Local taxi business picks up last fare on Saturday

The city of Whitefish lost local taxi service on Saturday evening.

"I can't make it anymore," Josh Hertlein said of his decision to shut down Whitefish Taxi. "It's taking up all our time, and we're barely making it."

Hertlein and his wife Peggy bought the business from Geneva and Louis Webster, Peggy's parents, about three years ago. The Websters had the business for about four years.

"They called it Great Northern Taxi, but we changed the name so people knew where we operated," he said.

With more than 150,000 miles on each of his two vehicles, Hertlein was looking at a sizable investment that would take years to pay back.

"I've been trying to sell the business for the past couple years," he said. "I had someone interested, but they backed out."

Whitefish Taxi is limited to providing service within an 8-mile radius of downtown Whitefish, a condition established when the Websters applied for a "motor carrier authority" from the Montana Public Service Commission.

This has meant that while Hertlein provides taxi service to locals, he can't make the bread-and-butter runs to Glacier Park International Airport and Kalispell.

"I could make it with runs to the airport," he said. "It would be a huge difference."

But to expand his business service area could involve a lengthy public process, and Hertlein would have to show that other taxi businesses were not serving Whitefish residents who needed to get to the airport.

"It took me about 3 1/2 months to get my fare rate increased when gas prices went up last summer," Hertlein said.

Ideally, consumers would best be served by a taxi service that picked up all calls in their local service area but could take them to sites around the Flathead. Whitefish Taxi would pick up people in Whitefish, and Kalispell Taxi would pick up people in Kalispell, he said.

Hertlein has many loyal customers, and some of them will sorely miss his business. He knows of at least 10 who are disabled or elderly or who don't have a vehicle of their own. Several people have told the Pilot that one outside taxi service informed them it won't come and get them unless they're going to the airport.

The bar patron business is also lucrative. Hertlein said more than half of that is Canadians who are used to calling for taxis. A taxi service from Columbia Falls usually stations a van downtown on Friday and Saturday nights to haul bar patrons to motels and up Big Mountain Road, Hertlein said, but he's never seen them around on weekday nights.

Hertlein said he and his wife, who is a nurse, are moving to Helena, where he has a job opportunity.

"But I like the Flathead and want to return here," he said. "I want to thank all the great customers who kept us in business for seven years."

As for customers who relied on his taxi service, Hertlein has a few suggestions.

"Eagle Transit doesn't pick up people at their homes in Whitefish, but people could call them and ask for advice," he said. "There are also people who provide personal services, such as running errands and picking up groceries. That could cost more than a taxi, however."

Someone could come in and start a new taxi service here, but commercial insurance is expensive and the application process is lengthy 'see sidebar).

"The process allows other cab companies the opportunity to protest," he said. "And that always happens."