Yellow Cab, the city’s only taxi service, went out of business over the weekend.

As late as Friday night, the company’s drivers were on the roads carrying fares to their destinations, but that was the last night of business for Yellow Cab.

On Monday afternoon, the company’s Shive Lane office was locked and vacant, all signage had been removed except for a lone “For Lease” sign and its fleet of vehicles was under lock and key in the lot behind the office.

The company, incorporated as Royal Coach Enterprises, had been in the hands of Joe Boyd, who operated as president, and his family for the past three years, and in that time the office had moved its mailing address from Glen Lily Road to Shive Lane, according to records filed with the Kentucky Secretary of State.

Boyd could not be reached for comment.

Like many businesses, Yellow Cab had been feeling the strain related to increasing gas prices.

A few months before closing, Boyd told the Daily News that he had to add a fuel surcharge to the fare he had been charging his customers who were not on Medicaid and using the service to visit doctors.

“There’s very little profit in this business anyway, but this is really putting a strain on us,” Boyd told the Daily News in a story published April 27.

Boyd said at the time that with 65 drivers driving 47 vehicles, fuel expenses amounted to about $8,000 each month, and that he would have to weigh either a surcharge increase or layoffs if costs continued to rise.

Yellow Cab’s most common fares had been Medicaid patients during the day taking advantage of the service and the $1.30 per mile rate to visit their doctors, along with bar patrons who used the service to get to and from the bars.

Donna Tooley, director of transportation for Community Action of Southern Kentucky, which is contracted by the city to operate the GO bg public transit service, said the agency has been in contact with the state Transportation Cabinet about planning to accommodate additional riders who had previously been reliant on Yellow Cab.

“It’s hard to predict the impact currently, but we’ve been aware that some of the clients who already rode the bus at times used the cab service,” Tooley said. “We have received a number of calls and developed a few new riders since Yellow Cab closed.”