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Ashland now has three taxi firms By John Darling ASHLAND � The city�s 28-year ban on competitors to Yellow Cab has fallen and three taxi companies, including a student-only cab, are working the increasingly busy streets. Steve Hulting, owner of Cascade Airport Shuttle since 1990, fought for more than a year to overturn a 1972 city ordinance requiring applicants to prove the need for service by a second taxi company. The law effectively gave Yellow Cab a monopoly in Ashland. In early July, after the City Council approved a change in the ordinance, the city recorder issued Hulting a "certificate of public convenience and necessity" and he launched Ashland Taxicab and Delivery Service here with three seven-passenger Ford Windstar vans. His strategy is to offer the lowest metered fares in Ashland � a $2 initial fare plus $1.75 a mile. Yellow Cab charges a $2 starting fare plus $2 a mile and serves the entire Rogue Valley. A third, newly inaugurated taxi service � Student Taxi � charges a $3 flat rate and is permitted to carry SOU students only. Ashland Taxicab is also offering a $3 round trip "go to worship rate" on Saturday and Sunday and, like other companies, will deliver groceries, packages or medications for people. "Business is starting off a little slow," Hulting said, "but we�re just getting the word out. People like the new vehicles and the new service." Hulting�s campaign to open up Ashland taxi service was opposed by Yellow Cab on grounds that more cabs would mean smaller revenues for each company, and thus lessened service. In its study of the 1972 taxi ordinance, the City Council learned that with unrestricted cab competition, some companies targeted weekends, holidays and other high-business times to increase revenues, then offered little or no service at other times. The 1972 ordinance and the new law both require full-time cab service by any operator. To push his proposal through, Hulting gathered comments from restaurants, senior homes and other businesses showing additional service was needed to handle the growing population and to improve response times. Hulting continues to operate his Cascade Airport Shuttle, which offers flat-rate rides between Ashland and Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport. He has four full-time and two part-time employees. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA