Bay Area Drivers Group Offers a Discount Service

That urban beast, the taxi, has always seemed out of place in suburbia, where most people use their own cars.

But three Lafayette, Calif., residents are blending the two types of transportation into a business they say is unique on the West Coast.

Called Bay Drivers, they offer to drive you anywhere, anytime for about half the cost of a taxi--using your car.

Carol Piper is one of three people behind the imaginative scheme. Modeled on a business in her native New Jersey called Suburban Drivers, Piper, her husband, Don, and partner Fran Lavin began two months ago.

“I don’t think they know they’re ready,” she said of local travelers. “But once we get them in the car, they’re ours. They always come back.”

December Busy Month

December was successful as they took many elderly people shopping and to the airport. Bay Drivers targeted the retirement community of Rossmoor, and it paid off, Lavin said. In all, 30 people used their $11-an-hour service.

Here’s how it works: Someone needs to go someplace, like the airport. They call Bay Drivers and make an appointment. A driver takes the customer to his destination in the customer’s car. If it’s a one-way trip, the driver returns the car to the customer’s house and keeps the keys in the office. Then, when the customer is ready to be picked up, the driver gets the car and goes to get the customer.

The cost from central Contra Costa County to San Francisco International Airport is $24, compared to twice that in a regular taxi.

One Price for All

Airport limousines make the same run for about $15 a person, but Piper noted that her company charges $24 no matter how many people squeeze into the car. The customer pays for gas, bridge tolls and parking.

The drivers are mostly retired people with good driving records and plenty of time. The customer’s private car insurance covers the vehicle in case of an accident.

For their trouble, drivers keep 60% of the charge, while turning the other 40% over to Bay Drivers.

Lavin projected having 80 drivers at full strength--there are only six now--each making one trip a day.

That means a $700 daily profit for the company.

Until then, however, the threesome is adjusting to the new business.

Piper recalled that the day after Christmas one of her drivers telephoned at 1:45 a.m. to say he couldn’t make a 4:30 a.m. appointment.

“And I had been having a wonderful time at Christmas,” she said with a laugh. She made the run to the airport herself.

“We have to do that sort of thing,” Lavin added. “All we have to do is mess up in Rossmoor once”--he whistled--”and there you go down the drain.”