HI! My name is Rando (aka Randall Purdy) and I've started North Carolina's first "street legal" electric golf cart taxi service in Carolina Beach N.C. Serving Pleasure Island from the fishing pier at the North End to Ft. Fisher and the Aquarium, GREEN CAB provides a unique, environmentally fun way to explore most of the diverse attractions that the Carolina Beach, Kure Beach and Ft. Fisher communities have to offer. Part golf cart, part taxi, part amusement ride, GREEN CAB seats 5 passengers, features seat belts, a top speed of 25mph, foul-weather canopy, radio and PLENTY of fresh sea air! Fares are determined by a state regulated meter(same as a regular taxi)and start at $3.00 with an additional $2.10 per mile. While concentrating on Pleasure Island this winter, GREEN CAB is looking forward to serving Wrightsville Beach, Southport, and the Brunswick Co. beaches in 2009! GO GREEN CAB!!!
Carolina Beach golf cart taxi a first in N.C.
Last Modified: Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 5:44 p.m.
Hey, man. Follow that golf cart.
Randall “Rando” Purdy hasn’t gotten any taxicab confessions yet. But he’s just started hauling his first passengers around Carolina Beach – in a six-passenger golf cart.
Purdy says his electric Green Cab (as opposed to the Yellows with internal combustion engines) is the first licensed golf cart cab service in North Carolina.
The 51-year-old Virginia native builds skateboard ramps and is lead singer in the band Rong when he’s not ferrying up to five passengers in his stretch golf limo (four if his dog Bessie is along).
Per state law on golf carts, he can drive you anywhere in Carolina Beach where the speed limit is 35 or below.
“It’s the only cab that everybody smiles and waves at,” Purdy said. “It’s a happy thing, a beach thing. All the tourists around liked it.”
He’s also capitalizing on green awareness. When he’s done for the day, he fills ‘er up with an electrical charge.
“I store it at home on the north end. All I need to do is plug it in at night,” Purdy said Wednesday. “A full charge gets me 30 to 40 miles, which amounts to 30 to 40 cents for the charge.”
But this isn’t your everyday golf cart. It’s got a meter, a taxi cab plate, “turn signals, seatbelts and a VIN number; headlights – everything a real car has,” Purdy explained.
Plus, it has a New York-style cab light atop the vehicle that’s run on solar power, Purdy said.
Purdy has big plans – the Carolina Beach Town Council gave him the OK on July 7 to operate up to four golf cart taxis – that go across the river into Brunswick County.
But, first, the process of even beginning to putt-putt across Pleasure Island took some real effort.
He bought his custom golf cart from Golf Cart Outlet on Market Street – about $9,500 with the extra seating and other bells and whistles. But the meter, the tags, the insurance – that made the journey to business day more difficult.
Being a first has its advantages but, apparently, its disadvantages as well.
There was the taxi meter, required by the Carolina Beach Police Department. Ordering the meter and getting it installed and calibrated according to state law – the fare is the same as a regular taxi – was a first-ever adventure for Purdy and the Department of Motor Vehicles, he said.
And, have you ever tried to get insurance for a six-person golf cart taxi? That took some real shopping, he said.
Once Purdy had all the paperwork together – his business ID, insurance papers – he went to the DMV on Station Road for his inspection. But the computer wouldn’t accept the information, he said. Obviously, the golf cart cab was a first for the computer, too.
Finally, on Oct. 3, the inspection was done and on Oct. 6 the computer gave its OK.
Then, on Oct. 7, Purdy said, he went to the town to get his driver’s permit, but had to return on the 8th to have his picture taken.
At last, on Oct. 10, we went to work.
Some of his customers so far are people who just stop him to take a ride. “It’s great for a beach community. It just says ‘beach.’”
At night, however, “we have the people who have been enjoying the pleasures of the beach, and alcohol seems to enhance the experience,” he said.
To wit: His very first fare was “a gentleman after happy hour at the Fat Pelican.”
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