CAB NETWORK CLOSE AS PHONE.

Byline: Jerry Ackerman Boston Globe

You're in a strange city, a little off the beaten track, and you need a cab. There are none in sight. Neither is the pay phone around the corner of any use because, although there's a Yellow Pages there, someone has ripped out the ``Taxis'' listings.

A dire scene for any traveler - and the inspiration for a new taxi telephone network with a single number, 1-800-USA-TAXI, now connecting 200 cab companies coast to coast.

Neal Andres of Phoenix, president of the startup company that calls itself USATaxi, says his moment of need occurred at the Sherman Oaks Galleria.

Unlike taxis in most large cities, cabs in Los Angeles don't cruise the streets looking for business. They wait at taxi stands to answer radio calls. Knowing this, Andres was prepared to phone for a taxi. But where to call?

``It wouldn't have been that big a deal,'' he said, ``except that I only had a quarter in my pocket. I could have used my credit card to make more calls but that would have meant dialing nine more digits - and it all seemed a big nuisance.''

Thinking further about his plight he recalled the number used by participating florists nationwide - 1-800-FLOWERS. He decided the same scheme could work for the taxi business.

So far 1-800-USA-TAXI has signed up companies it says serve about 45 percent of the U.S. population, in about 3,000 cities, towns and villages, Andres said. They include Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Cincinnati, Houston, Los Angeles, Orlando and Philadelphia.

Automatic telephone switching and routing equipment makes the network function. Dial the number and within seconds you are either connected directly with a cab company operator near you, or told that your location isn't covered.

The network still is missing several major cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Minneapolis and New York City. In some cases cab companies in nearby suburbs (Buckhead for Atlanta, Quincy and Brookline for Boston) provide coverage.

The reach gets even thinner when one gets to middle-size cities, though, and there are no affiliates at all yet in Vermont or Wyoming. But by the end of this year, Andres hopes 1-800-USA-TAXI will have 500 cab-company affiliates nationwide, supported by a national advertising program.

This isn't the first or only attempt at one-stop shopping for taxi service. Lee Dorfman, a San Francisco entrepreneur who collects and markets ``personalized'' 800 numbers, has operated 1-800-FOR-A-CAB since 1994, using the same sort of technology.

But Dorfman's service is offered in only 15 markets (among them, Cleveland; Jacksonville and Key West, Fla.; and Orange County). And the system's success depends primarily on affiliated taxi companies who bother to advertise it, in phone directories or on the sides of their cabs.

If you don't mind paying a little more for a ride, Dorfman also operates 1-800-FOR-A-LIMO, which connects callers to the Washington, D.C., headquarters of Carey Limousine. Carey then directs calls to one of its 400 local agencies.

Operating on a different level is Cabcharge, a service that signs up law offices and financial-service firms to consolidate employees' taxi bills on a single monthly statement.

In the United States, Cabcharge has taken hold only in New York, Baltimore, and Montgomery County, Md., just outside Washington, D.C.