Pick a Color!

Ever wonder why taxicabs are yellow? Believe it or not, almost all cars and taxis were black in the 1920's. John Hertz owned a taxicab company in Chicago at that time and was looking for a way to make his cabs stand out from the competition. Hertz decided to paint his taxis a distinctive color. He went to the University of Chicago and asked them to make a study of what color was the easiest to see at a distance. The result was yellow, and thus the tradition of yellow taxis began.

In the meantime, ever-resourceful Hertz had another idea. There were cars sitting in his company garage that hadn't been converted to taxis yet. Why not offer his excess autos to people who wanted to rent a car for a brief time? Adding to his fleet by buying out a man who had started a small rental operation, Hertz went on to create the first major car-rental company in the United States. The Hertz Rent-A-Car company still uses yellow as its corporate color.


~Strange and Interesting Facts About Famous Brand Names by "Dr. Knowledge" Charles Reichblum