Nome has a new cab service

Over seven months Nomeites and visitors had to make do without any  operating taxicab service in Nome, but as of this week a Nome couple decided to register a cab business, getting their chauffeurs licenses and starting to offer taxi services beginning July 8.
On Monday, with the entire Nome press corps consisting of the Nugget newspaper and KNOM radio present, Nome’s City Clerk Brad Soske handed Billi Jean Miller-Earp and her wife Ashley Miller-Earp the necessary paperwork to start their cab business called Bootz & Co. Cab LLC.
Billi Jean already runs a cottage business called Tundra Delights – baked goods and drinks – and Ashley is the director of audiology at Norton Sound Health Corporation. Despite their busy livest, they saw the need for a cab business in town and decided to put their 2021 Toyota Tacoma truck to use.
Their plan is to begin rolling on Wednesday, July 8, at first with limited hours from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The focus is to get people to and from the airport and offer rides within town and out to Icy View. Eventually, the couple hopes to employ taxi drivers to alleviate the pressure on them and to offer gainful employment to people.
“We definitely hope to expand,” Billi Jean said. “We hope that people will want to take the steps of getting the chauffeur’s license and join our team.”
For now, they don’t have a taxi meter, but charge set fares, which are also not set in stone quite yet.
“We are still teety- tottering on the line of $6 in town, $8 to the airport, $10 outside of town,” Billie Jean said.
Did the prospect of higher gas prices, make them nervous?
“It did!” said Billi Jean. “I think there’s a lot of uncertainty with the fuel prices, and we always want to keep things fair and accessible to people, and again, we hope that people will understand if gas prices increase what we would need to do to make the company sustainable.”
Bootz & Co. Cab is the first taxi company to go through a new streamlined cab registration process devised by the city. Billi Jean said the hardest part was getting insurance. “I think there are only five insurance companies that insure taxicab drivers in Alaska now,” Billi Jean said. “We had a really hard time, getting a lot of no’s and waiting on a lot of quotes just for brokers to call back and say we’re not going to insure you.”
However, they found an insurer and are now the first legally operating cab business in town.
For now, they plan to operate the business on a cash basis and set up a square card reader to take credit card payments.
Another trepidation Billie Jean has is to learn every address in town as many houses in Nome don’t have house numbers. She remembered when her uncle  drove Checker Cab and picked up several people along the way to the airport, knowing each address.
“When I used to take rides with Checker Cab, I was always amazed of how well these drivers know the city. I might not be there quire yet, but I will get there,” she said.
To hail rides with Bootz & Co. Cab call 907-304-1515.