Burlington Taxi; The homegrown rise and frustrating demise of a local institution

The end of Burlington Taxi struck a chord.

When the business announced its official closure in late November, the response included news coverage in national media outlets, statements from local politicians and numerous online expressions of condolences.

The company had become a fixture of Burlington life over its 53 years in operation, with over 10,000 people having worked at the family business over the years. They were extensively involved in community work - both as part of major local events and in numerous quiet support programs that most people likely never heard of, where the company simply provided transportation for those in need.

The reasons for the closure can largely be summed up as a dramatic increase in insurance rates, a shortage of labour and what some feel is an outdated regulatory environment that no longer suited where the industry was.

Scott Wallace, president of Burlington Taxi, said the demand for taxi services remains strong - it's just evolved.

The taxi industry has given my family a good life along with all these people. It's not just about me; it's the thousands of people that work for us and helped us get there. But we can't take these kids to school. We can't take these people, we can't. It's just very frustrating to build a business over 50 years and then ... my phone's ringing off the hook and I can't find people to do the work," said Wallace.

When most people think of the changing taxi industry, they probably think of service's like Uber having taken a lot of the business. While Uber has had an effect, the problem for Burlington Taxi is not that it lacked customers.

Contract work has become a staple of the industry, and is expected to continue being in demand. That's for people who need a consistent drive to and from a regular location like a medical appointment or school.

That type of business has also further connected the company to the community in a tangible way. Customers who routinely make use of the service will develop a real relationship with everyone from the drivers to the dispatch staff.

We made sure that those people out there were quality people. One of the policies we had here is I tell everybody that would start working you always got to think of what you're doing, whether it's a mechanic or a driver driving a car, it's your 13-year-old daughter in the back seat. And that's the way we look at everything," said Wallace.

At its height, Burlington Taxi had roughly 250 active employees and 80 cars in operation. The start of the organization was far more humble than that.

First opening in 1968 by Wallace's father, the company was run out of their home and consisted of just three cars.

There's four kids in the house, and my mother on the phone and it would ring at 2:00 a.m. and he would get out of bed and go do a trip," recalled Wallace. "He would have a couple of guys driving cars for him during the day, but Burlington was a small town at the time. We would do everything like work fixing cabs out of a garage because we only had a couple of them. You know, he was a backyard mechanic and he learned to fix whatever had to be fixed."

The steady growth of the organization to where it became the largest and oldest taxi company in the city meant they were able to become an integral part of the local transportation system.

Over the years, Burlington Taxi has provided free transportation for new mothers to the breastfeeding clinic, sponsored downtown festivals, and most recently kept cars running through the pandemic providing transportation for those requiring medical treatment and more. That's just a short sampling of their many years of charitable work.

The company also became a popular sight in the local Santa Claus Parade with their homemade two-driver taxi.

Some of that charitable work will be continuing. For years, Burlington Taxi supported the Socks For Hope campaign, which collected thousands of socks for those less fortunate.

The campaign was different this year, as they were no longer collecting the socks in taxis, but the passion organizers at the company felt for the cause kept it going despite the change.

Sara Rams, wife of Wallace and an organizer behind the campaign, said they continue to receive support for Socks For Hope from longtime volunteers, schools, fellow taxi companies and more.

It's absolutely different because we don't have drivers on the road. But the truth is, it's near and dear to our staff and drivers. People have been involved with it for years, so that continues. It's a volunteer initiative. It doesn't cost any money, and we continue to come together and be a part of this wonderful campaign," said Rams.

Shortly after the closure of Burlington Taxi, the city made changes to a bylaw that permitted a Hamilton-based taxi company to operate within the city to fill the service gap. According to Wallace, the shift to regional taxi company as opposed to locally-operated ones is the likely future of the industry.