Red Cab

Red Cab Inc. is private transportation service.

Overview
The Red Cab Company provides safe, comfortable transportation around the greater Night City area and the suburbs. They will go a maximum of five miles into the combat zone as well. A Red Cab may be summoned by calling or e-mailing dispatch. They will also answer taxi hailer signals and dataterm calls (they have an icon on the public services menu). At the driver's discretion, they will pick up fares off the street, but this isn't common, as the driver takes his own life into his hands (so generally this only happens in "safe" areas). The dispatch computer will promptly answer requests, bringing a cab to your location in three to five minutes. Red Cab is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week

History
On a blustery February day in 2002, Alec Belavitz, a scared loyalist conscript, was huddled behind a burning BMP-2 on a deserted highway in the middle of Russia. Nobody knew what was going on; some said Gorborev had been assassinated, others said the crazy Americans were attacking. Even crazier, there was a rumor going around that the State Oil Industry had turned capitalist!

Alec didn't really care what the cause of the fighting was all he knew was that his platoon had been ambushed on the road to Tomsk, that most of his comrades were dead and that elite SGKP "black berets" had the survivors pinned down.

Like the cavalry, only the timely arrival of loyal spetsnaz commandos saved Alec and the rest of his unit As we all know, the State Oil Industry did, in fact, become the separate corporate entity known today as SovOil. As the fighting became more staccato—and the bold move by the Oil ministry became irreversible—Alec was rotated back to the rear areas. He swore on that day to leave Russia.

Alec immigrated to the U.S., where he had some family in Salt Lake City. From there he wandered to the west coast ending up in Night City, driving a cab at night with one of the yellow cab companies. He teamed the trade quickly. Passengers tried to cheat the fare. Stoned teenyboppers threw up in the back seat Hookers got the hell beaten out of them by customers and pimps. Alec was robbed a dozen times; other cabbies he knew were murdered.

In 2012, as the senior driver, Alec had the option to buy into the company. He did so, eventually taking over the operation from his aging boss. When Alec's superior retired, Alec took complete control of the company, revamping it into his image of the model cab company for the twenty-first century. In 2020, the armored, bright red checkered cabs of Red Cab are a common sight around Night City.

Equipment and Resources
Red Cab has about 75 cabs with twice as many drivers, plus a large maintenance crew. The building is large enough to hold all the cabs at once, plus the entire staff—it was an abandoned parking garage Belavitz purchased for virtually nothing, which he has completely renovated and hardened. The administration office is on the top floor, where the locals can't easily get at it The dispatch area is connected to the office, and both areas are heavily armored. There is a large motor pool on the sublevel. There are three floors to the building, plus the sublevel. Red Cab also maintains a fleet of four AV-4's, used for corporate clients.

Naturally, the core of Red Cab's staff consists of its drivers. Drivers often complain about the scheduling system (allegedly devised by Belavitz himself and based on the phenomenally inefficient Russian system), but working for the company is a pretty good deal. Drivers retain 35% of everything they pull in per shift and naturally all tips are theirs to keep. There is no infirmary on location, but the company has a standing account with Trauma Team, who will show up whenever they get an alert call from a driver.

However, it takes a massive crew of technicians to keep such a fleet of vehicles moving. Thus, a substantial part of the company's employees are mechanics, electronic specialists, and even cybertechnicians.

The violence of the day also takes its unfortunate toll. Red Cab has a small security force, and as things get worse for the drivers, the security group grows on a daily basis.