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Drive a taxi. It's fun. Really.
April 29, 2004
I'm suspended until Monday.
April 27, 2004
Shortly after semi-quitting the taxi biz early yesterday by allowing the taxi owner to start his big plan to take over the night shift a week earlier than he planned, I got a call from him.
It seems my license had appeared on the list of suspended drivers sent out to the fleets and taxi agents. I remembered instantly why. I, myself, have failed to take the required drug test, a situation that I managed to heap derision on my roommate over getting into a few months ago. To be honest, I was aware of the coming TLC suspension hammer, yet never bothered. I barely care at this point. A suspension would make a nice little time-out.
Nevertheless, I was goaded into action by the development. I called the bottom of the barrel drug-testing company that the TLC had given the contract to. Okay, actually, they're cool in Staten Island. But that's a long way these days. You get the test done in Manhattan, you get treated like dogshit by masters of passive-aggression.
The dude on the phone said I had to go to the TLC offices and get an authorization to take the test. So, this morning I went. It's hard to say anything bad about the TLC offices these days. As long as you don't appear to be obviously angry you can do business with these folks. And they really have come a long way in the 9 years I've been around taxis. They're simply far more efficient. Also, it helps to get there verrry early. Like, right at 8am, when they open their doors to the needy supplicants.
To make a long story short, I'll probably have my license back by Monday. Not bad. But it just prolongs the inevitable. If they had a device to detect lack of interest in driving a taxi, that shit would be pegged at the top of the scale, man.
So why, then, did I bother going to the TLC to get this license deal taken care of?
Beats me, but it just isn't a good idea to close off your options. The problem is, it's the last resort that became my life.
Here's a guy that made an appearance in the New York Times, that I know, for he works at my old garage. I saw him damn near every day for years. His assessment of the state of things is spot-on accurate. It's the general summary that none of his fellow drivers really need to know about, because we're all more or less like him, just in different levels of. uh. 'advancement'.
Link. The NYT wants you to pay for this, and I don't. Sorry about the lack of formatting, I'm not webgod here.
It seems my license had appeared on the list of suspended drivers sent out to the fleets and taxi agents. I remembered instantly why. I, myself, have failed to take the required drug test, a situation that I managed to heap derision on my roommate over getting into a few months ago. To be honest, I was aware of the coming TLC suspension hammer, yet never bothered. I barely care at this point. A suspension would make a nice little time-out.
Nevertheless, I was goaded into action by the development. I called the bottom of the barrel drug-testing company that the TLC had given the contract to. Okay, actually, they're cool in Staten Island. But that's a long way these days. You get the test done in Manhattan, you get treated like dogshit by masters of passive-aggression.
The dude on the phone said I had to go to the TLC offices and get an authorization to take the test. So, this morning I went. It's hard to say anything bad about the TLC offices these days. As long as you don't appear to be obviously angry you can do business with these folks. And they really have come a long way in the 9 years I've been around taxis. They're simply far more efficient. Also, it helps to get there verrry early. Like, right at 8am, when they open their doors to the needy supplicants.
To make a long story short, I'll probably have my license back by Monday. Not bad. But it just prolongs the inevitable. If they had a device to detect lack of interest in driving a taxi, that shit would be pegged at the top of the scale, man.
So why, then, did I bother going to the TLC to get this license deal taken care of?
Beats me, but it just isn't a good idea to close off your options. The problem is, it's the last resort that became my life.
Here's a guy that made an appearance in the New York Times, that I know, for he works at my old garage. I saw him damn near every day for years. His assessment of the state of things is spot-on accurate. It's the general summary that none of his fellow drivers really need to know about, because we're all more or less like him, just in different levels of. uh. 'advancement'.
Link. The NYT wants you to pay for this, and I don't. Sorry about the lack of formatting, I'm not webgod here.
April 18, 2004
And. Now for some logistical notes.
The taxi owner has decided to take over the night shift. He wants the extra money that the fare increase would suggest he might make.
I am not ready to move to Burlington. Nor am I ready to explore the legit job market in the nyc area. There's been quite a bit of tension between me and taxi owner, who incidentally, is also my roommate. A word of advice. It's probably a bad idea to do business with someone you live with.
I am being offered a 7-day week on the day shift. No less. I'm peeved at having to drive day shift in order to save myself a commute, and inevitably paying an ass-ton (in advance, of course) to my old fleet/garage to work in a taxi that might be champion-level, or a piece of trash. There's no telling.
