Expanding on an earlier program set up between Trinity University and Yellow Cab San Antonio, the University officially offers a safe way for students to travel around San Antonio using prepaid cards to pay in Yellow Cabs. The cards are sponsored by the Chi Delta Tau fraternity, who originally began work with Dean Tuttle and Yellow Cab to design the program.

The Tiger Taxi Cards, which are prepaid cards students and parents can purchase online and load with money for future use, are specific to Trinity University. The new card program has only been in use for the past six months.

“The main focus of the program is to ensure that students always have a safe way to get back to their dorm, house, apartment and the like,” said Chi Delta Tau president Erik Long-Goheen.

The cards can be purchased on the Trinity website by students and parents. If parents order the card, it will then be shipped to the student’s on-campus mailbox.

The card can be used for any taxi ride in a Yellow Cab taxi as long as there is still credit on the card. The Delts’ main goal for the program is to provide students with access to reliable, safe transportation.

This also allows for parents to designate money that will go to a specific purpose and reassure them, knowing that their student has a means to travel safely if needed. The cards can be used anywhere within the San Antonio area.

“Trinity has been very proactive and progressive in attending to the needs of their students,” said Yellow Cab special promotions leader Chris Coleman. “Dean Tuttle and the Delts’ contributions have been a big component.”

The original taxi voucher system, which allowed students to pay for rides with Tiger Bucks, has been in use over the past few years. However, in the past six months or so, the new card system was implemented and allows for a faster and more convenient payment process.

In order to announce the new system, the Delts and Yellow Cab set up a table and had volunteers to introduce the new cards at First-Year Move-In Day. They intend to continue this practice for the foreseeable future in order to continue introducing new students and parents to it.

“We are all very excited about the potential this program has,” Long-Goheen said.

Additionally, Yellow Cab has an application available for smartphones which allows the user to activate the location service on their phone and request a taxi to come and pick them up.

The Hail-A-Cab application, when used in conjunction with the Taxi Tiger Cards, is very beneficial for students, especially those who are unfamiliar with San Antonio.