Handy Delivery has made the very difficult and disappointing decision to discontinue our taxi service as of midnight on Sunday, January 31 st . The family-owned operation has operated the local taxi company since 1981. Although the taxi business will close, Handy Delivery emphasizes that it will continue to provide a wide variety of services to the community, including local deliveries ranging from furniture and equipment deliveries and assembly to courier deliveries such as mail routes, interoffice correspondence, prescriptions and other transportation needs. Handy Delivery also has warehousing, storage and both long-term and short-term parking available at its facility located across from the University Park Airport at 2197 High Tech Rd., State College. People can also order items from the internet, have them shipped to Handy Delivery and have them assembled if needed and then delivered to their home or office.
Our History:
Noreen and Jim Byers purchased the cab company from the Borough of State College in 1981 and have operated the company since. At its peak, Handy Delivery was running 22 taxis to serve the State College and Bellefonte areas. It now has five taxis that will continue to run through the end of the month.
“We are so appreciative of the support the community has given us over the years,” Noreen Byers explained. “Ending the taxi operations was a very difficult decision. We are so proud to be part of this community and hope we can continue with our other services for a very long time to come. The people have made it a wonderful experience for us over the decades,” Byers continued. “We have been extremely fortunate to have had amazing employees who go above and beyond to serve the people of Centre County. Our employees and the drivers (who are independent contractors) are basically extended family to us. And we have many customers with whom we and the drivers have forged meaningful friendships over the years.”
Handy Delivery provided the only taxi service in Centre County for decades before an influx of competing companies flooded the market in the early 2000s. Those companies eventually all closed. But like taxi companies across the country, Handy Delivery struggled to keep a foothold with the unfair competitive advantage given to Uber in an over-regulated industry.
“We know there are people who truly relied on us and we took pride in providing a friendly, efficient service to the best of our ability,” Noreen Byers stated.
“We do feel fortunate that we are not anticipating any layoffs as we will pivot our focus to expanding our delivery services. We have provided furniture and courier delivery services since 1976 and will continue to do that. We have some clients that use us daily and others that will call when they get in a jam. We will continue to provide reliable transportation services and are looking to expand upon that in order to continue to serve the community.”
Byers said the decision to close down the taxi business was the culmination of a long series of events that eroded the base of customers. “It really started when the state de-regulated what was needed to open a taxi service,” Byers said, “and our market was flooded with more companies than the area could sustain. That obviously hurt our business. We ran the paratransit services for CATA for several decades but they decided to outsource to a more expensive, out-of-state entity and that was a big setback for our company. And then Uber was welcomed with open arms even after initially operating illegally and with no oversight. Meanwhile, the restrictions and regulations imposed on us and other taxi companies by the PUC continued to pile up. We probably should have closed years ago but we felt a real obligation to provide the service for those who needed it. Unfortunately,
we just can’t justify staying open in the face of today’s Covid-impacted economic reality.”
“The good news,” Byers asserted “is that we feel there are lots of opportunities for us to expand our ability to meet the needs of the community with our variety of delivery, driving, storage and parking services. We have expert personnel who are truly dedicated to serving our community and take great pride in the job they do. After forty years, it is very difficult to say goodbye to the taxi company,” Byers admitted. “But we believe we are on a good path to keep our local company growing. Our very dedicated staff has earned an outstanding reputation in service. We want to again thank the community for its support over the years and we are excited about the future.”
Handy Delivery will retain its phone numbers and can most easily be reached at
814-355-5555 or through email at info@handydelivery.com
