So, the last six months or so I’ve been driving a cab to help out with the bills while I look for another professional marketing and PR job.
I had a lot of preconceptions about cab driving and cabbies when I started doing this gig (almost all of which turned out to be wrong), and I thought maybe the Doper community might as well.
Anything about cab driving you ever wanted to know but were afraid/didn’t bother to ask? I’ll check back daily with answers.
Anybody ever had sex in the backseat? Anybody ever offer you sex, for example, a blow job, to forget about the fare?
Any messy drunks?
Are you SURE this is the quickest way to the airport?
Tell me about your side of Taxi Driver.
Ever had to sit through any really embarassing conversations ?
Is it true that you rent the taxi from the company? If so, how long into the month until you are working for yourself and not “the man”?
notcynical: I’ve had several people get busy in my cab. This includes one lesbian couple, one gay couple, four hetero couples and one two-girl-one-guy combo. In my first couple of weeks I had two very rode hard tweaker chicks in their mid-30s offer to blow me in exchange for the fare (which was about $15). On Halloween I had a very drunk 21 YO college student (It was also her birthday) try to bet me the fare that she could suck me off before we got to her apartment. I declined both offers. Last weekend I had a woman pull up her top in a bar and offer to ride home in the front seat like that the whole way if I would take her home for free. Despite the aesthetic appeal of her assets, I again declined. I DID, however, cut her a break of $2 on the $10 fare, since all she had was $8.
Joe K, since most of my business, driving nights, is hauling drunks around, I’m surprised to say none of them have been particularly messy. That might be able to be chalked up to the fact that I have a sign on the back of the headrest that reads: “If you throw up in my cab it will cost you $50 PER HEAVE. Yes, I’m serious. If you need to pull over, please let me know as quickly as possible.”
I had one guy stiff me on a $30 fare who pissed himself when I came at him between the seats and threatened his life if he ran before the cops got there, but that’s it. The majority of inebriated people I get are the cool, responsible ones who don’t want to risk a DUI. They’re still in a good mood and having fun when they get in. Of course, about once per night, on a busy shift, I get some chronic alcoholic who is into such a deep degree of liver failure that the stuff filtering through his pores smells like pickle juice.
2trew, of course I’m sure. If you’d like me take another route, though, just say so and I’ll gladly accommodate you.
Blackeyes, the poor man was SOOOOOOOOOOO misunderstood.
Gyan9, only a couple of times a night. Usually, it’s a girlfriend ripping the boyfriend a new asshole because that’s exactly what he was acting like at the bar/party/dinner. I also, I admit, get embarassed for humanity as a whole when I get some particularly stupid people in the backseat, but that happens everywhere.
Hugh Jass, I lease the cab from the company for my 12 hour shift. The rate is $60 for weeknights, $70 for weekends. I usually start my shift at 5 p.m. On a busy night, my lease is covered by 7:00, an average night 8:30-9:00, and a slow night 11:00.
That takes care of the first round of ?s. Keep 'em coming…
Forgive the atrocious coding. I just finished my shift and I’m really wiped.
Oops. I drive better than I preview. I swear.
Old joke alert:
A staggering drunk hails a cab. He gets in the back, then asks, “Hey Cabbie, you got room up front for a pizza and a six-pack?”
Cabbie: “Sure.”
Drunk guy: “Good. Blaaarrrrrgggghhhhhhhhffffffff.”
OK enough of that. So, has anyone ever left anything valuable / dangerous / illegal in the cab?
Ever been robbed?
When I was in college I drove an escort van for students. I’d drive around, pick them up and drop them off at a location within 1 mile of campus. Being only a 4-square mile area, I found it pretty easy to learn the streets and remember the best/fastest way to get to a location. How do you do that scaled up to city size?
How in the hell do you get out of that residential community once you veer left onto the service road instead of right under the underpass in Jericho LI?
How? HOW???
Please let us out. We’re scared and hungry and if we see another friggen wall cutting off our access to Brush Hollow Road we will kill!
Got change for a fifty?
Ever hear an hostile conversation where you were concerned/curious about one of the passengers after they left ?
Not a question, but if you get a chance you should track down a documentary I saw about the licensing of cab drivers in London. They have to pass an incredibly rigorous exam consisting partially of verbally telling the examiners how they would get a passenger from point A to point B (“Start at X, go down two block to High Street, turn left and proceed 15 blocks to Y Street, turn right, go…”). Some of the guys never do pass it.
plnnr, it’s called ‘The Knowledge’ (the memorising of the routes, not the program). You’re right, it’s understood to be very hard, with would-be cabbies spending months trogging round London on motor-scooters…
This is called the knowledge, it has been the subject of any number of documentaries over here, and inspired one outstanding teleplay by Jack Rosenthal.
