In Austin, there is a taxi company called Roy's. It is the most consistently bad cab company I have ever used. I often run across the street to avoid a Roy's cab and find an American Yellow Checker cab instead. Whenever I mention this to anyone, they usually ask why I think Roy's is so bad.

This anecdote from a friend of mine, who happened to get into a Roy's cab on Friday night, sums it up.

Roy's Driver: Yeah, I worked at American Yellow Checker for four years. I just moved over to Roy's.

Friend: Why did you switch?

Roy's Driver: I fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into a tree.

Case closed.

Here is my Roy's anecdote: Call from a shopping center for a cab. It's a lazy Saturday afternoon, not much going on. Shouldn't take long.

Wait 20 minutes .... 30 minutes ... nearly an hour. Finally call dispatch. They said the guy who was supposed to pick me up went off shift. They said they could send somebody else if I wanted to wait another half hour.

I told them what I wanted was for them to take that telephone handset .... rotate it 90 degrees ....

Posted by: chip on June 23, 2003 07:45 PM

Sad to say, I've had bad luck with AmYelCheck and Austin Cab as well. One separate occasions, I've booked a cab the night before an early AM flight, to take me to the airport. On one occasion, the cab arrived just late enough that I missed my flight by one minute (seriously--it had just pushed back from the gate when I walked up to the counter). On another, it never came--at all--despite repeated calls to dispatch. I wound up taking the bus.

I will not take a cab to the airport anymore.

Posted by: Adam Rice on June 24, 2003 10:12 AM

Yeah, I certainly don't see AYC as the pinnacle of cab companies and have had bad experiences at one time or another with them and Austin Cab too.

Nevertheless, of the 200-300 cab trips I've taken in Austin, about 80% of them have been AYC and I've had far less total problems in those trips than the 5-10% I've taken in Roy's. They're so consistently bad it's almost funny. Almost.

Posted by: jeremy on June 25, 2003 01:03 PM

Don't forget, it was a Roy's cab driver that shot the two guys from Vignette a couple years ago.

Posted by: Bill Bradford on June 25, 2003 10:05 PM

True... here's the story

Posted by: jeremy on June 26, 2003 02:24 AM

I agreee with what most of you said about Roy's Taxi being the worst, but I would like to remind you that most cab drivers have worked for all companies at one time or another. Wayne Lambert worked at AYC before Roy's. Austin refused to hire him because of why he was released from AYC.

When you say that AYC & Austin have made you late, etc., trust me when I say that we are sorry for any inconvenience and it wwas not purposeful. No business that is serious about customer loyalty wants people thinking that they don't care. We do. We care a lot. We provide services to the community to make transportation possible to many who might have given up on getting around. We support initiatives by programs like DDP-Texas and soberRide and MAAD, to help make our quality of life better, and we go extra lengths to ensure that our drivers are sane and courteous.

In speaking for Austin Cab, please provide me with concrete facts about bad service and I will address them personally, Ron Means, General Manager.

Posted by: Ron Means on June 29, 2003 06:16 PM

I have to honestly say that my Roy's experiences have never been bad. I often call the night before to be picked up in the morning to go to the airport at ungodly hours -- like 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. -- and they have never failed me. In fact, the only time I didn't get a cab ride to the airport was the time I overslept and had also turned my phone off and so they couldn't even call me to let me know they were there. I suppose all cab companies have bad stories; but in all truthfulness, I can't say I have one about Roy's.

Posted by: Donna on July 20, 2004 11:35 PM

I once called a Roy's after spendng a day at the park with my toddler. I realized that it was a short trip and was prepared to tip handsomely. The cab arrived. After finding out my destination was about 10 city blocks away, he was angry. Thank God me and my toddler were already buckled up because he took off very fast, driving wrecklessly. He was cussing all the way. He was saying that he had the chance of accepting an airport fare but chose mine instead. I was too afraid of him to even ask him kindly to stop the car and let us off. Thankfully, we made it home in one piece. I never called another Roy's again.

Posted by: Julie on August 15, 2004 08:33 PM

Julie, you really should call the cab company when things like that happen. You would be suprised how much can happen to someone who breaks the rules (not to mention the law) like that. You could get him suspended for the day, he could lose his hack license, or he could be fined. Believe me, things like that go a long way toward changing a bad drivers attitude. The problem is that people never call with legitimate complaints, so the drivers get away with acting like that. If the drivers see that they are consistently nailed for their bad behavior they won't act like that, or the bad ones will get weeded out.

