"Metro Taxi is the largest, full-service taxi company in Connecticut," explains founder and president William Scalzi. “We got that way by providing good service to our clients and beneficial contracts to our drivers, by reinvesting in Connecticut’s taxi industry and by creating opportunities that offer drivers the flexibility to meet today’s two-income family demands.”
With his wife, Isabelle, who heads Business Relations and Marketing, Bill started West Haven-based Metro Taxi in 1987 with 15 cabs, a dream, an engineering degree and two generations of successful taxi experience behind him. Since then he has grown the business more than 10-fold to a fleet of 161 cabs operated by independent contractors and a full-time staff of 48 employees, which he describes as a “great team.”
Proud to be a locally-based contributor to the state’s economic development and a leader in Connecticut’s public transportation, Bill has created and runs a modern, high tech, 24-hour operation that features global positioning systems (GPS) which help to improve service by automatically choosing the drivers closest to a client’s location within a 16-town area. This dispatch method improves efficiency and customer service by minimizing the time clients wait for a cab to arrive.
Business New Haven recently celebrated Bill Scalzi as one of the region’s “2008 Rising Stars” for business and community leadership. Metro Taxi has also been lauded for its technological advancements by the New Haven Chamber of Commerce, cited for exceptional service by the governor and the Connecticut General Assembly and has been voted “Best in New Haven” four consecutive years by the New Haven Advocates’ 70,000 readers. A third generation entrepreneur and taxi owner, Bill initially learned the business from his father and has remained true to a personalized customer service ethic. As a result, Metro Taxi is a hometown taxi company offering big city benefits.
Bill serves Connecticut’s taxi industry by participating in the Connecticut Taxi Task Force, which he recently helped establish. He is also a board member of the Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Association, an international organization comprised of approximately 1,000 transportation companies. Previously, Bill was a president of the Connecticut Medical Livery Association and the Taxi Association of Connecticut, as well as a former director of the Paratransit Risk Retention Group of Memphis, Tennessee.
Prior to founding Metro, Bill started his career with United Technologies Corporation (UTC), before joining Yellow Cab in Hartford where he began as the general manager. He and his wife, Isabelle, live locally.
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