Perhaps you have seen the orange Wolley cabs adding a splash of color to city traffic jams. If you have an eagle eye, perhaps you even have noticed that “Wolley” backwards spells “yellow.”
The growing fleet of orange cabs is the idea of an accounting executive from the New York City area who saw an opportunity on Chicago streets. Bill Greene, president of Wolley Cab Association, formed it to attract some of the independent taxi drivers who must, by law, belong to a cab association.
He decided to use a sense of humor in choosing a name.
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“That was sort of a little dig at my friends at Yellow (Cab),” Greene says. ” `Wolley’ as `yellow’ spelled backwards is sort of a cute twist on the situation.”
Wolley, being small and new, doesn’t have the required two-way radio dispatch. Yellow, large and long-established, does, and was looking to branch out and provide dispatch services for other taxi associations. So, besides handling 1,900 Yellow cabs, Yellow Cab Management dispatches Wolley taxis and offers Wolley drivers insurance.
Yellow doesn’t mind Greene’s playful tweak in naming Wolley, according to Jan Johns, a spokeswoman for both Yellow Cab Affiliation and Yellow Cab Management. “All in good fun,” she says.
Wolley now has 320 taxis in Chicago, up from only 40 last March, according to Greene. The cabs are orange from top to bottom, with blue writing, not to be confused with competitor City Service taxis, for example, which are orange with white roofs, front hoods and trunks.
Elmorsey Shehata, who pilots Wolley Cab No. 2007, has fielded plenty of passenger comments about the cab’s vivid color and whimsical name. Orange is his favorite color now, for a simple reason. He figures the attention-getting hue is good for business.
“A lot of people say this is the first time they’ve seen an orange cab,” Shehata says.
His business card? Bright orange, naturally.