When Brian Herman, President and Operations Manager of Casino Taxi in Halifax, Nova Scotia, met me in the foyer of his company’s NovaLea Drive customer service and dispatch centre, I was quickly reminded of an old French proverb: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (The more things change, the more they stay the same). You see, the wallpaper on your left as you step into the reception area is a nearly life-size blown-up black and white photograph of Casino Taxi’s original Gottingen Street office taken in 1937 with drivers in suit and tie posing in front of a fleet vehicle in the foreground. Opposite that is a display case which houses taxi artifacts from days gone by. Noisy, dash- mounted mechanical meters. A brimmed and banded taxi driver hat. An old two-way radio. And in my right hand was my smart phone, with the Casino Taxi app loaded as a reminder to ask Brian how well it’s been received. Brian, like his mother and grandfather before him, is in the right business: Haligonians always have somewhere to go.
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2017
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