Most experienced taxi drivers who have been working in the same city or region for a while would be expected to know the most important streets and places where their customers request to go. However, to aid Airport taxi service of manual navigation and the taxi driver’s memory (and the customer’s as well at times) a cab driver is usually equipped with a detailed roadmap of the area in which they work. There is also an increasing use of GPS driven navigational systems in wealthier countries. In the United States, a nut is industry slang for the amount of money a driver has to pay upfront to lease a taxi for a specific period of time. Once that amount is collected in fare, the driver then begins to make a profit. A driver “on the nut” is trying to earn back the initial cost.
Conaway left the show at the beginning of Season 4, returning for a guest appearance in which his character leaves the taxi company for good. Writer Sam Simon explained later that when Conaway was absent for an episode, his dialogue was successfully reassigned to other cast members, which made the producers realize that he was expendable. In South Africa, taxi deregulation has resulted in the emergence of taxi cartels which carry out acts of gun violence against rival cartels in attempts to monopolize desirable routes.
They are often used by non-disabled people who need to transport luggage, small items of furniture, animals, and other items. Taxi services are typically provided by automobiles, but in some countries various human-powered vehicles, and animal-powered vehicles or even boats are also used or have been used historically. In Western Europe, Bissau, and to an extent, Australia, it is not uncommon for expensive cars such as Mercedes-Benz to be the taxicab of choice.
Elaine Nardo is a single mother working as a receptionist at an art gallery. All take pity on “Reverend Jim” Ignatowski, an aging hippie minister, who is burnt out from drugs, so they help him become a cabbie. The characters also include Latka Gravas, their innocent, wide-eyed mechanic from an unnamed foreign country, and Louie De Palma, the despotic dispatcher. The show was a critical and commercial success, having been nominated for 31 Emmy Awards and winning 13, including three straight years winning Outstanding Comedy.
Each taxi carried five soldiers, four in the back and one next to the driver. Only the back lights of the taxis were lit; the drivers were instructed to follow the lights of the taxi ahead. The Germans were surprised and were pushed back by the French and British armies. Most of the taxis were demobilized on 8 September but some remained longer to carry the wounded and refugees. The taxis, following city regulations, dutifully ran their meters. The French treasury reimbursed the total fare of 70,012 francs.
The New York taxicabs were initially imported from France by Harry N. Allen owner of the Allen-Kingston Motor Car Company. Their manufacturing took place at Bristol Engineering in Bristol, Connecticut where the first domestically produced Taxicabs were built in 1908, designed by Fred E. Moskovics who had worked at Daimler in the late 1890s. Albert F. Rockwell was the owner of Bristol and his wife suggested he paint his taxicabs yellow to maximise his vehicles’ visibility. Moskovics was one of the organizers of the first Yellow Taxicab Company in New York. Electric battery-powered taxis became available at the end of the 19th century. In London, Walter Bersey designed a fleet of such cabs and introduced them to the streets of London on 19 August 1897.