Music.
On our morning show today, we put the spotlight on town taxi.
In fact, Tony Burke is in the studio with us along with the Nella Burke.
You hear him on their commercials on the radio, but good morning, guys.
Good to see you.
Nella, what class are you missing right now by coming to the studios?
Math.
Math.
Math, you think?
Okay.
You think?
I'm
pretty sure math and may and maybe art or library.
I'm not
sure.
I understand it's twin day today.
So.
Who are you twins with?
I'm twins with my best friend and I'm stitch and she's angel.
She's angel in your stitch, but right now she's flying solo.
She's not a twin, right?
So until you get back there.
Okay.
Well, Tony, good to have you in
here.
Thanks for having us.
Before we get too far, I want to, I want to give a thank you to you guys, you and Hank.
You guys have been great with us.
And I, uh, I've been wanting to tell you that you guys always talk about how Richel Center has, uh,
a record store, a roller rink, a drive-in movie theater, you got the local radio station, and we actually still have a family-owned...
and an operated taxi service, which is something you don't see every day either in towns our size.
Very true.
Yeah.
For our community, we're very, very fortunate.
And sometimes, unfortunately, we take those things for granted, you know, and people coming from outside the area and they're like, you guys have all this.
Yeah, I get that too.
And I'm like, if I drive customers from out of town and they say, oh, it's so pretty here in the rolling hills.
And, you know, I drive around them every day.
It's kind of goes over your head.
You don't take time to stop and appreciate it.
You get a chance to interact
act with lots of customers and any stories that come to mind from recently?
Actually,
it was funny to ask.
Last week, I had a longer trip and sometimes I get customers that, you know, you can't hardly get them to be quiet.
They talk the whole trip and some are quiet.
This lady particularly, I don't think she said maybe two words other than hi to me.
And about a half hour into her trip, it was about the end of your show.
And
All of a sudden behind me, I just hear it until we meet again.
And she's singing along.
I almost forgot I had somebody back there because she had been so quiet the whole time.
But
yeah.
Singing along with happy trails.
Happy trails.
That's pretty cool.
It was when they hit home for her.
Yes.
Anything else?
Oh, let's see.
the fall colors.
The fall colors, I've had some requests for people that like to go on a little ride and just see the colors, see the colors of the trees.
I have one lady.
Oh, it started, started back around graduation time.
I took her to one of her grandkids or great grandkids graduation and
Since that time now I take her regularly like once it's the first Thursday of every month.
She goes over to Highland.
She plays Eucer, plays cards.
I'm not sure of her age, but I'm guessing she's she's gonna be late 80s.
But same lady now wants me to take her on a little drive to go see the fall colors and and Hopefully this wind doesn't kick in too much to take them all off before they change, but
good point.
Yeah, with homecoming coming up this weekend.
It's another big weekend.
Those
are the rewarding jobs.
You know, we talked a lot about our medical transportation and and things with doctors appointments, but it's those trips that that don't involve doctors.
Those are the ones that are really rewarding for us.
That's getting somebody out to enjoy family time and things like that.
That's the
That's what warms the heart.
Well, you stay pretty busy.
That's for sure.
We definitely do.
And we're still growing.
I mean, it's so I was thinking about this this morning.
I think I came in here and talked to you about taxi business almost exactly two years ago was when we took over town taxi.
And now we've grown at that point, I was lucky to do 20 30 rides a day.
And now we're up to 1500 a month.
That's just one way trips, you know, that's not round round trip.
But yeah, we're 1500.
rides, one way rides every month now.
And with these changes coming that we kind of came to talk about, we're going to be even busier.
So it's going to be a lot on our shoulders, but we're up for the challenge.
So starting in January, it sounds like you'll be the only taxi
service.
You know, I can't speak for the other company, but
I guess the best way to talk about the future is to talk about how we got here.
And like I said, two years ago, Melissa and I took over town taxi.
We had intentions of trying to get a contract with the city.
And long story short, we were too green, but now we've proved ourselves for the last couple of years.
And the city of Richmond center took a vote to discontinue their involvement in the contract with the other company, which we're led to believe they will be
leaving town and then town taxi will be the only service in the area.
So that's what we kind of came to talk about today.
As a result then, Tony, are you going to increase your hours starting tomorrow?
Well, absolutely.
I mean, you know, we've been operating for the last two years.
We do six in the morning to six at night, six A to six P. And I always tell people that's just when we answer the phone.
There's not much we won't do if it's planned ahead of time, you know, whether it be a family get together or whatever it may be you want to do.
