PVL). A PVL, or "taxi medallion" gives a person or company the rights to transport passengers by way of flaggers (passengers that hail on the street), county taxi stands, or pre-arranged reservation. In Montgomery County, PVLs are "owned" by individuals or fleets.

Fleet-owned PVLs:
There are four fleets -- Barwood, Regency, Action, and Sun. Each fleet has a distinct color -- blue, white, maroon, green. 2/3 of PVLs are owned by a fleet. Due to their size, a fleet is able to finance fleet activities including vehicle purchase, vehicle maintenance, dispatch center, personnel, etc..

Individually-owned PVLs:
About 1/3 of the county PVLs are owned by individual drivers. These drivers can apply for a PVL during a new PVL issuance or purchase a PVL on the open market (value approx. $60,000, currently).

A driver benefits from PVL ownership because he/she gains: highly reduced "lot fee" to join a fleet (and get all fleet benefits including dispatch, customer service, vehicle maintenance facility, etc..), equity in the PVL value, and can employ additional drivers.

Once a driver owns his/her PVL, he must purchase and insure a vehicle AND associate with a fleet. To associate with a fleet, the PVL owner must "fly the colors" of that fleet (Barwood Blue, Regency White, Action Maroon, or Sun Green). Their vehicle will look like any other vehicle in that fleet. They become a fleet warrior.

You can think of a taxi driver as an independent warrior. Each has certain skills that make him/her prepared for the field of battle (in this case, battle is taxi service). Some drivers have a book of personal clients, some have superior customer service skills, some are technologically savvy, etc.. The key to building an empire is recruiting and harnessing the skills that each warrior (taxicab driver) possesses. It is good to recruit the best warriors to drive your fleet cabs.

Of great importance is recruiting the warriors that possess their own horse (PVL and vehicle). These warriors have extra incentive to care for their horse/charriot because they own it. These guys/gals can defect an army (fleet) at any time so it's important to keep them happy. They generally end up on the most powerful army: with the most customers, the best customer service, the best driver service, the best deals.