The sight of a taxi driving around
Gig Harbor has been rare for many years, but that
changed in November. Raft Island resident and longtime
entrepreneur, Steve Summerday, launched Harbor Taxi in
November, a 24/7 service. Summerday’s business is
licensed to pick up passengers around Gig Harbor and the
Key Peninsula areas, but can drop them off anywhere they
desire.
Summerday is the former owner,
with his wife, Allison, of Summerday’s Awning Care and
Shipshape Canvas Care. Summerday started the company
more than 10 years ago, selling the service door to
door, and built it to a successful enterprise with
hundreds of residential and commercial customers.
The couple sold the business this
past summer, and since then Summerday has been getting
ready for his new venture. With Steve as the driver,
Allison helps out at the office. Summerday’s in the
process of hiring more drivers soon as well.
He said he’s had the idea for a
couple of years, but it really hit home earlier this
year when he had his car in the shop and had to ride the
bus from Tacoma to Gig Harbor, getting dropped off at
night by the library, several miles away from home. He
realized had he been elderly or ill and had no one to
pick him up, he would have had no way of getting home.
“It really moved me and I felt a sense of dread knowing
that there are people out there, stranded,” he said.
Summerday said according to
information he gleaned from longtime residents, Gig
Harbor hasn’t had a full-time taxi service for 25 years,
and one company that offered the service about a decade
ago was short-lived. Asked why he thought there was no
interest for someone to open such a business, he said,
“My guess is it’s hard to make money here. Now that the
population is growing considerably, there is definitely
a market here.”
Harbor Taxi is a standard metered
taxi service, with prices set by Pierce County.
Summerday said the licensing process with both the
county and the state was quite extensive. But now that
he’s in business, he said local residents should no
longer have to drink and drive, and if they’re out
partying, they should call a taxi. He said he will pick
up anybody, at any time. “I would not leave anybody
stranded. I mean it,” he said.