It doesn't necessarily have to be within those hours of operation if it's planned ahead.
But that's our operating hours now, Monday through Friday, six to six and Saturdays were open eight to four.
ramping up to January 1st in this change.
By that point, we plan to expand our hours.
I'm not really sure if we're going to be 9, 10, maybe even 11 on a weekend day.
We're not sure.
But yeah, expanding our hours will definitely be something that it's been a big question with our customers, you know, so that the answer to that question is yes.
Being a family guy, I wonder how you do it because you got to get well,
you
know, and you got all kinds of things going
on, right?
It's easy to be a workaholic when you work with your family, I guess, you know, Melissa and I both do this full time.
And of course, we have the commercial maker here.
How many hours do you think mom and dad work every day?
Hmm.
I've never seen her tie before,
right?
Yeah.
12 ish.
Okay.
But yeah.
So coming in, coming in, in the next couple of months, we're going to be hiring at least one more full time driver.
We've actually had some people even reach out to just be volunteer drivers because if, you know, we, we not only do local.
trips, but we take people to their doctor's appointments in Madison.
We take travelers to and from the airport when they're traveling to our area.
So hours of operation have been a big question for that.
There's not much we won't do if you just ask.
What about your fleet of vehicles?
Is that going to expand or
what are you looking at?
Right now we have one wheelchair van and our
our plan in the next month or two is to get a second good reliable so we can do out of town trips and still not have to turn our back on our local residents that are in wheelchairs or need the wheelchair van.
Not everybody requires, you know, a wheelchair accessible van and some actually prefer to not have to get up in a van and rather just be in a car.
So
I bet you'll be glad as we all will when this construction
is over the construction.
I tell you.
I couldn't wait for it to start because, you know, sometimes there's days, you know, I can go up and down that four lane stretch 20 times a day or more, you know, and there was a lot of bumps, but yeah, I cannot wait, especially all these left turns that you're talking about this week.
You can't get into some businesses without going all the way down and around.
Yeah,
I can't get
that today.
Didn't we?
Yeah, I can't get to Sextonville with a left turn.
I got to go
right.
You
know, oh, really?
Down the road a little bit.
That brings up another interesting point, though.
I mean, the number of miles you travel, your maintenance on your vehicles, you must have to be maintaining them all the
time.
Well, we've actually been quite lucky and knock on wood.
I don't want to jinx it.
We haven't had to deal with anything too major, but we can put on...
150 miles a day.
So yeah, we're doing oil changes quite often.
Right.
And then of course, a lot of in town trips, you're using the brakes more
breaks, tires, all that stuff.
It's not just your it's not like your average daily driver just going back and forth to work.
So
Well, in terms of this fall, you know, I know you're running your current hours, but you've got a lot of things going on.
You got pumpkin fest, and I know a lot of times you're bringing people to and from some
of these events.
To and from.
We try to be as involved as we can, at least let it be known that our service is available for people that want to use it.
Oh, let's see, like when they did national night out, out to the fairgrounds, you know, not everybody can get out there.
We want to make sure that they knew that our services were available.
So yeah, you kind of are a shuttle service sometimes.
Yeah, we don't like we don't want anyone to feel like they are excluded from an activity just because they don't have transportation.
Those longer trips when you're going to Madison to the hospital and things like that, do you enjoy those more?
Yeah,
I guess it probably depends on the customer.
But yeah, I like the long trips.
Good conversation.
Sure.
Yeah.
And then you have to get there.
Sometimes you have to find a place to park and wait and things like
that.
Yeah, you get special privileges though when you have.
Do you?
Well, not really, but they just kind of look the other way sometimes when you can, when you have taxi service on your vehicle, you can kind of park and throw on the flashers and they're a little more lenient.
You still can't stay there all day, but.
He buys you a little bit of time.
You ever have somebody up and try to hail a cab while you're waiting?
I have had that happen.
I can't really do that when I'm in Madison.
So you're looking at the business growing and things like that.
Do you have goals for the future?
Well, adding
the vehicle, adding employees.
We like to be as involved in community events as possible.
I think some people have learned.
All you got to do is come to us and ask.
Call our phone number, 608-647-3114.
we get a lot of people that say, Hey, we're having to get together for this.
Is this even something you would consider?
And then like I said, there's not much we won't do if we can fit in our schedule.
So
what do you consider like in town, just in Richland Center or within a radius?
We
have we have prices.
We have set prices for local and then set prices for what we call a 10 mile radius, which is to cover Boaz, Ithaca, Gotham.
Those all have set rates as well.
