Yellow Cab sold to Chicago transportation giant | cab, yellow, springs

Yellow Cab of Colorado Springs has been sold to Chicago-based Veolia Transportation On Demand, which operates the Front Range Express bus service and paratransit services for the city of Colorado Springs as well as taxi operations in Boulder, Denver and Fort Collins.

Yellow Cab employs 33 and has a fleet of 160 cabs driven by independent contractors; Veolia said it will retain all Yellow Cab employees, including general manager Fed Hair. The purchase was completed Dec. 20 and announced Thursday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"We are in a strong acquisition mode at Veolia Transportation On Demand.  We recently acquired Checker Yellow Cab in Jacksonville Fla., and started a SuperShuttle operation in Orlando," said Brad Whittle, Veolia's vice president of acquisitions.  "This acquisition in Colorado Springs, like our recent acquisitions in Florida, have allowed us to fill out our operations in Florida and Colorado and we are thrilled to be able to provide so many of our services in both of these states."

Veolia-owned Colorado Cab, which operates Yellow Cab in Denver, sought approval from the Colorado Public Utilities Commission in 2009 to begin offering service in El Paso County, and an administrative law judge had recommended approval in June. The previous owner of Yellow Cab of Colorado Springs, RDSM Transportation, had until Dec. 28 to file its objections to that decision.

The parent company of Colorado Cab, Super Taxi Inc., which is owned by Veolia, sought approval Nov. 4 for its purchase of RDSM and Yellow Cab of Colorado Springs. Whittle said the deal had been in the works for about six months.

Whittle said Yellow Cab of Colorado Springs will take delivery within days of a wheelchair-accessible taxi. He said Veolia likely will expand its upscale ExecuCar transportation service and is studying whether to convert part of its Colorado Springs fleet to run on propane.

Spring Cab began operation in March as the first competitor to Yellow Cab of Colorado Springs in more than six years and has PUC approval to operate a fleet of 40 cabs.

Yellow Cab of Colorado Springs had been owned since 2002 by RDSM, based in Houston and headed by Duane Kamins, Veolia acquired Denver Yellow Cab in 2004 and Shamrock Transportation, which offers tax service in Fort Collins, in 2009. The company now operates 500 cabs in Denver, 65 in Boulder and 60 in Fort Collins.

Veolia Transportation employs 17,000 to operate the SuperShuttle airport shuttle service and about 200 transportation and taxi contracts in many leading cities and airports. Veolia Transportation's parent company, Veolia Transdev, operates public transit systems in 27 countries with 119,000 employees, providing bus, paratransit, rail, taxi, airport shuttle and ferry services, and is a unit of French water giant Veolia Environment SA.

—

Contact Wayne Heilman: 636-0234 Twitter @wayneheilman

Facebook Wayne Heilman

TAXI MAGIC

Yellow Cab of Colorado Springs has started using the Taxi Magic application for smartphones, which allows customers to book cab service from their smartphone or online. To download the application, go to Yellow Cab's website.