Robert McBride: metro taxi owner is a regular cab rider, too.

• Author: Bronikowski, Lynn
• Position: EXECUTIVE edge

FOR ROBERT MCBRIDE, OWNER AND operator of Metro 'Taxi, Denver's largest taxi company, it all began with a 1973' Cadillac limousine with 350,000 miles on it and his parents' driveway as his business address.

By clay, he'd work in a fiberglass plant in his native New York; by night he'd make runs to the airport, eventually getting into the wedding business, adding a second limo arid buying a small taxi company that he'd grow into the largest operator on Long Island.

"There isn't a department 1 haven't worked in," said McBride, 52, the son of poor Irish immigrants whose father worked two jobs his whole lilt. "I've done payroll; I've dispatched; I've driven a cab, been a mechanic, swept the floors and cleaned the toilets. I'Ve done it all."

McBride's entrepreneurial spirit would lead him to Colorado %%11ere in 2004 he acquired Metro Taxi when Coach America divested its taxi operations.

"It was a boyhood dream to live in Colorado," said McBride, who grew up an avid skier. "I saw challenge and opportunity here and said I was going to make this the best company in the city."

Today Metro Taxi employs 90 at corporate headquarters, including McBride's two sons, Robert and Sean, who work in operations. Metro Taxi dispatches 500 cabs with nearly 700 independent contract drivers. McBride operates the largest clean fleet in the state and continues to add more hybrid and natural-gas cars each year.

"Every day is a different adventure," said McBride, who recently completed his term as president of the international Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Association. It was there that he honed his idea to design an app that allows passengers to skip the phone queue and track their taxi's locale right from their phone or iPad.

"People in Denver are very tech savvy, so I kept my pulse on what was the best out there," McBride said. "The drivers love it because the number of users is...