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Fare coverage
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Newspaper caters to local taxi drivers

By James M. Flammang
Special to the Tribune

November 2, 2003

Sitting behind the wheel of a cab for long stretches at the O'Hare International Airport staging area gave George Lutfallah time to think. He'd driven a cab before, while in college. After receiving an MBA and doing a stint at an accounting/consulting firm, he wanted to strike out on his own.

While struggling to get a company off the ground, he needed to make a living. So, he returned to taxi driving.

"It was Friday night" at O'Hare, Lutfallah recalls, and he was thinking, "What am I doing here?" Soon, his thoughts began to focus on his cabbie colleagues. "There were a lot of issues that drivers were talking about," Lutfallah said. "There were a lot of rumors going around.

"At the same time, I saw that people were handing out fliers," urging drivers to visit a certain restaurant or have their oil changed at a specific garage. With so many potential advertisers, the idea for a drivers publication began to germinate.

And there was the possible circulation with about 6,750 cabs and 17,000 active drivers in Chicago, plus thousands more in the suburbs.

In his research, Lutfallah discovered an article about the Chicago Taxi Times, a similar publication founded a decade earlier. "I didn't know if it was still around," he recalls. "I didn't want to step on anyone's toes."

He found Kenneth Cooper, editor of the Chicago Taxi Times from 1992 until the paper folded in mid-decade. Back issues and Cooper helped Lutfallah envision his venture.

Even now, "he's always giving me great advice and support, "Lutfallah said.

The first issue of Lutfallah's paper, the Chicago Dispatcher, was published in February 2002. It's free to cabdrivers and $1 to others. Some 15 people contribute to each month's issue, working independently.

About 10,000 copies of each issue go to 80 or 90 distribution points, including every cab company. Distribution reaches as far west as Elgin.

"I'll find that a lot of drivers want to tell me some things," Lutfallah said. "It gives me a chance to stay in touch with them."

"It's good," said Aurimas Palaitis as he sat in a taxi line at O'Hare. Besides doing a good job of providing practical information on conventions and business spots, the Chicago Dispatcher delivers details on "crime scenes" that affect taxi drivers.

"There are a lot of problems that we have," Palaitis said, which need to be publicized beyond the driver group. Because the Dispatcher is distributed mainly to cab drivers, though, the general public does not usually learn about them. In addition to coverage in the Dispatcher, Palaitis said, "some articles should be in other papers, including the Chicago Tribune."

Rafi E. Mohammed says the Dispatcher is "nice for the cab drivers."

Vladimir Golomb, a 12-year veteran behind the wheel, agrees. "I like the articles, the interviews," Golomb said, as well as the "taxi news." He appreciates the Dispatcher's focus on drivers, showing "what happens to them, and the experiences they have."

Issue No. 1 contained 12 pages, but lately the size has grown to 24 or 28 pages. "We want to be sure to get it in the drivers' hands before the 1st" of each month, Lutfallah said, so they can benefit from the calendar. Lutfallah believes that "within the next couple of months," it will further increase in size. He also foresees increasing the publishing frequency, to twice a month if not weekly.

In soliciting advertising, Lutfallah started with the Chicago Taxi Times. O'Brien's Restaurant on Wells Street committed to advertising since the first issue. "We don't have much attrition in terms of our advertisers," Lutfallah said. "They tend to stick with us."

Columns such as Dear Cabbie and Cabbie of the Month were modeled on the old paper. Some cabbies contribute to the paper. Submissions also come from people who don't necessarily drive but "have a fondness for cabdrivers," Lutfallah said. He cites the example of a man who wrote to inform drivers he felt their talking on cell phones was "highly unprofessional."

Quite a few contributors are anonymous or use pen names, often because they fear retribution.

Like his 1990s predecessors at the Chicago Taxi Times, Lutfallah likes to take on serious issues that affect drivers--and their passengers. Illegitimate cabs rank high on that list.

Late in 2002, Lutfallah investigated illegitimate cabs at O'Hare. "We actually followed this particular driver," he recalls. A traveler had arrived from Nigeria. "He walked out, saw this guy there, not a licensed Chicago cabbie. He got in this cab, and we followed. [The cabbie] was parked out in the terminals for about 15 minutes, so we knew there was something going on. He obviously didn't get a call."

