2013 TLPA Outstanding Contributor to Women in Transportation

If innovation is a new frontier, then Isabelle Scalzi is a pioneer on that landscape.

The Vice President of Metro Taxi Connecticut and its affiliate Accessible Dispatch, Isabelle is both a business leader and social innovator. Her goal is to use business as a catalyst to ease some of society’s most pressing issues, including under-age drinking, mobility issues and employment for veterans and those with disabilities.

As the creator of the University Ride Safe® Card pro- gram (URide®), Isabelle and Metro Taxi help keep college students safe 24-hours a day, 7-days a week with this pre- loaded taxi debit card. The program, which partners with the Connecticut Governor’s Prevention Partnership, has helped mobilize students, parents, state and school officials to make safe decisions about transportation. Universities and students alike have embraced the initiative across the country.

“I am proud to see the URide Safe® Card keep students out of harm’s way,” Isabelle says. “This card is especially meaningful to me since it was created based on an event that happened to a friend while at a college party with the hope that other students would never have to worry about getting a safe ride home.”

Another one of Isabelle’s proudest moments is when Accessible Dispatch, Metro Taxi’s affiliate company, was awarded a contract to dispatch wheelchair accessible taxicabs in New York City.

“All of our hard work had come to fruition,” she says. “It’s now been just over a year that we’ve dispatched wheelchair accessible taxis in New York, and the feedback we get from passengers in The Big Apple is so incredibly rewarding. We’ve had people tell us it has literally changed their lives.”

For both Metro Taxi and Accessible Dispatch, Isabelle serves as the chief strategist for the full breadth of marketing and outreach efforts, with direct oversight of the companies’ websites, daily blogs, Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts.

Isabelle has also created Metro Taxi Veteran Heroes for Hire, a program to help recruit those who have served in the armed forces to positions within the transportation industry. Through the program, the company has forged strong relationships with various state and local offices for veteran’s affairs.

Born in Bordeaux, France, Isabelle moved to the United States when she was just 4-years old. She met her husband, Bill in 1986 when he was the General Manager of Yellow Cab in Hartford, CT.

“I had just left a position with American Airlines and was working for a travel company in Hartford,” Isabelle says. “Bill had scheduled an appointment with me to show me his new fleet of limousines. It was during that sales call that I first realized how much he needed me!”

One year later, Bill founded Metro Taxi CT with 15 cabs. After their sons, Erik and Jeremy, became teenagers, Isabelle began working with Bill at the company, now Connecticut’s largest taxicab operation, with 161 vehicles and 58 full-time employees.

As the head of Business Development and Community Relations, Isabelle also implements public awareness campaigns to demonstrate Metro Taxi’s community leadership within all of the 16 communities served by the company in Connecticut.

“I believe community involvement and social entrepreneurship have helped our business and have changed it forever.”

Through all of her initiatives, Isabelle has an unwavering commitment to providing courteous, on-time service to all customers, and to achieving excellent customer satisfaction. With direct oversight of the company’s call center operations, Isabelle has shaped a model of efficiency and accountability, while fostering a strong workplace camaraderie that engages and retains the best employees.

“We have a technologically- sophisticated, customer-focused call center with very high service and accountability standards,” Isabelle says. “I believe strongly in training our dispatchers to understand our customer service philosophy by incorporating our company’s front and back-seat customer satisfaction policy into their daily routine.”

Isabelle says she has benefited from “some of the most incredible and inspiring people in the industry.”

“During my initial years with the TLPA, I look back on several women, five of whom stand out who own their own companies, who inspired me to recognize my potential and I’m grateful to them. I always come away from the TLPA Conferences feeling energized and inspired thanks to the networking opportunities and the buzzing of ideas and interchanges amongst us. I have formed great friendships and have many role models throughout the TLPA, both men and women.”

For her innovation, creativity, and dedication to the highest standards of service, the Taxicab, Limousine and Paratransit Association (TLPA) is proud to honor Isabelle Scalzi with the 2013 Outstanding Contributor to Women in Transportation award.