TAXI!
TheCAB was a broken-down company when Howard Higa bought it, but today it is the No. 1 taxi company in Hawaii. And he’s done it with innovations that are getting national attention. Take a ride on the road to success with Howard M. Higa, president of TheCAB.
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Howard Higa turned the broken-down TheCab into the largest taxi service in Honolulu, with a solid 85 percent of the pay-to-ride biz
Take a ride on the road to success with Howard M. Higa, president of TheCAB. The meter’s running, but it is worth every cent as you learn something about the taxi business and how one man brought it to new heights here.
Admittedly, before meeting Higa in person, we expected someone like Louie De Palma, the abrasive character played by Danny DeVito in the old TV series Taxi. As head dispatcher for the Sunshine Cab Company, amoral De Palma held court inside a caged-in office at the garage and traded insults with the drivers.
We found Higa as animated and entertaining as De Palma, but much more refined and polished in his outlook on business and life.
Some might think the “face” of TheCAB is that silly tutu in bright-colored muumuu with lipstick smeared on her face, aka comic Frank DeLima. Well, that might be the face of the brand. Higa is professionalism personified with impeccable wardrobe style, neatly coiffed do and clean-scrubbed face.
The contradictions are reflective of naïve and outmoded perceptions of cab companies and managements. Probably driven by movies and horror cab-ride stories by big city dwellers, cabbies have a less-than-wholesome image. In a sense, it was this dubious distinction that spurred Higa to rebuild TheCAB to become Oahu’s premier taxi operator.
From a deteriorating enterprise strapped with financial debt and “a fleet of dirty cars,” he built TheCAB in 12 years to a thriving force that today has an 85 percent market share and a dominant presence in the community.
It took time, investment and some detours, but the trip to the future is a smoother ride, according to Higa.
But let’s back up and introduce the man at the wheel of Signature Cab Holdings Inc. dba TheCAB.
Higa, 66, is a native of Hawaii who graduated from Punahou in 1962. He attended the University of Geneva in Switzerland and Keio University in Tokyo for language studies. He also attended Drury University in Missouri and graduated in 1966 with a degree in business and economics.
During the Vietnam War, Higa enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserve, serving with a helicopter squadron aboard the USS Iwo Jima, a Navy amphibious assault ship that supported Marine combat units.
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In 1971, Higa founded a trading company in Japan and during his 14-year residency in Japan, built a distribution system throughout Southeast Asia. The company’s success attracted the attention of corporate giant Beatrice Foods Co., which later purchased the business.
After returning to Hawaii, he founded Ram Paging Hawaii (now Arch Wireless-Hawaii) and was one of the founders of AT&T Wireless Hawaii. Higa was owner-operator of North Pak Hawaii and Jetset Tours Japan, which brought 70,000 Japanese tourists to Hawaii annually. In addition, Higa held ownership interest in the Aloha Surf Hotel and the Outrigger Royal Islander Hotel in Waikiki.
When he acquired TheCAB in 1995, the major taxi companies in town were Charley’s and City.
“We were at the bottom of the heap,” Higa says. “Charley’s was No. 1, and our goal was to become the premier cab company in town.”
But the cab operation that Higa acquired was in bad shape. “You don’t even want to see our cabs in those days,” he laments. “I wondered whether to continue the business or sell it.”
But he shifted gears and put the challenge into overdrive. He wanted to compete and become the top taxi in town.
“We set out guidelines, looked at successful Mainland operations in transportation and saw what they had in those markets. Hawaii was in desperate need of a real taxi company that was professional and willing to invest money in the business,” Higa says. “The rudimentary rule of business is to bring in more money than what you spend. But one must also invest in making the business bigger, better and stronger. That’s exactly what we did.”
TheCAB moved into first place about five years ago, and all engines for further growth and expansion are revved up.
TheCAB dispatches 3,000 cars a day and operates 45 taxi stands on Oahu. It employs 700 people, including 650 drivers and 50 office staff. It has Hawaii’s largest fleet of taxis driven by independent operators who provide islandwide service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The company has one of only five full-scale GPS systems in the nation. This satellite-operated navigational system allows dispatchers to know the exact location of its cabs to manage expedient passenger pickup.
“Many times people call for a cab, walk out the door and find the car waiting for them,” Higa says. “It’s problematical in a community where passengers are used to calling a cab and waiting 15-20 minutes. We’re waiting at the curb and the passenger might be taking a shower, thinking he has
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