2 northern Utah taxi companies close, leaving Weber and Davis counties with fewer options

OGDEN — Two taxi companies have closed in the northern Wasatch Front in the past month.

The owner of one says it’s because of Uber and Lyft, but the owner of another company says rideshare companies didn’t really impact his business.

A2B Taxi Service, owned by Aubrey Smith, closed at the end of August. Michael Moyal’s company, Ogden Yellow Cab, also shut its doors this summer.

A2B served Davis and Weber counties for 13 years, Smith said. Sales dropped at the company in April, and the company was closed a few months later.

“We were able to attribute that to persons going over to rideshare apps,” Smith said.

Smith had 7 to 10 drivers throughout the years he operated A2B.

He said they tried some different things to compete with rideshare companies — even trying to build their own app to help cut down on dispatching costs.

But insurance costs were too high, and A2B couldn’t compete with the low per-mile costs that Uber and Lyft charge.

“We looked at different routes of how to lessen the costs for the customer,” Smith said, “but it just wasn’t possible.”

A2B was the last local cab company in Davis County, Smith said. Two other licensed taxi services operated in the area, but shut down before A2B, he said. Now, the only options for transportation beyond private vehicles are public transit and rideshare services, Smith said.

Moyal took over Ogden Yellow Cab about 10 years ago. When he purchased the company, he had five or six cars with 12 drivers, he said.

The numbers were gradually reduced to four drivers on weekdays and six drivers on weekends, he said. When the company shut down, Moyal was down to one full-time driver day and night.

He said Uber and Lyft didn’t derail his business. Rather, they frequently benefited Ogden Yellow Cab, especially during busy periods when cab drivers were swamped.

“It’s actually helped us when we were slammed,” Moyal said.

Instead, Moyal said other cab companies in the area weren’t held to the same standards as his. Difficulties working with the city of Ogden also led to the company’s demise, he said.

None of the former drivers from either company had plans to go to Uber or Lyft after the cab companies shut down, according to Smith and Moyal.

All of Smith’s former drivers took on other jobs, he said. While Ogden Yellow Cab was still in business, one of Moyal’s drivers left to work for Uber and Lyft because insurance issues prevented him from working with Moyal’s company.

Smith’s former employees didn’t want to inflate the mileage on their own cars, he said. Uber and Lyft drivers use their own vehicles.

Uber has a service called uberTAXI that allows users to request a cab using the Uber app. It’s available in many larger cities. Smith said he tried to work with the company to bring uberTAXI to Utah, but it hasn’t been implemented here.

Smith said the market needs to be an equal playing field between taxi companies and rideshare services, but he said he don’t think much will change any time soon.

“If only the taxi cab company could follow the same restrictions as Uber, then we wouldn’t be having much of a competition,” Smith said.

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