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Consumer Reports


Entrepreneur starts cab service with women drivers

http://www.jewishworldreview.com | (KRT) CHICAGO Renee Finley is betting her home, bank account and future creditworthiness on a hunch that Chicagoans want more female cabbies.

The founder of Wow Taxi, the Countryside, Ill., resident is a rare breed in a city full of fast moving, tough-guy drivers - a woman behind the wheel.

She's also the first, people in the industry say, to start a business on the belief that women feel safer when driven by women. It's a conviction Finley honed in her years driving for a mainstream taxi company.

"People would call all the time requesting a female driver," said Finley, a bubbly Army vet who wears hiking boots and flowing curls. "Women don't want to get hit on in the cab ride home. They want to get in the cab and relax." Currently, about 350 of the city's 17,000 drivers are women. That's just 2 percent.

No one, it seems, can pinpoint why there aren't more. There's the danger factor - cabbies complain of threats of violence from unruly passengers as well as accidents on the road.

There's also what some female cabbies describe as an inhospitable culture, dominated by brassy men who talk tough, gather to play pool and undercut each other to land the best fares.

But as Casey Decker, the head of Yellow Cab Company, put it: "I just don't know why."

Even while most cabbies continue to be male, many female passengers say they feel more comfortable with a woman in the driver's seat.

"You do feel safer when it's a female driver," said Michelle Rydberg, a corporate real estate administrator who now relies on Finley. "I once had a cab driver who told me he got kicked out of San Francisco for stabbing someone in the face. That doesn't make you feel easy."

Finley knows she is unusual in her profession - on account of her gender and her background.

Most cabbies these days are recent immigrants, not native-born Americans like Finley, who grew up in Chicago.

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"The cab driving pool is unbelievably diverse," said Colin Camerer, an economics professor at the California Institute of Technology who has studied taxi drivers.

He found that cabbies are usually recent immigrants and relatively well educated. They drive for two or three years, retiring as soon as they find a better job or earn an American degree.

In addition to safety, Camerer suggested that work hours might be another factor deterring women from enlisting as cabbies. Most cab shifts last for 12 hours. And even then, the average driver takes home just $22,000 each year, he said.

For Finley, driving a cab has its moments of danger, but they are few and far between.

"What job doesn't have some risk?" she asked. "When I was a bartender a guy came in once with a gun and robbed us."

It was during those years as a bartender that Finley made her entree into the taxi business. After volunteering for the Army, selling pet supplies on the cat-show circuit, and mixing drinks, Finley found inspiration in one of her customers - a long-time cabbie - whom she served at a Chicago bar.

Finley was so taken with his work stories that she decided to try the profession. She joined up with Express Cab Co., based in Cicero, Ill. She didn't have enough money to buy her own car, so she leased one from the company for $457 a week, she said.

Finley liked the work.

"There's something about being a cab driver, it's like being a gambler. It's in your blood," she said. But she also encountered several causes for concern.

For one, there were just five other women who drove for the company. Also, it wasn't uncommon for fellow cabbies to steal her customers, she said. And that's not to mention the fact that she was hardly ever - only six times, she said - given the plush assignment of an airport run.

Finley and several of the other female cabbies got to talking. A taxi company with only female drivers. No politics. No rude jokes. No lease payments.

In the end, only one other woman driver joined Finley in her venture.

And it was quite a venture. Begun just a year ago and financed with credit-card borrowing, Finley has relied on a Web page and word of mouth to get her name out. She is based in the suburbs, which means she can only pick up Chicago passengers if they call her in advance.

So far, Finley's done pretty well. She's nearly paid off her $8,000 debt, she said. And though her initial partner left the business for personal reasons, she's gearing up to buy a second car and hire an additional driver.

On a typical day, Finley, now 50, brings in $100. It is much more than she was making before, she said.

Finley is not the area's only female cabbie to stand out. In February, Mayor Richard Daley bestowed Joan Barnes, a veteran driver based in Chicago, with her own taxi medallion, currently valued at about $50,000.

Barnes caught the attention of City Hall because she dedicates her cab work to transporting disabled passengers.

"I try to give people independence," Barnes said. "I don't see why disabled people shouldn't have the same kind of independence that we have."

Barnes said that her gender has never been an issue.

"It's awesome. I go out there and help all kinds of people," she said.

But female cabbies have also run into problems.

In July, Ruby Lasecki, 51, was robbed and then shot while her cab was parked in Chicago. Lasecki was an independent, unlicensed driver.

Finley herself has faced several incidents of danger. One time, she said, a group of teen-agers tried to beat her with a baseball bat and steal her cab. She was able to escape only by driving two blocks with one of the young men grabbing at the steering wheel.

Still, those experiences are the exception, not the rule, Finley said. More often, she revels in the companionship of her regulars. There's Michelle, the corporate real estate administrator who Finley picks up every morning from her Chicago apartment and deposits downtown at work. The two met by chance, and have hit it off ever since.

There's Jenna, the aspiring singer who waitresses at the House of Blues. Once, the music venue needed a replacement singer, and bestowed Jenna with the honor.

"That was awesome," Finley said. "She was just so thrilled."

Jenna and Michelle, who had heard about each other through Finley's storytelling, shared the cab for a few blocks recently.

"Michelle and Jenna got to meet each other. It worked out good, because now Michelle, when she has clients to entertain, she knows a bartender at the House of Blues," Finley said.

Then there's Bill. Bill calls on Finley to drive him to and from the Arlington Racetrack three times a week. The two usually share tea at the end of the betting session, sharing each other's aspirations.

Bill also gave Finley the largest tip of her life - a check for $2,000. "I was telling him about how I wanted to get a new car, and he said, `Here, I got something for you. Now go get that second car,'" Finley recalled.

She added: "My regulars love me so much that they want me to expand."

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