Posted by: Nathan on September 3, 2004 02:19 PM

You people are all bad. You know nothing of how it is! I work all day in car and can need more money still to pay rent. You drunks get in cab and disrespectful the driver and want to know why we are get angry . i come to your work and spit and yell on your floor or your home and see you like it. i work for roys cab and never late for pickup to airport and still no tip

Posted by: Tarbaj on February 12, 2005 03:48 AM

i poop on roy taxi! i work on yellow! Tarbaj bad man, very bad. customer always right. falafel!

Posted by: Jabrat on April 12, 2005 11:35 AM

I have had my hack's license for almost a year, but did not drive for fares regularly until recently. It was necessary for a driving position I accepted because this particular cab company has a dba that has consistently been awarded the state contract to provide rides to Medicaid recipients. However, the director of this team cares very little about his passengers comfort or safety and only pays the drivers $7.25 an hour on average--with no OT even though the FEW scrupulous and ETHICAL ones sometimes work between 50-60 hours a week. The vehicles used are either a safety hazard with leaking exhaust, balding tires, bad drive train components OR have filthy interiors, inoperable power windows, quasi-AC in the summer and vice versa with heat in the winter and 80% of the time when the AC works, the car overheats. This man is a millionaire several times over and is being paid with YOUR TAX DOLLARS (approx. $5000-$8000 EACH WEEK). Then there are the "other" drivers--these would be the rude and self-centered BITCHES who smoke with babies in the car, play loud and disturbing music while transporting sensitive mental patients, the elderly and the chronically ill. There are the ones that mislead new passengers into believing they are required to tip the driver--when the driver knows FULL WELL that these are low-income people to being with: THAT IS WHY THEY GET MEDICAID!!!!! There is the dispatcher that is the pet of the company because her skin is the right color who puts NO priority on dispatching a driver when the rider is done with their appt. sneeringly remarking that they are not "paying" customers, displaying supreme ghetto ignorance in not acknowledging the their SPONSOR--i.e. the STATE--is!!!!! Then there are the drivers who spend their free-time at the crackhouses or doing something OTHER than their job--did I say free-time?? Oh yeah, they are the ones who decide when their free time is regardless of the passengers they are scheduled to pick up. who in turn have SCHEDULED APPOINTMENTS TO MEET! The Means' were fortunate enough to have intelligent and ambitious parents that provided a very comfortable lifestyle for their offspring--especially given the racial aggression those remarkable people had to face. But the Means brothers have NEVER KNOWN the hardship of living paycheck to paycheck, the burden of paying as much for childcare as one does for rent--of feeding, clothing, or housing their children...NOR THE ENORMOUS PAIN IN THE ASS OF NOT HAVING A VEHICLE FOR WORK, FOR SHOPPING, FOR MEDICAL OBLIGATIONS. I treated my job with Austin Cab as I have be conditioned to having earned 2 degrees--including a BA from St. Edward's--and worked professionally throughout my adult life, a single mother with four kids so spread out in age that continuing my careerpath would have been more liable to my reputation that the drunk who put a pregnant woman in a coma for half a year, and rehab for 18 months more. When I left Austin Cab, I was worse off than having been TEASED by the illusion I could provide for my family once again without public assistance. I now drive a taxi fulltime for Roy's and I can honestly say that the Taxi Cab business in this town is full of good hard-working people AND corrupted money-hungry assholes JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER INDUSTRY IN OUR CAPITALIST SOCIETY. There are ruthless owners who charge drivers outrageous leases for crappy vehicles and ruthless drivers who take it out on their customers. My advice to those who have had bad experiences with taxis is to find a driver willing to give out his or her personal phone number so you can call them directly to schedule your ride. I constantly hand out business cards to passengers who never call and in turn, I cater to the ones who do. If I cannot keep an appt, I let them know and9 out of 10 times can find another driver to cover the call. Yes, the high money fares make my job easier, but I still pick up from HEB because I KNOW what it is like to wait an hour and a half with a basket of groceries and impatient children. And there are the times I drive to Lakeway or Anderson Mill only to be told when I arrive that another company was called as well and got there first--and yet these supposedly "better offs" could not muster the common courtesy to call back and cancel, saving a driver gas and time and allowing the opportunity to pick up another call. And as far as the Roy's driver who shot and killed those people years ago--and Mr. Means' disclaimer that Austin Cab was more responsible because they did NOT hire him, what about the AC driver who had DWI's up to his eyeballs and was only stopped from driving when caught careening drunk IN HIS CAB through the lawns of private property? There are child-molesting Yellows, wife-beating Roy's and crackhead Austins and if they make the cab owners money, then the management looks the other way. And the moral of this story, ladies and gentlemen, is that greed is not an excuse for lack of ethics and bad judgment. Kim Sales--mobile 512/577-8496.

