{"id":21333,"date":"2015-01-29T11:47:13","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T17:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=21333"},"modified":"2015-10-27T15:16:00","modified_gmt":"2015-10-27T20:16:00","slug":"angel-taxi-here-to-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/angel-taxi-here-to-stay\/","title":{"rendered":"Angel Taxi: Here To Stay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sue Lacrosse<\/strong>, owner of Angel Taxi<\/strong>, is no stranger these days to being in the news. But the good news is that Angel Taxi isn\u2019t going anywhere anytime soon.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lacrosse started the company in 2004, over a decade ago. \u201cI did this to save all the kids here and help this community. When I opened there weren\u2019t O.U.T.<\/strong> buses. There wasn\u2019t another cab service that worked 24\u20137, to get people to work,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lacrosse has been running the business out of her South Oaks<\/strong> home now for years. Even though that area was annexed by the city in 2007, the city has been renewing her privilege tax license for the past several years to stay in business there.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"SueLacrosse\"<\/a>Still, Lacrosse was slapped with a $500 fine back in September and was told she needed to get permission to run the business out of her home. Since then she\u2019s had to tell her drivers they aren\u2019t allowed to come to her house in their taxi vehicles, and she meets them once a week at a restaurant to complete payroll. And she\u2019s moved the single commercial vehicle she says was sitting at her house\u2014a blue limousine. \u201cIt\u2019s not even in Lafayette County<\/strong> anymore,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

All Lacrosse wanted was permission to answer phone calls and emails from her home, and to keep her payroll records there \u201cbecause it\u2019s safe.\u201d But in early January, a \u201cPublic Notice\u201d sign was placed in her yard. The sign read: \u201cThis property being considered for special exemption to allow a home occupation,\u201d and gave the information for an Oxford Planning Commission<\/strong> meeting on January 12.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Planning Commission voted to disallow Lacrosse to continue operating Angel Taxi from her home, since it\u2019s located in an area zoned exclusively for residential dwellings. This, she says, is when people started asking her if she was going out of business. \u201cNo, I\u2019m not. I\u2019m not going to stop operating. I\u2019ve done what they said, which was move the limo. I\u2019ve gotten an address for my business, between here and Batesville.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Of the ruling Lacrosse said, \u201cIt\u2019s ok, it\u2019s the rules. I\u2019ll follow the rules\u2014I already am. Since this all started I\u2019ve basically been running my business out of my car anyway.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But during this process, she drove around her subdivision and snapped pictures of other business owners in her subdivision who bring their commercial vehicles home, which she says was one of the city\u2019s main complaints about running Angel Taxi out of her home. She hopes that since she\u2019s being made an example, others will be forced to follow the rules as well. \u201cI just want it to be fair,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"TLV-220-AngelTaxiAd-web\"<\/a>More than a decade since its establishment, Angel Taxi has grown to help meet the needs of its passengers. Even though the current count has gotten up to 16 taxi companies operating in Oxford, our readers have voted Angel as \u201cOxford\u2019s Favorite Taxi Service\u201d for the past two years, and Oxford Eagle<\/em> readers have included Angel Taxi in their \u201cBest of Oxford\u201d poll in 2007\u20132009 and again in 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n

Any in-depth conversation with Lacrosse about the taxi business leads to a reminder that taxis are important to our community for more than just the timeframe when bars close. \u201cYou kind of don\u2019t see it cause you might just take a cab from a bar home, but we\u2019re so much more than that… I didn\u2019t do this for money,\u201d says Lacrosse. \u201cYou never see me out and about in something flashy. I don\u2019t care about that. I want to help that little family right there get to the doctor if their car\u2019s broke.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In other news, look for Angel Taxi to roll out a new, exciting option in a few weeks: riders will soon have the option to use a smartphone app to order their Angel Taxi ride. The app, called Ergon<\/strong>, works a lot like Uber<\/strong>. But the San Francisco based Uber is having trouble finding drivers for the Oxford area right now\u2014since our city waged a small war on the rideshare company, nobody really seems to want to risk being arrested to drive for them. Plus, when you get a ride with a local company like Angel Taxi, you\u2019re supporting local workers and local business.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe app is supposed to be touch-button, very very easy.\u201d Lacrosse says, \u201cYou can order your taxi via the app or you can call. There\u2019s a real dispatcher seeing when you order the cab.\u201d The fare will be submitted to the next available driver by a tablet mounted in the taxi\u2014the driver can then either accept or decline the fare. \u201cIt\u2019s supposed to make us more efficient,\u201d says Lacrosse.<\/span><\/p>\n

We at TLV<\/em> will be sure to let you know when this app goes live for Angel Taxi. It\u2019s a big step in embracing change and bringing the taxi business model into a new era of technology.\u00a0\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

This article was originally printed in The Local Voice<\/em> #221 (printed January 22, 2015.)<\/span>
\n To download a PDF of this issue, click here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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