Our town had a bit of a public debate about this when a certain local politician decided he wanted all the cabs uniformly yellow, for neatness of all things. He got his way when it came out that actuarial data supported bright yellow cars as having the fewest accidents of any color, probably for the same reason that bright yellow subtitles are the least likely to be hard to see. White cars came second.
Australians had always bought more white cars than other colo(u)rs, and this increased a little for the sake of insurance and resale values. Yellow cars, thankfully, have not become more common except for taxis. My guess is that some actuarial data would have been known to John Hertz, but he kept the safety and repair cost aspects to himself when he branded yellow for himself.
Our taxi yellow by the way is almost fluorescent, with green trimmings. Hides the vomit as well I suppose.
I keep hearing that Hertz (yeah, him) painted his first Yellow taxis yellow and black, but early toy Yellow taxis are a consistent orange, the same color as modern Wolley (yellow backwards) cabs. This suggests that some confusion regarding orange as a separate color vs a shade of yellow, lasted well into the 20th Century.
If it’s anything like New York, the old cab companies are long gone. The cab fleets are long gone. In many ways, it was a troublesome way to make money. You had to buy and maintain cabs, you had to hire drivers, and you had to make sure you collected what the drivers collected.
In New York, the new business model is to own the medallions (licenses) for taxis, and rent those out to the cab owners. Cab ownership is now a small fleet deal with fleets ranging from one cab to maybe a dozen at the most. The cab owners then rent their cabs out to the drivers. The drivers get to keep their fares. No muss with hiring cabbies. No muss with maintaining a fleet of cabs. No worry about drivers pocketing the change.
Plus, you can structure everything to limit your liability. If you get in a cab accident, you could try suing the cab driver (who has no money), the cab owner (who has structured their business to be minimally profitable and in debt), or the medallion holder (ditto). Basically, you’re not getting a cent.
By the way, any cash business tends to attract unsavory types. Cash businesses are great ways to launder money or hide income. And, you may have to use a bit of muscle to help keep your employees from pocketing the cash flow. That’s why in the old days, casinos, vending machines, and taxi companies tend to be run by, as Al Capone use to call himself, independent, small time, businessman.
