Yellow Cab Company

In 1906, Grover Cleveland “Cleve” Harrell started what was to become the Yellow Cab Company with a horse-drawn hack and a team of horses in Oklahoma City. After a year, he bought a Model T Ford. People were willing to pay more to ride in an automobile. After World War I, he bought two more cars and hired a relief driver. In 1918, Harrell painted one of his cars yellow. Although ridiculed by other cab drivers, he was hauling more passengers than anyone else, so he painted all his cars yellow and business boomed. Harrell trademarked the name Yellow Cab in Oklahoma. Later, John Hertz copied the Yellow Cab in Chicago and obtained the national trademark for the use of the name.

When oil was discovered in the Oklahoma City area, mules were needed for work in digging slush pits, so the Harrell brothers bought mules and, in 1929, established the Yellow Transit Freight Lines to serve small manufacturers for whom freight was slow and express rates were prohibitive. By 1933, with the New Deal and the NRA, most businesses came under government regulation in an attempt to increase employment. Cleve, together with taxicab operators from other parts of the country, met in Washington D.C. to formulate a regulatory code, which didn’t succeed. Cleve then devised his own code and got government confirmation.

Subject ID: 31539

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In 1906, Grover Cleveland “Cleve” Harrell started what was to become the Yellow Cab Company with a horse-drawn hack and a team of horses in Oklahoma City. After a year, he bought a Model T Ford. People were willing to pay more to ride in an automobile. After World War I, he bought two more cars and hired a relief driver. In 1918, Harrell painted one of his cars yellow. Although ridiculed by other cab drivers, he was hauling more passengers than anyone else, so he painted all his cars yellow and business boomed. Harrell trademarked the name Yellow Cab in Oklahoma. Later, John Hertz copied the Yellow Cab in Chicago and obtained the national trademark for the use of the name.

When oil was discovered in the Oklahoma City area, mules were needed for work in digging slush pits, so the Harrell brothers bought mules and, in 1929, established the Yellow Transit Freight Lines to serve small manufacturers for whom freight was slow and express rates were prohibitive. By 1933, with the New Deal and the NRA, most businesses came under government regulation in an attempt to increase employment. Cleve, together with taxicab operators from other parts of the country, met in Washington D.C. to formulate a regulatory code, which didn’t succeed. Cleve then devised his own code and got government confirmation.

Officially the Yellow Cab Company. Founded in 1914 and based in Chicago, it was a taxi company that built their own cars from 1921 to 1936. They became General Cab from 1936 to 1938. 

One of their major stockholders was John Hertz. Being the 1920s, there was lots of mobster influence as they battled their crosstown rival Checker Cab. Hertz sold out to gm in 1925 to concentrate on the rental car business but kept the distinctive yellow in his logo as a distinguishing trademark.

Subject ID: 31539

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