Yellow Top Loses Van Contract : Covina: The cab company, a favorite with Dial-A-Ride seniors, still provides nighttime service for the city.

For nearly a year, the local Dial-A-Ride contractor took senior citizens on quite a ride.

For 50 cents, they were picked up just about whenever they called and often traveled in the relative comfort of a taxi cab instead of a van. If they needed a lift outside city limits--say, to the Social Security office in Glendora--it was no problem for the contractor, Yellow Top Cab Co.

It was, however, a problem for city officials, who contend that Yellow Top violated its contract with the city by offering the extra services, including taking riders more than five miles out of Covina for non-medical services.

The city in July broke its two-year contract with Yellow Top, claiming that the company failed to insure its vans, hired unqualified drivers for the vans, and “incorrectly billed” the city for certain rides. Yellow Top had billed the city for $728 in night rides that were actually given during the day. The city decided to deduct the discrepancy from its next payment to the company.

Yellow Top officials said problems with van insurance and driver qualifications could have been resolved if the city had not yanked the contract.

And the extras were just part of a humanitarian approach to doing business, said Amir Imankhan, Yellow Top co-owner.

“We somehow neglected the content of the contract, but most important was the people,” Iman-khan said.

Yellow Top still has a city contract to provide nighttime Dial-A-Ride cab service, but a new company has been hired to take over the busier, more lucrative daytime van-ride contract.

The company, Medi-Ride Inc., started Aug. 4. It is requiring residents to call at least two to four hours in advance for a ride, and allows them to travel up to five miles outside the city limits for medical appointments only. Two exceptions: Drivers go to the Eastland Center shopping mall in West Covina and to the City of Hope Medical Center, about nine miles away in Duarte.

Because the new company is a stickler for the rules, some of the senior riders are not at all pleased.

Some of them took their gripes to the City Council last Monday.

One of those who complained, 70-year-old John Phillipson, said later that he now is unable to attend Veterans of Foreign Wars social functions, such as breakfast and dinner get-togethers, because the VFW is located in an incorporated area of Los Angeles County.

“They tell me that I have to walk. I’m an old man. How can I walk?” Phillipson said. “I never had problems with (Yellow Top). They are so beautiful. They have compassion for senior citizens. I just call them and they come right away.”

Medi-Ride also drew complaints from patrons of the Joslyn Senior Center.

“The service is lousy,” Frances Nutter said Wednesday outside the Barranca Avenue center. “I called (Medi-Ride), and they told me that they had four people in the van and couldn’t pick me up. I can’t get them to pick me up at the time I want.”

Inside the center, others complained of problems with scheduling, rude treatment from dispatchers, and priority given to medical appointments over social functions.

Not everyone is dissatisfied, though.

“We got to give them a chance to learn (the route),” Carl Ferrara said as he was playing pool at the center. “It takes time to find out where everybody lives.”

Added Helen Leplei, another center patron: “Sometimes they’re late for appointments, but I can see why it happens. They’re a new company. They have to get used to it. The dispatchers talk nice. I have no gripes.”

Irwin Rosenberg, vice president of the Glendale-based Medi-Ride, said he is aware of the complaints and is working with the city on ways to improve the service.

“We’re operating within the constraints of our contract,” he said. “It’s the way the project is set up. When they call, we determine if we can group people who live in the same area and are going to the same place. We serve about 51 people a day, and we have to pick some people up earlier to get them to places on time.”

Covina began its Dial-A-Ride service in 1984. The service is for residents aged 60 and over and for handicapped residents. An average of 3,400 people use the service monthly.

The city pays Medi-Ride $29.63 per hour for providing daytime van service. For nighttime service, still provided by Yellow Cab taxis, riders pay the regular 50-cent Dial-A-Ride fare, with the city paying the company the balance of the full cab fare. In all, the city has budgeted $161,834 for day service this year, and $38,165 for night service.