Could you give us a little bit of a price breakdown?
Sure.
So our local, our local rides for a senior disabled student veterans is a $4 charge.
And that includes that's anything within the city limits.
Our senior disabled prices after the city limits, when you get out to those is $10 to $15.
But our senior disabled, I did want to go over the prices a little bit because it's been
It's been an area of concern, I guess, with some of the customers, because our prices will have to be more than the other companies when they leave.
But just to give you an idea, like we charge, so we charge $4 for a senior disabled veteran ride in town.
If you have a car, say you have a car that gets 18 miles a gallon in town, okay, and a three mile trip, I've broke down all of the numbers.
And for a three mile trip in town, it costs us $4.72 per ride.
And we only charge four.
So we're technically taking a loss on these discounted rates, but we make up for it with our trips to Madison and things like that.
But for anyone that has a real.
question about our prices, we are not out, you know, we're not, we're not getting rich doing this, that's for sure.
No, that seems very, very reasonable, very cheap.
Yeah.
Now, for like a standard adult or something like that, it's a $7 in town locally.
A good, a good rule of thumb for out of town trips is $2 a mile.
Once you get past that 10 mile radius, $2 a mile for mileage, are you getting bored on me?
She over there you
on and
we need more fifth grade questions.
She needs her milk
break and prompt to in prompt to, uh, uh, are you smarter than a fifth grader?
Yeah.
Well, we don't want to go
there.
But when you're, yeah, when you're the price of gas, uh, which has just been tough this year,
well, yeah.
And that's, so if gas is $4 a gallon, um, that's 22 cents a ride.
22 cents for it costs us for gas.
Our insurance is crazy expensive.
We spend as much up to $1,500 a month in insurance.
That's like a dollar per ride.
And our driver wages, I mean, we have to pay drivers something.
So it's about $3.50 for a 15 for 15 minutes of wages.
So that gets us to that price.
Do you need a CDL?
No,
you do not.
You do not.
So somebody that's looking to volunteer, you just need a valid
like valid license.
Yep.
I mean,
if we would ever, you know, get a big bus or something like that.
That's a little different.
Yep.
Nope.
Um, we have, you know, we have, uh, training videos and such for the, uh, the different tie downs and straps, you know, that, uh, when you get a wheelchair in the van, you, you strap the wheelchair to the van and the customers is seat belted to the wheelchair.
So there's, you know, I have to know how to, you have to learn how to, to operate all of that equipment, but it's
not rocket science, that's for sure.
With a van that is equipped for a wheelchair, that has to cost you a little bit more money.
They're not cheap.
Yeah, they are.
They're not cheap.
I mean, brand new, you can spend as much as $80, $90,000 on one.
I don't know if we'll ever get to the point that we can afford a brand new one, but even, even $20,000, you're, you're still looking at one with close to 100,000 miles on it.
They're, they're not cheap.
Well, looking at that down the road, then, you know, maybe some big changes
for January or looking at 2027, any other goals for next year?
Goals.
Uh, I think we're, we're Melissa and I've been so busy trying to, um, make sure we're taking the right steps to get to January 1st, that what happens after that, we'll worry about it when it comes.
Okay.
Sure.
And how long before Nella gets her driver's license so she can drive a taxi as
well?
To be able to like drive her tax you have to be 18.
Oh, yeah, she would have to be
18.
So that would be in seven years.
Seven years.
See, she's not in math class, but she's doing some figuring.
She's in film these math class.
Boy, that would be a rough one right there.
And a bag of candy to boot.
Yeah, she got a bag of candy too.
And
you're in fifth grade now.
So, yeah, are you smarter than a fifth grader?
I'm guessing she would win.
I would say no.
I'm not.
No, no.
Mella, has it been a good school year for you?
Yes, it has.
Yeah.
And are you looking forward to homecoming this weekend?
Yes, I am.
Does St.
Mary's do anything in the parade?
I'm not doing, I don't do St.
Mary's.
Oh, I thought, I'm sorry.
No,
I do the Richland Center.
So you're Richland Center.
You'll be in the parade then.
I'm gonna be in the parade with
dad.
Yeah, we'll be in the parade riding in the taxi.
Yeah, sure.
And there's no accident that you're
labeling along the van is orange.
So you
know, yeah, you know, I that is a good point, Phil.
I I'm a big one for local businesses, you know, supporting the community.
I know when you go to basketball and places like that, they even have the high school mascot logo on their fire trucks and ambulances and things like that.
But it just it
It gives it that community feeling.
So yeah, I stuck with orange and black colors.
Absolutely.
