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When Freida Kantor was stricken with bone cancer in 1956 there was no available transportation for her to accomplish her tasks. Simple tasks like getting to her doctor placed strains on her family to provide transportation. Max Kantor, Freida’s husband and a physicist at Cargill, recognized this as an opportunity. He was convinced that this transportation problem was not limited to Freida, but included scores of people that needed help with their transportation. He recognized that having a company that would provide this transportation would help ease strains on families and make an immeasurable difference in people’s lives. Thus from Freida’s unfortunate illness came Handicabs.
Max Kantor convinced a group of five friends to invest in the company and started providing transportation for the physically disabled in the Twin Cities in 1957. Soon the company had a handful of employees and a few vans with manual lifts. This resulted in the first base for Handicabs—an old gas station located on Chicago Avenue in South Minneapolis. This base would be home for Handicabs until 1961.
The company, still located in the garage on the near north side of Minneapolis, was still owned by the original five investors and Max Kantor. For drivers it was not uncommon that they would take wheelchair passengers up or down three flights of stairs. Legend has it that as the IDS tower was constructed in Downtown, Max would have drivers take chair passengers to the top via the stairs. This was an example of how dedicated Max Kantor, and his company, was to providing top- notch service for passengers.
In 1982, Errol Kantor hired Joyce Doerffler to be the manager of Handicabs and the office manager of his law practice. Ms. Doerffler emphasized the importance of every aspect of customer service with every employee at Handicabs. Drivers arriving on time, personable drivers and polite reservationists led the way for the growth that happened during the 1980’s. Errol Kantor and his wife, Gretchen Kantor, became the sole owners in 1983.
In 1986, Handicabs became a Metro Mobility provider. Later in 1986, Ms. Doerffler purchased Handicabs from the Kantors. This ended the Max Kantor family involvement in the leadership of Handicabs, however, it did not end the Kantor spirit of equality and service that still permeates Handicabs. At the time, Handicabs had grown to 50 vehicles and 60 employees.
In 1989, Handicabs moved into their current home at 1154 North Fifth Street. Handicabs new base, a modern office building with a maintenance garage and a separate parking garage, is located only a block away from the old garage.
As the company expanded, Ms. Doerffler’s husband, Harlan Peterson, became Vice President of Operations for Handicabs and Ms. Doerffler remained CEO and President of Handicabs. Their hands-on approach to the management of the company resulted in its robust growth during the 1990s. In 1992-1993, the last year of the multi-provider approach to paratransit in the Twin Cities, saw Handicabs with nearly 90 vehicles and providing more than 1700 trips a day.
In 1998, Handicabs was one of the two companies selected for ongoing Metro Mobility service. All the while Handicabs’ own agency service continued to flourish, the company grew to 220 employees, 161 vehicles and 3011 trips per day.
January 1, 2001, the beginning of the new millennium brought with it a new name for Handicabs. Transit Team Inc. became the company name, however, the mission-- Honoring every passenger's needs for transportation with courtesy, safety and timeliness-- remains the standard. In 2001 Transit Team Inc. was chosen as the largest Metro Mobility provider to date.
As of June 2009, Transit team employs 233 drivers and aides, 13 mechanics and maintenance personnel, 11 reservationists, 6 dispatchers, 1 routers, 2 road supervisor and 9 management staff. Through the entire staff's dedicated efforts, Transit Team Inc. provides over 3,500 trips per day with 178 vehicles.
The vision of Max Kantor remains the commitment of Ms. Doerffler, Mr. Peterson and the employees of Transit Team Inc. Although Max Kantor died in 1994, his vision of helping ease the strain on families and making a difference in people’s lives remains one of the corporate goals, in the past for Handicabs, and into the future with Transit Team Inc.
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