Founded by John Hertz in 1915, Yellow Cab is the oldest and largest cab management and services provider company in the U.S. Hertz began with a small stake in a Chicago automobile dealership and successfully turned it into a profitable business within a year. With the surplus of used cars that were traded in for new ones at his dealership, he hit upon an innovative idea: turn them into taxicabs.

John Hertz remained in charge of Yellow Cab until 1929 when he left the cab business to start another new venture in the rental car industry. When Hertz left he also took the color yellow which remains a part of the Hertz Rent-a Car logo.

Color choice was only one of Hertz's accomplishments as a cab company owner. He convinced the City of Chicago to invest in traffic lights by installing his own on Michigan Avenue between Randolph and 12th Streets. The resulting improvement in traffic conditions sold the city on expanding this traffic light system. To show its appreciation Chicago reimbursed Hertz for the costs of the lights he had installed.

Hertz's company, which was incorporated December 1, 1915, devised a manual windshield wiper for its cabs. These were soon replaced with the first automatic windshield wipers.

Hertz also liked the new Firestone balloon tire which provided a more comfortable ride for passengers. He converted all of his cabs to wider rimmed wheels to accommodate the tire. Hertz's use of the new tires helped to make the tires a success.

During the period Hertz was developing Yellow Cab Company Russian-born Morris Markin was working as a tailor in Chicago. He brought his nine brothers and sisters to America on his earnings. Through years of hard work and labor Markin prospered in the financial arena and purchased a small auto maker, Commonwealth Motors, an auto body company that he later moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan. With friends from Checker Taxi, an affiliation of taxi drivers founded February 6, 1919, Morris Markin was able to establish his Checker Cab Manufacturing Company, February 2, 1922. The famous Checker Marathons, used by the cab industry throughout the country for more than 60 years because of the roominess and reliability of the vehicles, finally ceased production in 1982. They remain as collectors' items in many private and public automobile collections.

Markin was involved in other businesses but his interest in the taxi industry grew, and he bought controlling interests in cab companies in New York City, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh.

Eventually Markin and his partners owned much of the cab business in Chicago. In 1929 they bought 60 percent ownership in Yellow Cab, including all of John Hertz's holdings.

Within a few years Markin's group had control of both Checker and Yellow Cab in Chicago. By 1935, they had converted Checker Taxi from an affiliation to a corporation, and had taken Yellow Cab from a publicly-held to a privately held company. In 1989 Checker again became an independent association and was divested from Checker Motors, the parent company.

Yellow Cab has been the leading innovator in the cab industry for the past 85 years. It was the first cab company to install seat belts in the rear of its cabs before they were mandated. Yellow Cab was also the first to utilize antilock brake systems, child safety restraint seats, a computerized safety tracking system in its vehicles and a state-of-the-art computer dispatch system.

Yellow Cab is involved in numerous civic and charitable organizations in Chicago. It has underwritten English as a second language courses for drivers throughout the Chicago City Colleges. Yellow Cab has created and supported a summer tennis program for inner city youth through the Chicago Park District, they provide scholarships for drivers, their spouses and children, and they support numerous other charities in the Chicagoland area.

In 1996 Yellow Cab was sold for the first time since Morris Markin took control of the company. The current owners will be the ones to write the next chapter of our history. That chapter promises to be just as fascinating as our previous 85 years as we move forward in our efforts to provide innovative service to Chicago's taxicab medallions owners and their passengers.