Other Yellow Cab Ambulance Services

Mike McDonald

Mike McDonald

PCS Member
In TCP-143 I saw the color advertising blotter submitted by Steve Loftin promoting the (private) ambulance services of Louisville Taxicab & Transfer. I was curious if any senior PCS members recall other larger cities having Yellow Cab Ambulances? I was in Louisville for a year or so in the mid 60's and Yellow Cab there still had a very large fleet of Superior-Cadillac Ambulances all painted the same burnt orange (rather than yellow) as shown on the blotter. They were housed primarily at a several story (brick) Yellow Cab Garage along with regular common yellow taxi's in downtown Louisville and probably at other locations too with the city limits? At the time, the Louisville PD had a number of Two-Man (B&W) Ford Ranch Wagons with a gurney in the back and a Federal Q on the RF Fender. As I recall, they would respond primarily to traffic accidents and larger police-fire incidents, but Yellow Cab Cadillac's would also respond Code-3 (or as requested) and do nearly 100% of the transports unless it was an officer or fireman that needed immediate transport. The burnt orange color would indicate to me at least that their Ambulance Division was probably related to then nationwide Yellow Freight. MM
 
I know that Philadelphia's Yellow Cab Co. operated sedan-ambulances for a number of decades, but I do not think, though I don't know for sure, that they operated actual full-fledged ambulances.

Yellow called them "Cabulances", but they were not intended for emergency use. They had no sirens or warning lights, they were intended just for the transport of invalid people.

Yellow used long wheelbase Plymouths until Chrysler discontinued their long wheelbase products. They then used Checker sedans that were modified by the local Checker Motors distributor and shop. The modifications made to the Checker sedans all took place on the inside of the car, and consisted of replacing the front bench seat with a bucket seat for the driver, using plywood and linoleum to create a flat floor in the car, and then adding the necessary tie-downs for a gurney or wheelchair.

I have a fleet photo of Philadelphia Yellow's Cabulances showing the then-new 1957 Checkers upon delivery, so I would assume that the service lasted into the early 1960s at least. I do not know if another Cabulance fleet eventually replaced the 1957s.
 
When the blotter Steve bought was still an active auction, I remembered an article and went digging for the TPC that talked about taxi companies owning ambulances. Found it, but it's taken me forever to come back to this post and mention it...

Anyway, in TPC 124, page 22, there is a short write-up about the Yellow Taxi Company in Overland Park, KS. Accompanying it is a photo of a 1953 Packard ambulance with a mid-50's Miller Cadillac in the background.
 
Adam Borkat said:
When the blotter Steve bought was still an active auction, I remembered an article and went digging for the TPC that talked about taxi companies owning ambulances. Found it, but it's taken me forever to come back to this post and mention it...

Anyway, in TPC 124, page 22, there is a short write-up about the Yellow Taxi Company in Overland Park, KS. Accompanying it is a photo of a 1953 Packard ambulance with a mid-50's Miller Cadillac in the background.
Click to expand...

Adam: Were the pictures in color and did they use burnt orange rather than a conventional taxi type yellow?
 
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