The History of The Checker Cab.
Checker Taxi was a dominant taxicab company and national franchisor in America. Checker Motors was an American vehicle that built the iconic Checker Taxicab, sold commercially until 1982. Both companies were founded by Morris Markin.
It all began in 1920, when Morris Markin began looking for new business opportunities. Morris Markin was a Russian-Jewish tailor who emigrated to the United States in 1913. He settled in Chicago, found work in the city’s garment district, and within a couple of years had his own business making ready-to-wear suits. When America entered World War I in 1917, he switched to making uniforms for the army.
In 1920 Markin loaned US$15000 to a fellow immigrant, who had a business manufacturing auto bodies of purpose-built taxicabs. Markin may have wished he’d stuck to the garment industry, because taxicabs production failed soon. Rather than cut his losses, Markin assumed control of the company.
Automobiles that the Checker Motors made in the 1920s and 1930s had little in common with modern taxis. In those days cabs were hired almost exclusively by the wealthy. Everyone else took the bus, the streetcar, or the subway (or walked).
In the 1920s and early 1930s few cities regulated the taxi industry. As a result, fast-buck artists, alcoholics, desperate men trying to feed their families, and gangsters became taxi drivers and competed for a very limited market.
They drove Checkers and well-worn used cars, refurbished wrecks, and even stolen cars, family sedans, and military surplus vehicles. They used homemade signs, lit signs, and hand-painted signs on the doors. They drove 5 hours, 10, and even 20.
A study conducted in 1931 evaluated 23000 motor vehicle accidents in the city of New York, 21000 of which involved taxicabs.
Taxi passengers expected to ride in comfort, and Checker vehicles delivered. Early Checker Cabs were big, beautiful cars with well-appointed interiors. The cabs also developed a reputation for being rugged, reliable, and easy (and cheap) to repair, which made them popular with taxi companies and independent drivers alike.
By the end of the 1920s, nearly half the cabs in New York City were Checkers, and the company began selling cars in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Minneapolis, and other American cities.
The Great Depression of the 1930s, while bad for business, helped Markin to consolidate his hold on the taxi industry. General Motors, Checker’s biggest competitor, got out of the taxicab-manufacturing business altogether.
Checker sold its cabs on credit, when taxi owners defaulted on their payments, the maker had little choice but to repossess the cabs and hire its own drivers to run them.
By 1940 Checker's taxis were one of the nation’s largest brand of taxicabs. Taxies guaranteed plenty of business for Checker Motors.
For sixty years, Checker Motors had a record unbroken run of profits building a few thousand cars per year in a small little factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
In 1981, Checker Motors posted its first loss, US$488326, and its owner made good on his threat to stop production of the iconic Marathon if his workers didn’t accept wage concessions. Checker continued to stamp out body parts for GM until 2009. The Morris Markin's son, David Markin inherited over US$100 million.