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Taxi boom linked to Latinos

13:22 H | Topics: Business - Marketing - Texas

Proof that a boom in an emerging market can spur the appearance of products or services that the mainstream has been needing or wanting but wasn't provided:

The 14 calls Fiesta got on its first day of business have multiplied into nearly 500,000 dispatched calls annually. A half-million more customers are picked up by drivers at Hispanic supermarkets, Latino-aimed bus companies and through direct cell calls to cabbies.

A handful of Mexican-American drivers in 1985 has grown to a team of 220 cabbies who hail from throughout Latin America. Almost all of them own their cabs and operate small businesses on wheels.

"We've never worked the airports or targeted the hotels. We've always been neighborhood-driven and focused on the Spanish-speaking population," said Martinez, who also is executive vice president of community affairs for Texas Taxi Inc., parent company of Taxis Fiesta and Yellow Cab Houston. "That's been our hallmark and, as the Hispanic community has expanded, so has our business."

Houston (my hometown) is a city that cannot be navigated without a car. It's simply too large, and there is nowhere to walk even if you did want to cross the 602 square mile area on foot. For many years residents have lamented the lack of taxis available in the city and the price of them. Leave it to savvy Latino entrepreneurs to hone in on that need it and serve the growing immigrant population. And while I can't envision many Houston whites getting into a Fiesta Taxi, with its body painted the colors of the Mexican flag, I can see other "mainstream" companies seeing their success and copying their model.

Via / Houston Chronicle

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