Posted by: kim sales on June 20, 2005 03:09 PM

Regarding the libel and slander AND downright Dayum lies that I just read, it's amazing that my boss' brother actually loaned Ms. Sales money to buy a car that she promptly wrecked by negligently rear ending someone while NOT paying attention to where she was going. Yes, she's the great driver who was fired and is driving at Roy's Taxi right now. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you...

Talk about lies, Medical Transportation makes less than $200 per week in profit for my boss' brother and trust me when I tell you this too, it is NOT run under any dba either. That just goes to show you the ignorance level of Ms. Sales.

Furtheremore, at 63 years old, I have known the Means brothers all their lives and it was no walk in the park for them. They all worked hard to get where they are and were not born with any silver spoon in their mouths either, as suggested by Ms. Sale's rambling. Their parents were teachers and struggled to provide a decent life for their family making sure that all 5 of their children were educated. My boss was a cop and his brother, after serving in the Army, eventually rose to the top as a banker and then when my boss wanted to buy theis cab company, then he got help from his brother and parents. It was hard work for the 1st 15 years and neither of them got paid w/o working as a cab driver at least 12 hours per day, 6 sometimes 7 days per week. I have nothing but the utmost respect for the Means brothers.

Contrarily I have also worked for Roy's Taxi and it is like night & day compared to Austin. Roy's management treats drivers like slaves. She got $7.25 hour and paid no gas, rode around and took care of personal business and also took the car home. Ms. Sales, that's called a perk! I'll wager Roy's isn't paying you crap, you're paying them and they ain't buying your gas either. I'll bet you also have a hefty bond to pay because of your bad driving record too.. that is IF Roy's knows about it. I say this because Roy's has a reputation for being the only cab company in Austin that rarely checks out WHY a driver gets released from another company... they will hire anybody it seems.

So Ms. Sales is bitter that she got fired for being a reckless driver. So she disparages people who tried to help her, one that even went so far as to loan her money (that she never repaid, of course). And of course, this fact was glaringly left out of her statement. Of course.

I have been in the cab business for over 40 years in Austin TX. I started with Harlem Cab which is now Austin Cab and worked for Roy's also. I have never driven for Yellow, but I know they are a fine company that Austin competes with. Roy's has more cab permits but not more cabs and Roy's managers have a habit of dispatching good calls to their own cabs 1st before any other drivers get to bid on them. Austin may be smaller but Austin has double the class than Roy's because of the respectful way they treat drivers and customers alike.

Sure, there's always going to be one or two incidents where you might disagree but once you let management know about a problem, they'll fix it. That doesn't happen at Roy's.

In conclusion, I am glad I work for people that care about other people. This is America, the land of opportunity. I have an opportunity to work hard and earn my own way. I am not mad because someone else has worked hard and made their own way. Show me how they did it so that5 I can try myself. That's what being an American is all about. I am Black, Ms. Sales is White. Ms. Sales apparently doesn't GET IT yet. It doesn't matter what color the skin is, it matters what value the character is, the class. The Means brothers, two of the most diverse partners in a business you will ever meet, both have class and character that go far beyond explanations. I suppose I am probably speaking WAY over Ms. Sales' head because all she sees is the fact that she's poor and looking for handouts. $7.25 an hour sounds way above minimum wage in Austin, TX and if it was so bad, WHY did she accept the position? It really amazes me that she would write a dayum book knocking someone that tried to help her and then try to tie him to his brother and they are so different that the only thing they have in common with each other is they are affiliated with Austin Cab as Directors and VPs and their voices sound identical.

But that's where the similarities cease because one is bright skinned and the other dark skinned. One is tall and the other short. One is generous and the other frugal. My boss is the light skinned, tall and generous brother, Ron Means. Ron is constantly kind to friends and strangers alike and commonly helps people that I would never help in a million years. Because of the way he has been and continues to be, there's really nothing I wouldn't do for him. Really!

His brother James has a kind heart too but he hides it because he's a numbers type man: all business. Frugal. This is the guy that loaned Ms. Sales the money and that she is disparaging. He is not a part of the management team at Austin Cab, but he IS a partner and on the board. Like most cab drivers, many of the FACTS that Ms. Sales supplied in her story are baseless and prove that she doesn't know what she's talking about. BIG SURPRISE!!!! A cab driver that doesn't know what they are talking about. I know you are shocked....

The bottom line that most cab drivers fail to see is that the customer doesn't want to see your dirty laundry, they just want to be treated like Kings and get great service. All this other crap is just that... OTHER CRAP!!!! So as people disparage and I defend, it just goes to show that we are off-base and should get back on track.

We need to remember that pleasing the customer is the most important part of our job. I'll bet Ms. Sales just wants to knock everyone that doesn't buy into her line of BS. It ain't about you Ms. Sales, it's about the customer! But how could you understand that at Roy's?

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