TLC didn't stand for Tender Loving Care nor Tastes Like Chicken.
It was actually Tom, Laura, and Cecilia, the names of the founders.
Tom had the idea and the persuasive personality to get things started.
Laura was his girlfriend who had a mother with money. Cecilia was the mother
with the money. Naturally, the three of them became partners.
Tom had a natural talent for salesmanship; with relentless enthusiasm he gathered customers and drivers and a motley assortment of cars, and the company began to grow.
Low rates combined with a friendlier, more personal attitude attracted many customers away from the bigger companies. Flexibility in dispatching sometimes allowed it to cover calls faster than the competition, but more importantly the customer could believe that real people were doing their best to provide good service.
As business increased, more cars needed to be added. Unfortunately, many of them were old city police Caprices. The price may have been low, but they required extra maintenance and they were not pleasing to ride in or drive. The mechanics kept them running, but often didn't have time for details like dome lights, turn signals, door handles, rattles, and vibrations.
Drivers see the effects most directly. The car quality affects tips and customer attitudes. Poor fuel economy hurts profits. And long hours behind the wheel of a sloppy-handling rattling old boat takes its toll on the positive outlook a driver needs to optimize his income. TLC had attracted many good drivers, but lost a number of them due to the cars.
The drive to expand at maximum speed began to take its toll on the friendly, caring image of the company, to drivers and customers alike. And perhaps for a variety of reasons (some of which may become evident as the story unfolds, Tom himself began to seem less of a leader and more a dictator. Decisions regarding employees and drivers were made without thought, irrevocably, as if he believed his first instinct was infallible.
Yet the company had become more than its management, more than any individual in its midst. It was a community of people who, by wanting it to be something kinder and more human, had made it that way.
DESPITE ITS FAILINGS, TLC attracted a diverse group of some of the most interesting, talented, and delightful people I have seen in any one company. They were, I believe,hoping for an alternative; a company that cared, that was worth believing in.
Perhaps foremost among them is Sammie,
AKA '101-der woman'. A long-time Phoenix cabdriver, this irrepressible
lady was the best taxi-dispatching personality on the air. She entertained
drivers and passengers alike, while also efficiently routing cabs
to calls on busy nights. With her upbeat sense of humor, she
dispensed bits of wisdom to the less experienced drivers ('cab
driving 101'), and conveyed to all of them a feeling that someone
cared.
One night when she was driving a cab, she narrowly escaped
from a hail of bullets from a night-time robbery attempt. Her taxi
sustained multiple bullet holes as she sped away, but she was unharmed.
Perhaps Kharma counts. Did she give up driving? Nope.
Many others, drivers, dispatchers, and phone operators were
a real pleasure to work with. If only TLC could have been an employee-owned
cooperative venture as has been done in some other cities,
then perhaps the hopes and idealism of many would not have to end
in disappointment.
Amid the thriving bustle of the growing company there arose disharmony at the executive level.
It seems that Cecilia was dissatisfied with the rate of return on her investment, and that Laura wanted her own personal income to be greater. Though she was inexperienced at business management, Laura began trying to exert more control, looking for ways to increase profit. According to some sources, one of these ways involved schemes with insurance claims. It has also been suggested that she may have diverted the drivers' ddf deposits; for her own use. She accused Tom of taking the missing money. Perhaps it is significant that she sold the house that she and Tom were buying together and put the proceeds into buying a new, more expensive house under her name alone.
The breakup of their personal relationship in late January 2001 was apparantly over financial control rather than infidelity. The story of Tom being caught in the act in the office by Laura may have been a fabrication; at least, if a situation of that sort did occur at some time, it was not the cause of Tom's departure. He had moved out and considered his relationship with Laura over, though Laura did not.
For a time Tom continued to help manage the business, but when Laura insisted on firing Cammie, who was Tom's new girlfriend, Tom left and proceeded to end his involvement with TLC.
It has been said that the allegation that an illegal substance was found after Tom had moved out of his office
was also a fabrication. That is hardly surprising; such silly and meaningless accusations have become
common. The only reason it was of any interest was that Tom had made an issue of drug use. Doing that
only helps create an environment in which, whenever one employee is jealous of or angry at another, and
wishes to get them fired, an irrelevant and perhaps false accusation of drug use becomes an effective weapon.
The story so far seems to be only slightly less dramatic and certainly stranger
than the version originally reported here. Perhaps it serves as an example of the hazards of forming business
partnerships based on personal relationships.
Still more strange things were yet to happen before the end of the story.