And in fact, when I ordered our t-shirts, I said, I want Hornet Orange.
So you don't have to decorate it anymore for the parade?
No, not
really.
Good.
And I know you guys do a lot of things that people don't see behind the scenes.
I mean, you do some some free of charge things too.
Well, yeah, I mean, we we help unload and load groceries.
I've I've I've gone as far as helping somebody move.
Entertainment Center just because I had a vehicle that was big enough to hold it Yeah, that's That's all
and indeed and you you told the story the last time we were here about you know elderly couples and
how she would get dressed up to.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I had a lady, one of my first regular customers, she was at one home and her, uh, her husband was at another facility on the other side of town and she would take the taxi back and forth every single day to have lunch with him and spend some time with him.
I, I still call mom, don't I?
I tell mom when I'm old and in a nursing home, she better take a taxi to come see me.
She better do that.
Right.
Yeah.
Town taxi.
She better take that.
She'll probably be
driving me to that old folks home.
But a lot of your writers and your population, I would say are probably 65 or older, right?
Yeah, I would say 80% of our customer base is senior disabled.
The taxi service is really, really, I mean, honestly, it is something you don't think about.
It goes, you know, when I have a conversation with just a person in QuickTrip or on the street, you know, and I tell them that we can do 1500 rides a month, their jaw hits the floor.
They just don't, it seems crazy to them that I said, if you don't need it, you don't think about it.
But there's a lot of our residents that need transportation to not only doctors appointments, but
I think you've had Shirley Keller in here before.
She takes us to get her nails done and her hair done and do shopping.
That's the fun stuff is getting those seniors out there.
can't or shouldn't drive anymore out to do enjoyable things.
And just every day, things like getting groceries and
the simple stuff that the red like you said, the rest of us take for granted.
That's what we're here for
pharmacies and
pharmacy runs all.
And so the free ride fund, I guess is something we didn't touch on yet.
But we take donations from we from
the Salvation Army, we've gotten donations from the thrift shop, just residents around town.
I've had people corner me in a parking lot and say, here, put this towards your free ride fund.
But what the free ride fund does, it kind of compensates for those cheaper prices that we have.
So we take a donation and every for every $5 that we get in donations, we give one free ride to
anything healthcare related.
It could be chiropractor, doctor's appointment, eye doctor, and even mental health.
That's an issue that should be touched on more.
And so we give free local medical transportation to those in need through the power of donation.
And it's been great so far.
Again, we're fortunate to have you because I'm guessing there are communities that
are
size that don't have this.
There are a lot of communities that don't have taxi service.
Uh, well, basketball, which I talked about them earlier, but basketball is one that, uh, to the best of my knowledge, other than some friends, given some friends or I, there's no.
technical taxi service in the area.
So when you think about those nursing homes and those facilities in that area that don't have the option, it's just not there.
They don't have transportation options.
Well, keep doing what you're doing, Tony.
Well, thank you.
Appreciate it.
Appreciate you coming in here and people can call you.
It's the best way to get a hold of
you.
Well, our website is kind of a work in progress, but www.rctowntaxi.com.
Our phone number is 608-647-3114.
You can find us on Facebook.
You want to tell them where you find us on Facebook?
Go for it, Nella.
RCTownTag.
Is she
that
quiet at school?
I couldn't quite remember.
She is not this quiet ever.
Ever.
Not just a not quite at school.
She's not this quiet ever.
I couldn't think of the name.
It's Count
Taxi
of Richardson Center, Wisconsin.
When she was on doing the guest DJ thing last year, she
wasn't that quiet.
Two
years ago.
It was two years ago.
Yeah.
The first, the first year we were in business, I did the walk with grace.
Um, those were the days auction, but I think it was, wasn't it Todd that got it this last time around?
Yes.
We had two people get it this last
time around.
Yeah.
So it was two years ago.
Yes.
It's hard to believe it's been that long already.
Yeah.
Unreal.
I remember that, um,
I was sitting in the back seat in the van and we were waiting for somebody.
I'm pretty sure.
Oh yeah.
And you were bidding on it.
And I was like, dad, bid more.
Bid more.
Bid
more.
Bid
more.
Bid more.
Bid more.
Yeah, that was fun.
Fun stuff.
Absolutely.
Well, Nella, behave yourself in school, you know.
We better get you back there.
We better get you back there.
Thanks for coming in today,
you guys.
Thanks, Phil.
You bet.
Tony Burke joining us.
Ella Burke as well.
Town Taxi here in Richland Center and we'll be back with more community conversation coming up next.