Correspondence, subject files, application records, hearing records, records relating to taxi companies, records of individual taxicab owners and drivers, and records of sightseeing guides. The records document the administration of the Bureau, the conduct of the local taxi business, and the demographics of participants in the industry. Because of the importance of tourism to the New Orleans economy it is anticipated that the Taxicab Bureau records will be useful to researchers interested in studying city and industry efforts to promote tourism and to mitigate the ill effects of customer complaints on the tourist trade.

The correspondence files, arranged chronologically, cover the period 1967-1988 and deal largely with complaints filed by passengers, rate determination, and the general administration of the Bureau. These letters originally were unordered (many were unfoldered) and their pre-arrangement condition suggested that they were not part of a systematic filing system but rather part of a file of "important" or "special" documents retained by the Bureau's director.

The subject files, though maintained in marked folders, appear to have been selected for retention by a succession of Bureau directors rather than forming a centralized filing system. Their lack of arrangement into a single alphabetical order supports this interpretation. The arrangement of this sub-series, as imposed by the processing archivist, is alphabetical according to the original folder titles assigned to the individual surviving files.

Application records relate to Certificates of Public Necessity and Convenience (CPNCs), the formal name given to the licenses issued by the Bureau, for van, limousine, and bus services rather than for traditional taxi firms or drivers. Closely related are hearings records, dealing with regular hearings on CPNC applications. A card file, apparently used to track applications for CPNCs, is also available. It is disordered and probably not complete, but has been retained more or less as received from the Taxicab Bureau.

Among the records relating to individual taxi and other transportation companies are copies of articles of incorporation, copies of business operation plans, and related matters. Grouped with the company records is a file of letters and other materials dealing with the Negro Taxicab Starters Association, including several documents dealing with the activities of their attorney A.P. Tureaud.

The 243 files in the series of records dealing with individual participants in the taxi business of New Orleans represent a sample (ca. 15%) drawn from the full set of records transferred to the Archives. For most individual files the arranger removed routine documents dealing with the purchase/sale of individual vehicles and the maintenance of insurance coverage on those vehicles. For the first folder in the series, and for every twentieth folder thereafter, the full contents were retained regardless of their nature. Retained in all files making up the sample are the following document types [not all types are present in each file]: applications for drivers' permits and CPNCs (including personal information on each applicant, i.e., name, address, place of birth, age, race, sex, previous occupation, etc.), copies of drivers' permits (some with identification photographs, driver/tour guide examinations, and passenger complaints, along with evidence of how the Bureau handled those complaints. Also retained in most cases were letters, usually form letters, detailing driver substitutions, temporary driver affiliations, and the like. Present in some folders are photographs in addition to those used on individual drivers' permits; in some instances these photos cover a long span of years, documenting individual appearances over time.

The sample includes 102 chauffeurs, 73 owners, and 64 sightseeing guides. 167 of the drivers are male; 65 female. Of the 130 for whom racial designation was noted, 50 are black and 80 are white. Six of the drivers are known to be deceased (additional individuals almost certainly are deceased as well, but are not so recorded in the files at hand). 129 of the files have been retained "complete" as received from the Bureau.