Bay Area Chamber of Commerce presents

Business of the Year award to Yellow Cab taxi for 2010

Needing help is something Yellow Cab Taxi Company owner Dick Leshley said he understands, and he's glad to fill that need for other people.

Yellow Cab Taxi Company's work and generosity in the community earned it the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce's Business of the Year award.

Leshley said he was 'very thankful and somewhat humbled" by the award given at the chamber's annual awards banquet Saturday.

'I've been very poor and very frustrated with not being able to get somewhere or take my family somewhere," Leshley said, adding he and his wife, Becky, were broke when they moved to the area in 1984.

He began as a taxi driver to make ends meet until he found another job, but bought the company in 1986.

'It's the driver'

The company could have been fine on its own, but it was when he joined the chamber and became more involved in the community that it really began to thrive, he said.

Now, he's able to do things like pick up donations from around the county for the annual Bus Jam, free of charge.

'It's the driver that's in the front seat of the car that's done so much of it," he said.

KCBY-TV was the other nominee for the award.