Basically the prospective driver has to memorise hundreds of standard routes, and is expected to know all the roads within [?]6 miles[/?] of Charing Cross. Perhaps a real London cabby can confirm the specifics. This licenses the cabby to ply for hire in London - i.e. they can pick up passengers in the street and at railyway/bus stations and airports. The rules do not apply to mini-cabs which must be booked at the main office by phone or in person.
Is there any type of examination required to become a taxi-driver where you are? Do you require anything apart from a valid driving license? Can you pick up passengers that hail you on the street?
Skelji, I’ve had people leave wallets, loose cash, cigarettes, clothes, cell phones (by far the most common) and planners. I also had someone leave two individual use sized bagges of crack. Everything except the crack, loose cash and the clothes get turned in at the cage at the end of the shift. The crack I tossed in a garbage can. If I knew who left the cash, I returned it. If not, it’s kind like a bonus tip. The cage won’t take clothes into the lost and found for health reasons.
Welby, I’ve never been robbed. We tend to get a robbery about once a week, give or take. No one has been injured in a robbery (in my company, I don’t know about others) since June when a driver was shot. He lived. I take lots of precautions, am incredibly vigilant and have refused to give people rides based on their behavior and/or the hair on the back of my neck standing up. There are some part of town I simply won’t pick up in, and they’re not necessarily the “worst” parts, although they’re not great. They’re just areas in which I don’t feel comfortable and where we have a fairly high percentage of our robberies take place.
I also come across as very authoritative (LOTS of people have asked me if I’m a cop in the daytime, which is hysterically funny.).
I have, however, had half a dozen people try to run out on their fares. So far my record is 5-1 at catching them, subduing them and getting them arrested for theft of service. The cops in Phoenix are great about helping out cabbies in trouble, and they don’t mind if the runner is slightly damaged when they arrive.
rivit, there are a few things. First, Phoenix and the metro area are laid out on a pretty easy grid. Second, most of the suburbs maintain the Phoenix street numbering system, except for Mesa, which I hate for a plethora of reasons, including that one. Third, we’re required by the company to have an up to date, all-encompassing map book. Fourth, our dispatchers will, on request, give the driver the nearest major cross streets to the pick up point. Fifth, many of us have found areas where we prefer to work, so we have the same kind of familiarity you had in college. Lastly, the more you work, the more you learn.
I’m sorry, Skip, I don’t, however, I’d be glad to run you to the nearest Quick Trip convenience store. They don’t mind changing large bills any time day or night. (They’ll also let you use the restroom without a purchase and are generally staffed by incredibly polite people and kept very clean.)
Gyan, it’s happened a few times. A couple of months ago, I picked a couple up at a bar. The girl was VERY drunk and not too happy with the man. He was also drunk and in that none-too-pleasant state of rapid mood oscillation. She was trying to pass out and kept telling him to get off of her. He kept going from cuddly baby talk to raging at her with things like, “You stupid bitch, don’t you ever tell me to shut up,” at the top of his lungs. Twice during the ride I asked him to calm down.
When we got to the house the guy paid me and got out. The woman was having a little trouble getting herself together enough to get out. He grabbed her and DRAGGED her out of the car. I got out and told him to let her go. She was wide-eyed and crying at this point, and the way he was holding her had to hurt. She popped him in the gut with a badly thrown elbow and ran for the house. He tried to hit me. I put him down and she came out of the house with a portable phone calling 911. Apparently this kind of thing happens every time the guy gets drunk, and she was sick of it. I had to give the cops a very brief statement, and they took him away for DV. That was the worst one.
plnnr, Xerxes and johncole, London cabbies are legendary and are regarded as the best in the world, although I have no firsthand knowledge. Many of them, I’ve been told, walk their examination area end to end repeatedly to learn it by heart while preparing for their test.
I know many cities require a special hack license. Phoenix does not. The company I work for has the most stringent approval process in the state, and it’s not all that hard:
A clean, five year motor vehicle division report with not more than one moving violation in that time.
No DUI or chargeable accidents ever.
Age over 25
Take a company-conducted 8 hour training course followed by a company conducted 8 hour road course, in which you ride along with a driver. You drive four hours, he/she drives for four hours and you learn how to work the radio, find the addresses and deal with the paperwork.
Yes, we can pick up passengers who hail us. They’re known as “flags”. In some parts of town I refuse to do it, and if I pick up a flag I always get the money up front, since flags are the most likely to rob you, run on you or turn out to not have enough cash.
We have a procedure on flags. The driver lets dispatch know the flag’s name and where the pick-up point is. That way the dispatcher can check to see that they haven’t already sent a cab to pick that person up at that location, which keeps you from 'scooping" that driver, taking his/her fare and being a dick, and they also know at least a last location to start looking for you in case anything bad happens.
FallenAngel, thanks for your answer to my question. It does, of course raise others. 1) What are “two very rode hard tweaker chicks”? and 2) where do I apply?