When snow, wind and cold is covering most of the nation, Taxi 9000 revs up and gets going.

The economy doesn't affect them much. Bad weather often bumps up business. In fact, their customers need them more when things are looking down.

"Our business has a lot to do with the weather," said Gary Schumacher, general manager. "When the weather is snowing or really cold or windy, if it's the kind of conditions you wouldn't want to walk in … then we're much busier."

Taxi 9000 is perhaps the most visible of his business, but there's another niche that the company, now called Coach America, has carved out for itself and is recognized for across the nation: rail crew transport.

The office that manages rail crew transport is based here in Bismarck and oversees nearly 1,000 personnel across a 10-state area. They hold contracts for BNSF Railway and Union Pacific. Every train you see, said regional human resources director Tara-Lynn Kelsch, probably has been served by Coach America.

The niche is simply transporting rail crews to and from where they need to go; that could be from their last rail stop back to their home city, or simply from a hotel to the train station.

They haven't always transported rail crews, but that niche certainly has been the most lucrative and provided the most growth. Now, rail crew transport makes up more than 90 percent of their business, Schumacher said.

Originally, Schumacher took over his father's cab company - six cabs and 13 employees - in 1983. They got their first contract with BisMan Transit in 1987 and fell into their first rail crew transport in 1993.

"When we started, there were probably 40 companies that (specialized in crew transport)," Schumacher said. Now there are about four main companies.

Their first rail crew transport contract was a surprise, prompted by a phone call from someone in Kansas City asking them to put a bid in on moving crews in three cities in the area: Minot, Harvey and Enderlin. They did well, Schumacher said. They began growing their vehicle base, and began being invited to corporate meetings by the rail companies.

In 2000, Schumacher sold the company to Coach America, based in Texas. The No.1 reason for selling, he said, is also the No. 1 reason why there are no longer 40 companies competing in that market: Insurance was becoming more of a concern.

The growth has been staggering: What was once one building with a warehouse garage and a few offices has expanded to two large buildings. Any more employees - they just added about 15 to make it a 150-person office - and they'd have to push the lot's capacity even more.

"Right now, our biggest obstacle is managing the growth," Schumacher said. "Getting the technology with the GPS to integrate with the payroll and billing systems, for example."

In the last five years, revenue has grown about 10-fold. They've increased about 200 employees - drivers, administrative, dispatchers - every year over the last half-decade. After securing another contract, they recently had to add about 150 employees.

It's attributable to a reputation they built when they were young and have maintained as they've grown: "We've demonstrated the ability to handle it," Schumacher said.

(Reach reporter Crystal R. Reid at 250-8261 or at crystal.reid@bismarcktribune.com.)