A Primary Seattle Yellow Medallion Owner Returns His Licenses Back To The City

At one point, N____ owned 30 City of Seattle medallions, all of them Yellow cabs.  Now I have found out, that after selling an unknown number of these once very valuable licenses, he gave the rest back to the City of Seattle, divesting himself in a way I am sure he never thought possible.  And why did he do the unthinkable?   A shortage of drivers willing to drive a cab in Seattle convinced him it was time to get out of the business permanently.

How much money did he lose?  Given past value, quite a bit is the answer, his 30 cabs times $250,000 once equalling a combined equity of 7,500,000.  And how much is a medallion currently worth?  Anywhere between $3-5 thousand dollars.  You might also ask who is to blame for this?  Uber and Lyft and their municipal and county and Port of Seattle enablers.

While many local cab veterans might say "Good riddance!" to someone despised, I always had a good relationship with him, having known him for over 27 years.  He wanted me to take over the current lot, something I agreed to but was overruled by L___, who thought I deserved $1500.00 less than what I was told.  N____ also was the sponsor of the yearly Thanksgiving feast for Yellow drivers and their families, something I made every effort to attend.

In conclusion, he deserved better than he got, and now he has the pleasure of not having to deal with a bunch of crazed cabbies who don't and never will understand the underlying economics of operating a big cab company.  At its height, the BYG co-op (Seattle Yellow Cab) was an astoundingly efficient transportation machine, keeping a fleet of well over 500 cabs maintained and on the road.  That the current version, Yellow Fleet, is sinking into the taxi sunset is something I find sad, and worth shedding a tear over.   What we are witnessing is an end of an era, something not soon or ever again replicated.  Despite all its associated hardships, driving a cab can be both profitable and entertaining.

And what is replacing this fine tradition?  Oh my god! Uber and Lyft!  Oh my blessed Taxi God!