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If you are looking for a career that’s completely unpredictable, has you running seven days a week, at all hours and exposes you to every sort of humanity out there, you might enjoy Freddy Emmons’ business. He owns and operates the only taxi cab service based in this area.

Emmons recently purchased the business after founder Steve Anderson died.

He and Anderson were friends and Emmons drove part-time for Anderson for about one year.

The leap to owning the business was daunting to Emmons, but he says now he would do it again if presented the opportunity.

Emmons has lived here for 25 years and was a tool and die maker by profession. After a few job layoffs and uncertainties in the manufacturing field, he grew “...tired of it.”

People have to get places and people are willing to pay somebody to get them to those places––so he became owner of North Branch Cab.

The gig has taken him as many as 800 miles in one day. From Superior, Wisconsin to Red Wing, MN he has transported animals, packages, 100- year-olds and newborns in his 2000 Buick LeSabre.

He’s dealt with rude drunks and grateful souls. People have stiffed him but he’s also had people inspire him. “I should write a book,” he declares, seated in the deli cafe at Nelson’s Market, near where he lives.

North Branch Cab had a decent regular client list developed when Emmons took over. The bread and butter calls include pick-ups at Fairview Medical Center, for instance. He can also count on regular calls to the county jail. Green Acres Nursing Home is a frequent stop, Rush City Airport and local motels keep him hopping ... casino trips and airport runs ($65 is basic fee to M-SP Airport) ) are common.

He tells a funny story about being called one time, when a guy broke his ankle and wasn’t about to pay ambulance prices.

The senior apartment complex in North Branch is usually good for regular cab calls, and even school kids need his service. He’ll only transport minor-aged passengers if a parent sets up the run, though.

One teen girl in particular, learned a good lesson through Emmons’ service, he explained. Her habit of missing the school bus resulted in the single parent figuring out the best way to motivate her to arrive at the bus stop on-time was to call Emmons and have the girl pay the $8 cab fare to school.

“She learned pretty quick when she was paying it out of her allowance,” Emmons chuckles.

Emmons says if someone told him 10 years ago that he’d be tethered to a cell phone and running his own business he would have said they were crazy. But, what he has learned is; he has found a satisfying niche, providing a needed service. “And, if I treat them well, they call me back, that’s the way it works,” he emphasized.

As long as gasoline prices don’t go too nuts and the deer quit crashing into his cab (he’s on his third windshield) he figures he’ll be at this for a good, long run.

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North Branch Cab is based in downtown North Branch. The phone is 651-674-7979 and it relays to a portable phone, so Emmons can take calls anywhere,

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