Two Cabbies Trade Cabs

To stand out, sometimes all it takes is a little trade.

A cab driver in New York and a cab driver in London have traded cabs, the NY Times reports. The cabs stand out amongst their peers and didn’t really cost the drivers anything.

Behind these cab-out-of-water foreign fleets is the relationship between two men with overlapping personal and business interests, identical yet inverse automotive niches and a friendship that spans 3,500 miles.

For more than a decade, the two men, Ray Tomkinson of Manchester, England, and Alvaro Gallego of Queens, both taxi entrepreneurs with a love of vintage vehicles, have swapped these signature vehicles of their homelands – along with modern models, parts and other taxi paraphernalia – across the Atlantic Ocean, typically on barter.

“Basically no cash changes hands,” Mr. Tomkinson said. “We were just paying for each other’s shipping, and the cabs were going across the Atlantic backward and forward.”

Could you do something similar in your business?

Photos by SpecialKRB and stevebott.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *