As per the lawsuit, Yellow essentially manuplated the bids by having a single person (Chris Van Dyke) control them. Yellow intentions are straight forward.. they want to create a monopoly in taxicab business and crush the competion. They would be able to do so by getting the Airport contract as they already control a large share within City of Seattle.
Port needs to re-evaluate it's RFP process to ensure it is fair and equitable and that every company has equal opportunity to bid for the contract.
In the end, it would matter a great deal as to which company would provide the best service to the airport clients & visitors to Seattle. Today, STITA provides a service where customer wait time is less than 5 minutes. It would be hard for any company to match that unless it exclusively serves the airport (like STITA) or expands its fleet to accomodate all the airport customers.

@1, if Yellow or anyone else gets the airport contract, they will certainly have to expand their fleet. That's a hell of a lot of new trips.

What I'm wondering is, what happens the first time an airport passenger gets in a Yellow (or Farwest, or whatever) cab and says "Tacoma". Or "Bellevue". Will the driver just tell 'em to get out? He can't legally pick up a fare in those cities; I don't even think he can enter the city limits with the meter on.

@2 - can you really not take a Yellow Cab to Bellevue? I've never tried, but that's pretty surprising.

How does the party crowd get home from Pioneer Square? The ones that don't drunk-drive, of course...

@3 - Legally, they should be able to drop you off outside Seattle, but besides the airport where drivers are more closely scrutinzed, I bet a lot of drivers would just tell you "no" if you asked.

Also, the "party crowd" drives, drunk or not.

@2 - in that case they'd take the passenger to Tacoma and ride back empty - just like every STITA taxi does now.

Yellow serves Tacoma as well, but I imagine that requires a different medallion. I'd think they'd be smart to have a dispatcher physically at the airport to try to optimize trips.

@5, but wouldn't a Yellow driver want to just tell 'em to get lost and wait for a Seattle fare, that lets them get a return fare? Or, since they know there's a better-than-even chance of a deadhead ride (Seattle is less than 1/3 of the airport catchment area), won't they just say "screw the airport" altogether?

I'm pretty sure the Yellow Cab in Tacoma is a different company than the Yellow Cab in Seattle.

As someone who used to take cabs from Pioneer Square to Bellevue between 6 to 8 times a month (and who used them twice this weekend when we were home for a visit), I can say that a very large contingent of 'party people' don't drive drunk AND that no cab we have ever gotten in has said no to taking us across the lake.

I got no idea why you people think taxis can't cross the lake.

ANY Seattle or King County taxis can drop anyone off anywhere.... Including Bellevue, Kirkland, Tacoma, Canada or even California (yes, it has happened). The question is where a driver is picking up fares. A set of taxis, including STITA, are only licensed in King County and can only originate their trips in King County areas. Many Yellow taxis are licensed by the City of Seattle only and can only originate trips in Seattle. ...Just a licensing deal. If you live in Tacoma, you need to call a taxi that can pick you up in Tacoma, obviously, you'd have a hard time getting a Seattle Yellow Taxi to drive from Seattle all the way to Tacoma to pick you up. But, if you are Pioneer Sq and want a ride home, Yellow would happily take you home to Tacoma. Nice fare.