So I guess it's days for me. I've never been good at structuring my time, but day shift demands far more discipline than night shift, in many ways. I might benefit from the experience. Who knows?
There's a driver at my old garage that invariably would end up saying (regarding the job), "It's all bullshit."
Goddamn right.
The taxi owner has decided to take over the night shift. He wants the extra money that the fare increase would suggest he might make.
I am not ready to move to Burlington. Nor am I ready to explore the legit job market in the nyc area. There's been quite a bit of tension between me and taxi owner, who incidentally, is also my roommate. A word of advice. It's probably a bad idea to do business with someone you live with.
I am being offered a 7-day week on the day shift. No less. I'm peeved at having to drive day shift in order to save myself a commute, and inevitably paying an ass-ton (in advance, of course) to my old fleet/garage to work in a taxi that might be champion-level, or a piece of trash. There's no telling.
So I guess it's days for me. I've never been good at structuring my time, but day shift demands far more discipline than night shift, in many ways. I might benefit from the experience. Who knows?
There's a driver at my old garage that invariably would end up saying (regarding the job), "It's all bullshit."
Goddamn right.
The TLC passed the proposed fare increase. The only alteration, made during the hearing to raucous applause, was the retention of the $.50 surcharge between the hours of 8pm-6am.
I doubt I ever made my reason for opposing the fare increase clear in this weblog. On the last go-round (8 years previous) the TLC passed an increase on distance travelled only, without adjusting the rate for sitting in traffic. So. The rate 'went' from $.25 for every 75 seconds to $.30 for every 90 seconds. Which was, as simple math would have it, not an increase.
You might say, eh. So what. But it ended up sending an interesting message to drivers. At my fleet, the day shift drivers pulled a disappearing act. The fleet could not sell out the day shift. Cabs would sit around waiting for drivers to pay the lousy new rates the fleet had imposed. Inevitably, this caused a behavioral change among some night shift drivers. They started to fill in the vacuum by arriving early, sometimes as early as 8am(!) to get to work. Personally, if I had to to go back to the fleet (and I may), leaving at 2pm is optimal. And sometimes, you could get that.
This was a specific response to the available data to the average day shift driver. The data being, a) I'm being charged more; b) traffic in the daytime is getting worse, I can't move this cab; and c) this shit doesn't work for me, I'm outta here.
The alternative being, get more aggressive. Which goes equally well for night drivers as day drivers. You made this increase by keeping the cab moving. You didn't want to sit around. The pressure had been effectively increased on the driver by this seemingly minor bit of relief for the harried customer.
Let's move to the present new scheme. The new fare includes an 'increase' on time. Except, once again, it is not. We go from $.30 for 90 seconds to $.40 for 120 seconds. I THINK THEY WANT US TO TAKE PSYCHOTIC MEASURES is the point.
That's no way to foster a happy happy customer service-oriented environment. They're telling us that it's now even more important than ever to rid ourselves of this horrid burden (customer) just as fast as possible. Want to stop and have me wait while you get a slice of pizza? Fuck, no.
The irony in all this is that many customers still are under the delusion that I make money off of sitting in traffic. I got news for you, sunshine. You think we *like* to pull the shit we pull on other drivers to get you somewhere? Quit trippin'. The fare is now structured to grind our asses into dust.
Think I'll want to go to Brooklyn or Queens between the hours of 4-8pm, with the spiffy new $1.00 per trip surcharge? Hell, no. Expect a refusal, and that's coming from a guy who *does* take on these trips when they come my way. I say nothing when it happens, but if it's a particularly lousy-long trip to nowhere, I'm seething, trust me. Surcharge plus crap traffic near and over bridge/tunnel plus generally having to drive back empty to Manhattan equals a recipe for a wave of rule-breaking by previously law-abiding taxi drivers. The TLC shoots itself in the foot, yet again. And this surcharge, mind you, was designed to increase 'taxi availability' between 4-8pm on weekdays. Yeah, look, give us drivers the option to refuse Brooklyn and Queens and you will see more 'taxi availability' in Manhattan, where it all starts. And should end, really.
The Commission never increased the number of yellow medallion cabs in 60 years before 1996. That's right; so what happened? Other services were created to fill the gap in yellow cab service. Back in the day (wayyyyyyy back in the day) you could find yellow medallion cabs working in the boroughs on a regular basis. It was made into a waste of time and money by livery cabs who illegally turned street hails in Brooklyn and Queens into the de facto law of the jungle. I've had people literally wave me off in these boroughs in favor of an unmetered livery cab.
