Independent Cab

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Independent Taxi Operators Association aka “Independent Cab”.

The I.T.O.A. aka Independent Taxi Operators Association was started in 1923. According to taxi lore the company was started by a group of Independent owners of Boston Cabs who wanted to deploy the then new technology of 2 way radio cab dispatch. The story goes they first approached Frank Sawyer the owner of Town Taxi asking if they could join his company in a group and just pay to access his radio system. Mr. Sawyer refused and so this group of Boston Cab owners set about to start their own Boston Cab company. I have , while investigating this “company” in the past uncovered evidence that they applied to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to be considered a non profit corporation but were refused.

Is  I.T.O.A. aka Independent Cab a corporation?

I was in a heated dispute last summer with the than manager/vice president of Independent Cab Joe Litvack over his refusal to pay me for a website I created for his “company” at his request. I set about to sue the company in court to recoup my losses but when I began investigating them I was told by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts office that they had no record at all of I.T.O.A. being any kind of an organization that they recognize except that they had applied in 1923 to become a non profit organization and were denied. I looked up who owned/owns their property at 223 Albany st and found it is registered to the “Independent Transit company“. Another check of the secretary of states website reveals that this company was involuntarily dissolved in 1998. You can see  that for yourself here. A Boston Cab company that is not even a “company”.

Who runs the I.T.O.A aka Independent Cab now?

I.t.o.a. aka

Independent Cab tells people they are an association and has elections I believe every two years where they elect a board of directors and officers of the “company”. My last information was that the current President of Independent Taxi Operators association a.k.a. “Independent Cab” is Robert Raimondi but the real power rests in the hands of the treasurer Leydon Guiloit aka “lee”. The entire time I have been in the Boston Cab business Independent Cab has been in turmoil. The Boston Cab business is not at all conducive to democracy. There has been an almost endless cycle of new “Independent Cab” officers taking power and immediately accusing their predecessors of corruption and thievery.  I have been told by a long time member of the association that such accusations and infighting go back almost to the founding of the company. There was a point in 2007 where I was told by a Boston police hackney carriage officer who I am sure wishes to remain anonymous that if there was one more allegation of financial malfeasance lodged with his office that he was going to ask the Massachusetts attorney General Martha Coakley to place Independent Cab into receivership. After warning Independent Cab the complaints mysteriously stopped for the rest of his tenure.  Perhaps this plays into my belief that the so called Independent Cab has something to hide in that they are not really a company?