Lutfallah talked to the passenger afterward. He'd wanted to go to the Blue Line train (which has a station in an O'Hare terminal), with a final destination of Chicago Heights. "This guy charged him [nearly] $70 and dropped him off ... nowhere near his [destination]. That stuff just goes on all the time."

A picture story in the Dispatcher asked "Can you spot the real cab?" Taxis driven by hustlers don't necessarily look much different. "We were called by some cabdrivers who said, you've got to go down there and expose this."

Chicago Dispatcher also helps drivers. One former cab driver had caught a rapist. But he ran into personal problems and wound up sleeping in a hotel lobby. After Lutfallah wrote about him, the hotel threw him out. But American Taxi gave the man a job, answering phones.

"George has that integrity," said former editor Cooper. He cited a case in which a cabbie had been murdered. In addition to publicizing the incident, Lutfallah was instrumental in establishing a fund for the driver's family.

"When I started driving a cab" as a 21-year-old student, Lutfallah said, "I didn't realize how difficult it was. ... You're pretty much forced to work a lot of hours. ... If I had a cab for 24 hours, I was working 14 hours straight. And having the [protective] shield ...forces you to sit more upright. It really takes its toll after a while."

Even so, "I enjoy driving a cab," said Lutfallah. "Every once in a while I have to, at the very least, just to keep in touch."

Early in 2003, Lutfallah started a radio program to complement the paper. Co-hosted by Daniel Dorame, the talk show may be heard on Fridays from 11 p.m. to midnight on WSBC-AM 1240 AM and WCFJ-AM 1470.

"Friday night's a time when all the drivers are out," Lutfallah said, and the radio show gives drivers "an opportunity to express their opinions." If the driver is tuned it, "passengers will be forced to listen," Lutfallah said with a laugh. And they just might learn something about the man or woman behind the wheel.

In the Dispatcher

Taxi drivers need to know where customers are likely to be at a given time.

So, a Calendar of Events is the centerpiece of each issue of the monthly Chicago Dispatcher.

The calendar lists all significant events taking place in the city in the coming month. Cabbies can find out about "something going on at Navy Pier, at a hotel, any kind of convention," Lutfallah said. "The calendar's grown up quite a bit" since the first issue.

The Dispatcher names Chicago's top cabbies and periodically describes new services or products, such as the London Taxis that Yellow Cab Co. hopes to bring to Chicago.

Each issue contains Tales From the Rear View Mirror, written by a long-time driver. And fiction and poetry. Drivers also get an opportunity to express their opinions on taxi-related issues.

In addition to a taxi-focused crossword and a comic strip, the storyline of "Hack," a TV series about a cabbie who solves crimes when not taking passengers to the airport, also is published.

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Predecessor driven by desire to have forum

Kenneth Cooper had been president of the Chicago City Service Taxi Association when he decided to start a newspaper for taxi drivers. Cometas Dilanjian, the association's secretary-treasurer, joined Cooper in the effort that began in 1992.

"We decided that the industry needed some sort of communication," Cooper said. In a newspaper devoted to taxi drivers, everybody "could say what they thought." Early advertisers included the now-defunct Golden Ox restaurant and O'Brien's on Wells Street.

Cooper obtained press credentials from City Hall, not only to attend news conferences but also as an information source for events of importance to drivers: when the opera let out, for instance. But a calendar was only part of the paper's appeal.

"We wrote about corruption," he said.

As an example, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority had issued stamps that cost $2 each. Taxi "starters were steaming off the tickets and reselling to drivers for $1 apiece," Cooper recalls. Good drivers said, "this was wrong." Cooper took a camera to the site at O'Hare International Airport and led an investigation. Still, he said, it "was like getting a kite in the air."

Circulation rose to 18,000 a month from 3,000. The Chicago Taxi Times even had a Commissioner's Corner column by Caroline Shoenberger, who still heads Chicago's Department of Consumer Services.

Taxi papers have been published in San Francisco and New York. "Florida was sending us stuff," Cooper said. He received articles from Paris, and details of a taxi strike in Italy.

After 3 1/2 years, when his father had a stroke that left him with three months to live, Cooper gave up the association presidency and the paper, which ceased publication.