 Checker Motors built vehicles reached iconic status as the embodiment of the taxi cab in north America Checker Taxi (Checker Cab) was a taxi produced by the Checker Motors Company of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Checker Taxis were used by its founder Morris Markin in the taxi service that he owned and operated under the name Parmalee System. While Markin’s competitor John D. Hertz coined the term Yellow Cab, Markin's Checker remains the most famous brand and name for a taxi cab vehicle in the United States. Image File history File links CheckerTaxiCabAd. ...
Image File history File links CheckerTaxiCabAd. ...
A taxicab (sometimes called taxi, cab, or hack) is a vehicle for hire which conveys passengers between locations of their choice. ...
Checker Motors Corporation Logo used in the 1960s thgrough 1981 when marketing its consumer vehicles, the Marathon and the Superba Checker Motors Company was the manufacturer of the famed Checker automobile, the iconic taxi cab vehicle. ...
Motto: Nickname: The Mall City Location of Kalamazoo within Michigan Founded 1831 Incorporated 1883 County Kalamazoo County Borough {{{borough}}} Parrish {{{parrish}}} Mayor Hannah McKinney Area - Total - Water 65. ...
John D. Hertz founded the Yellow Cab Company in 1915 as a way to provide transportation at a modest price. ...
The original Yellow Cab Company based in Chicago, Illinois is one of the largest taxicab companies still in existence. ...
Early History
Morris Markin, a clothier from Chicago, Illinois became the owner of a Joliet, Illinois auto-body manufacturer when its owner defaulted on a $15,000 dollar personal loan from Markin. The facility made bodies for Commonwealth Motors who marketed the vehicles to cab companies under the trade name Mogul.
Concurrently, Checker Taxi – a privately-owned cab company in Chicago that had no affiliation with Markin - placed a large order for Mogul cabs with Commonwealth. Commonwealth itself was on the verge of bankruptcy, so Markin merged the two companies in order to honor the contractual commitment with the Chicago Checker Taxi. Markin named his concern the Checker Cab Company. However, there was no overlap in ownership.
John Hertz began in the taxi business in 1910, both building Yellow Cabs and operating the livery service. Because of plant overproduction, Hertz used the excess cars by renting them to patrons through his “Yellow Drive-Ur-Self” division (the forerunner of Hertz Rental Car). Seeing Hertz’s success, Markin began buying up Checker’s rolling stock in 1924; Markin gained full control of Checker Taxi Cab in 1937.
Markin also followed Hertz’s business plan in having drivers open doors for the fares, and outfitted each driver with a uniform. Competition for fares was fierce in the 1920s, and the easily-spotted drivers began ganging up on one another between fares.
The fighting between the two cab companies escalated to the point where Markin’s home was firebombed. This prompted Markin to buy the Dort Automobile factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan and relocate Checker.
Under Markin, Checker became the first cab company to hire African-American drivers and the first to require that drivers pick up all fares, not just white ones.
Hertz had sold his Yellow Cab to the Parmalee Transportation Company, but in 1929, after a suspicious fire at his stables killed his prized race horses, Hertz left the cab business, with Markin buying Hertz’s shares and then acquiring another one-third in the company from Parmalee; thus taking control of both Parmalee and Yellow Cab.
While Hertz had sold off the cab business, the manufacturing arm went to General Motors, which wanted to sell the business and made Markin an affordable offer. Markin refused. Rather than eliminate the capacity of Yellow Manufacturing, General Motors entered the taxicab business as Terminal Taxi Cab, and a second fare war broke out, with Checker and Terminal fighting it out in New York City. To end this dispute, New York Mayor Jimmy Walker created the New York Taxi Cab Commission, which ruled that all cabs in New York had to be purpose-built cabs, not consumer car conversions.
Markin sold Checker Cab to E.L. Cord, but bought back the company in 1936. In 1940, Parmalee (including Yellow and Checker Cab) became the largest cab company in the United States. Eventually, the cab company revenues exceeded those of Checker’s automotive building division, and the company decided to enter the consumer passenger car business in 1961.
In 1964 the State of New York pursued Markin and Checker on antitrust charges, alleging that it controlled both the taxi service and manufacture of taxis, and thus favored itself in fulfilling orders. Rather than allow Checker drivers to begin buying different brands of cars, Markin began selling licenses in New York City.
In 1977, seven years after the death of Morris Markin, former GM President Ed Cole bought into Checker with the intent of energizing the company. Shortly thereafter, Cole was killed when his plane crashed near Kalamazoo. Ed Cole was an automotive executive for General Motors. ...
The last model year for Checker Taxi was 1982.
Checker Motors today operates as an automotive subcontractor, primarily for General Motors, building mostly body components. A subcontractor is an individual or in many cases a business that signs a contract to perform part or all of the obligations of anothers contract. ...
General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM), also known as GM, is a United States-based automobile maker with worldwide operations and brands including Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saturn, Saab and Vauxhall. ...
Checker Cabs in the Media
 Metal die-cast model of a Checker taxicab The Checker has long enjoyed a cult status. Checker taxicab, metal die-cast model, 2004, by Rick Dikeman File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Checker taxicab, metal die-cast model, 2004, by Rick Dikeman File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
In the original Mission Impossible television show, episodes that were supposedly set in Eastern Europe often used Checkers as vehicles, as was sometimes evident in closeups of the cars. Mission: Impossible is the name of an American television series which aired on the CBS network from September 1966 to September 1973. ...
World map showing Europe Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiogeographic one. ...
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Checker cabs were featured prominently in the television show Taxi. Set in the fictional "Sunshine Cab Company" headquarters in New York City, all or most of the cabs in the Sunshine fleet were Checkers. Nearly every episode began with footage of Checkers in action, and the background of the garage interior often showed several Checkers getting worked on or waiting to be dispatched. This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ...
Nickname: The Big Apple Motto: Official website: City of New York Location [[Image:|250px|250px|Location of City of New York, New York]] Location in the state of New York Government Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R...
See also The original Yellow Cab Company based in Chicago, Illinois is one of the largest taxicab companies still in existence. ...
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