Yellow Cab Co. ATLANTIC CITY

As a little boy, the boss’ son would play around the taxis in the garage and sit in the dispatcher’s office, where the smell of cigarettes and doughnuts filled the air.

“I had grown up around the company all of my life,” Paul Rosenberg said, fondly recalling his childhood at the Yellow Cab Co. “It was natural.”

About the only thing he didn’t do was drive a taxi.

In 2008, the boss’ son became the boss. Paul Rosenberg, 30, took over from his 67-year-old father, Murray, who, years earlier, had followed his late father, Paul, at the helm of Yellow Cab.

The third generation of leadership means that the Rosenbergs will continue to own Atlantic City’s biggest taxi company 60 years after the elder Paul Rosenberg bought Yellow Cab.

The Rosenbergs remain local residents. Paul lives in the Bargaintown section of neighboring Egg Harbor Township, while Murray and his wife, Joan, split time between Atlantic City and Tuckerton, Ocean County.

Yellow Cab’s corporate office at 3401 Winchester Ave. is filled with old photos of the Rosenberg family and the types of taxis the company has used over the years. In one particularly poignant black and white portrait from about 60 years ago, Murray Rosenberg, then a boy, stands proudly in front of his father.

Much like his son would do years later, Murray Rosenberg also used the cab company as his personal playground during his childhood. Workers would put the rambunctious boy in a 55-gallon drum to keep him out of their hair.

“Then I got too big and was able to climb out,” Murray said, smiling.

As an adult, though, Murray learned that running a business is not all fun and games — even if his father was the one in charge. For one thing, the dress code for drivers was strictly enforced in those days.

“If you showed up without a white shirt, hat and tie, you didn’t get the cab,” Murray said. “I was one of the people who found that out. And I don’t think that anyone ever showed up wearing sneakers or shorts.”

Murray took over after his father passed away in 1974. Together with Joan, his wife of 37 years, he struggled to build up the business in Atlantic City’s pre-casino days. The resort town’s seasonal economy meant the bustling summer business would disappear after the Miss America Pageant in September.

“In the late 1960s and early ’70s, things would close down the day after the pageant,” Murray said. “As a business, you would hope that you could make it to the next May. But now, with the casinos, we’re a 12-month economy.”

The advent of casino gambling in 1978 “saved this city and saved this company,” Paul Rosenberg said.

With its fortunes so closely tied to the casinos, Yellow Cab has suffered along with the gaming industry during the three-year economic slump. The company’s fleet of taxis is down to 93 from 109 two years ago.

“Dealing with the fear is probably the biggest problem,” Paul Rosen-berg said. “The city is facing a challenge, but it is still a 12-month economy.”

Although Yellow Cab’s ownership has remained in one family’s hands for six decades, its operating structure has changed over the years. Before, drivers were direct employees of the company. Now, the drivers are owner-operators who are affiliated with the Yellow Cab Co., using its trade name, advertising and dispatching services, Murray Rosenberg explained.

Adel Halim, a native of Egypt who became an American citizen 15 years ago, began as a Yellow Cab driver, but has since parlayed that position into ownership of 30 taxis, half of them affiliated with Yellow Cab.

“Working with them has given me a hand in this business,” Halim, 48, who lives in Ventnor, said of the Rosenbergs. “These people have helped me a lot. That’s why I follow their advice.”

In 2007, Yellow Cab was recognized as operator of the year by the Taxicab, Limousine and Paratransit Association, an international group. Murray Rosenberg said that by winning the award, Yellow Cab beat out much larger taxi companies across the globe.

For the future, Yellow Cab is looking for innovations to keep it competitive. The company has just bought its first Toyota Prius, the gas-electric car and world’s best-selling hybrid.

But no matter what type of car the company uses, the color will remain yellow.