Welcome to Madison (or back to Madison)!

It has been a rather nice summer here and we have been hard at work getting ready for the next year. This year we hope to improve our ordering process to make it more accessible and faster.
We also paln to improve our carbon footprint with alternative fuel vehicles: watch for them soon!

It is brutal outside. Union Cab is running; however, if the City's bus system stops, then we might. Please expect lengthy waits for service (we can only move so fast in this stuff and nobody wants to walk). If you really don't have to go somewhere, then stay home (or where ever you are).

Hey, we aren't a moving company! But a lot of drivers are willing to help you move. Here's the catch, we have to charge the meter while we aren't moving (and its expensive). If you want the driver help carry boxes, you need to make a separate deal with the driver (think $$$). A lot of drivers avoid these situations because of backs, knees and other fun joints, so it might take a little longer to get a cab.

Join the only worker owned and operated taxi cooperative in Madison. We are looking for new members to join our organization and drive cabs. You must be 21 years old (insurance), have a valid WI driver's license, knowledge of the city's streets and the ability to provide excellent customer service. We offer health and dental insurance, extensive training, computer-assisted dispatch and a safe, humane, democratic workplace. Do you have what it takes to be part of Madison's elite drivers? If your answer is "yes!", fill out the forms below, get a copy of your driver's abstract and bring it all to Union Cab at 2458 Pennsylvania Avenue. Questions?

Give us a call at--you know the number!

May 2007 (Madison, WI). Three senior drivers for Union Cab of Madison Cooperative have recently added the title of "published author" to their resumes. Allen Ruff, Rich Chamberlin.

Save Me, Julie Kogon by Allen Ruff is "set in two days' "real time" in 1989, this fathers and sons tale spans four generations. It's a story of love and reverberating neglect told with compassion and sadness, with irony, ambiguity, and a touch of savvy dark humor. Distinct from those now long-threadbare "made it in America" sagas, it speaks to the countless personal stories that for so many became the "American Dram" somehow gone awry."
Allen Ruff joined Union Cab in July of 1983 after a stint bartending for several areas taverns including the 602 Club and The Cardinal. In addition to driving and dispatching, Allen served for three years on the cooperative's board of directors and as Vice-president. He received his Ph. D. in History from the UW-Madison. He has previously authored several book-length histories, and numerous journalistic pieces, this is his first novel. Allen shares his work hours between Union Cab of Madison Cooperative and Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative.

Hitchhiking From Vietnam: Seeking the Ox by Richard Chamberlin is the author's memoir of his meandering journey to fulfillment during the 1960's and '70's originating in a run-down Laundromat on Willy St. in Madison, WI. He recounts his journey to San Francisco, which becomes a spiritual quest and a window into the past.
Richard Chamberlin joined Union Cab in August of 1982. In addition to driving, Richard served the cooperative as newsletter editor for over 5 years. Before driving a cab, Rich served the US Navy Seabees with two deployments to Vietnam, worked as a reporter for LaPorte Herald Argus in LaPorte, IN and was a psychiatric nurse in Blackfoot, Idaho.

Vampire Cabbie by Fred Schepartz involves a 1,000 year old vampire who suddenly loses his fortune in the stock market crash of 1987 and has to get a job. Somehow he finds himself in Madison, Wisconsin where he gets a job driving a cab at a worker owned and operated cooperative cab company. Much of the book involves how he copes with working for a living and dealing with his co-workers. Al, the vampire, has essentially renounced violence, but it's a vampire novel, so violence follows him.
Fred Schepartz joined Union Cab in March of 1988. In addition to driving, Fred served the cooperative as newsletter editor for over 6 years and a shop steward. Vampire Cabbie is Fred's first published novel. He currently is working on his next novel, Guitar God, which he describes as War for the Oaks meets Portnoy's Complaint or a Jewish suburban rock and roll fantasy with a 1970s soundtrack. Fred also is the publisher and editor of Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, a leftist magazine of fiction, poetry and commentary (www.mobiusmagazine.com). Recently, Fred decided to try his hand at the visual arts. Not being able to draw a straight line, Fred has been doing art photography, all film and darkroom with no computers. To find out more about various ways Fred wastes his time, check out his MySpace page at: www.myspace.com/vampirecabbie.

We get a lot of phone calls at Union Cab. We make a lot of calls at Union Cab. Our phone staff, as great and smart as they are, do not always know if your cell is from a different area code. When they ask for your phone number and your not from the 608, let them know up front. It will speed the process along.

Union Cab charges a $3.00 no-load when one of our drivers arrive at a requested pick-up location and the would-be customer is not available to take the cab.

We charge this fee for a couple of reasons.

First, the driver is paid on commission (and the entire fee goes to the driver), in order to arrive for the passenger, the driver puts their time and energy into the call--they are also unavailable for other work. Often a "no-load" takes about 20 minutes of a driver's shift. Imagine if after working hard for 20 minutes, your supervisor informed you that you were not going to get paid for that time? The $3 helps defray the cost incurred by the driver and keeps them close to a living wage.

Second, The cooperative wants to discourage people from calling multiple companies and taking the first cab that arrives or from calling when they aren't really ready. No-loads take a lot of time and cause the wait time for other (ready-to-go) passengers to increase. By discouraging no-loads, the cooperative hopes to provide better customer service to everyone.

Obviously, sometimes the no-load is nobody's fault: a person tries to cancel and the phone is busy; the driver and passenger can't see each other. In those cases, people should feel free to contact our management.