OUR PROUD HISTORY
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In 1935, a small for-hire transportation company named Casino Taxi Limited was established in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Since that time, Casino Taxi has expanded its offices, adopted the latest technologies, added to its staff, and increased its fleet of taxis to more than 300 vehicles to provide the fastest, most reliable transportation company in the city. These changes, coupled with decades of providing excellent customer service has allowed Casino Taxi to gain the reputation as the number one choice for taxi service in Halifax.
The original fleet of six taxis was purchased by Warren Spicer in 1958. With a strong focus on the customer, Warren was able to quickly expand the company through a combination of innovative advertising and higher than expected customer service.
By 1972, Warren, along with his wife Marjorie, helped Casino grow to fleet of 124 driver-owned and operated taxis, making more than half a million taxi trips per year. Warren also installed and configured a specialized radio system that would allow for faster transmission between taxi and dispatcher. This decreased the amount of time it took to dispatch one taxi trip, thus increasing the number of taxis one person could dispatch.
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1937 - Casino Taxi Limited - Gottingen St, Halifax
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GROWING OUR TAXI FLEET
In 1978, the Spicer’s eldest daughter, Karen Herman, and son Lynn Spicer in 1979 came to work in the family business. This new introduction into the company allowed Warren and Marjorie to enjoy the fruits of retirement. Under the direction of Warren, Karen and Lynn, Casino Taxi grew to 200 taxis by the mid-80s. Over the next two decades, the service remained constant in spite of a recession and the introduction of the GST into the taxi metered rate, which dramatically decreased the number of customers that were able to afford taxi service. In 1996, the Spicer’s youngest daughter Glenda joined the family business.
In 2001 Casino Taxi began a major overhaul that began with installing a computerized dispatch system that would further increase efficiency in dispatching and would allow for an expanded call-centre, and more streamlined operations. This installation when completed would prove to drastically improve service times while decreasing stress placed on the taxi driver and dispatcher. It also increased the number of dispatched trips per year.
ENHANCING OUR SERVICE
Since then, Casino Taxi has consistently broken its own records for number of trips dispatched per year while maintaining an extremely fast response time. Current statistics show that over 98% of passengers are picked up within 8 minutes of placing their taxi request – an impressive number when considering Casino Taxi’s call center handles more than 1.7 million taxi requests annually.
The past decade also marked a new period of corporate succession as Karen’s son Brian Herman joined the family business as Operations Manager in 2001, and Brian’s sister Paula George left public accounting and joined the company in 2003.
Through core values, and keeping with their grandfather’s focus on customer service, Brian and Paula continue to grow Casino Taxi into its third generation of family ownership. It is their commitment to the business, and the dedication of Casino’s dispatch staff and taxi drivers that will enable Casino Taxi to continue to offer the high level of service residents of Halifax have come to know and expect.
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