Citing unfair competition from ride-hailing services like Lyft and Uber, taxi operator Green Cab has begun a crowdfunding campaign to remain in operation.
The company believes weak regulations have provided ride-hail companies significant cost savings at the "expense of safety and consumer protections."
“Green Cab is not the only cab company in danger of succumbing to unfair competition," Green Cab co-founder and board member Mark Gruberg said in a statement.
"But we believe our dedication to service, our drivers and the environment merits the public’s support," he said. "We’ve been an industry leader on these issues for the past 10 years, and hope to be so for many more.”
The company began with one cab in 2007 and expanded to a fleet of 19 by 2014. The city's only worker-owned co-op taxi company, Green Cab also maintains the first fleet to fully adopt the Toyota Prius as its main vehicle. Today, the company only operates seven taxis.
And while San Francisco imposed new clean air rules for cab companies after the inception of Green Cab, the company also purchases carbon credits from CarbonFund.org to offset its greenhouse gas emissions.
Green Cab is also no stranger to app-based ride-hail services. In 2009, the company began beta-testing with Cabulous, which rebranded as Flywheel in 2012. The app works similarly to platforms found at Uber and Lyft, however, Flywheel only contracts with licensed San Francisco taxicabs.
KQED reported in 2014 that Green Cab was forced to pull its fleet off the street after its insurance provider failed to renew the company's policy, citing a "tremendous loss ratio."
Green Cab said that ultimately, the company has not been able to stay above water in comparison to ride-hailing services because they "keep prices artificially low by subsidizing both fares and drivers [and] using venture capital to cover their enormous losses."
The GoFundMe campaign—which was launched on Monday—has so far reached $250 of its $30,000 goal. We reached out to Green Cab to learn more, but have not yet heard back as of publication. We'll update this story if we learn more.