So now that Queens and Brooklyn are somebody else's turf, the TLC might see fit to acknowledge the reality of the situation. Yellow cabs should stay in Manhattan if they want to. We can't afford wasting time and falling behind on your trip to Cypress Hills.
Got it? Time has always ruled the industry. And now it has become a tyrant. The TLC inadvertently wishes to turn its drivers into animals through an effective devaluation of our time and then wonders why, why we are so mean, frazzled, crazy.
Devaluation. Of drivers. They shouldn't sit there and wonder why they can't keep veteran drivers in the industry. The truth has been plain for the last 9 years. And yet there are still drivers at my fleet who have been driving far longer than I. Strangely enough, many of them drive day shift. They are either resigned and defeated, or just at peace. Talking to some of the former, it can be hard to tell whether they are joking or not. The level of sarcasm they operate at is from the beyond.
I doubt I ever made my reason for opposing the fare increase clear in this weblog. On the last go-round (8 years previous) the TLC passed an increase on distance travelled only, without adjusting the rate for sitting in traffic. So. The rate 'went' from $.25 for every 75 seconds to $.30 for every 90 seconds. Which was, as simple math would have it, not an increase.
You might say, eh. So what. But it ended up sending an interesting message to drivers. At my fleet, the day shift drivers pulled a disappearing act. The fleet could not sell out the day shift. Cabs would sit around waiting for drivers to pay the lousy new rates the fleet had imposed. Inevitably, this caused a behavioral change among some night shift drivers. They started to fill in the vacuum by arriving early, sometimes as early as 8am(!) to get to work. Personally, if I had to to go back to the fleet (and I may), leaving at 2pm is optimal. And sometimes, you could get that.
This was a specific response to the available data to the average day shift driver. The data being, a) I'm being charged more; b) traffic in the daytime is getting worse, I can't move this cab; and c) this shit doesn't work for me, I'm outta here.
The alternative being, get more aggressive. Which goes equally well for night drivers as day drivers. You made this increase by keeping the cab moving. You didn't want to sit around. The pressure had been effectively increased on the driver by this seemingly minor bit of relief for the harried customer.
Let's move to the present new scheme. The new fare includes an 'increase' on time. Except, once again, it is not. We go from $.30 for 90 seconds to $.40 for 120 seconds. I THINK THEY WANT US TO TAKE PSYCHOTIC MEASURES is the point.
That's no way to foster a happy happy customer service-oriented environment. They're telling us that it's now even more important than ever to rid ourselves of this horrid burden (customer) just as fast as possible. Want to stop and have me wait while you get a slice of pizza? Fuck, no.
The irony in all this is that many customers still are under the delusion that I make money off of sitting in traffic. I got news for you, sunshine. You think we *like* to pull the shit we pull on other drivers to get you somewhere? Quit trippin'. The fare is now structured to grind our asses into dust.
Think I'll want to go to Brooklyn or Queens between the hours of 4-8pm, with the spiffy new $1.00 per trip surcharge? Hell, no. Expect a refusal, and that's coming from a guy who *does* take on these trips when they come my way. I say nothing when it happens, but if it's a particularly lousy-long trip to nowhere, I'm seething, trust me. Surcharge plus crap traffic near and over bridge/tunnel plus generally having to drive back empty to Manhattan equals a recipe for a wave of rule-breaking by previously law-abiding taxi drivers. The TLC shoots itself in the foot, yet again. And this surcharge, mind you, was designed to increase 'taxi availability' between 4-8pm on weekdays. Yeah, look, give us drivers the option to refuse Brooklyn and Queens and you will see more 'taxi availability' in Manhattan, where it all starts. And should end, really.
The Commission never increased the number of yellow medallion cabs in 60 years before 1996. That's right; so what happened? Other services were created to fill the gap in yellow cab service. Back in the day (wayyyyyyy back in the day) you could find yellow medallion cabs working in the boroughs on a regular basis. It was made into a waste of time and money by livery cabs who illegally turned street hails in Brooklyn and Queens into the de facto law of the jungle. I've had people literally wave me off in these boroughs in favor of an unmetered livery cab.
So now that Queens and Brooklyn are somebody else's turf, the TLC might see fit to acknowledge the reality of the situation. Yellow cabs should stay in Manhattan if they want to. We can't afford wasting time and falling behind on your trip to Cypress Hills.
Got it? Time has always ruled the industry. And now it has become a tyrant. The TLC inadvertently wishes to turn its drivers into animals through an effective devaluation of our time and then wonders why, why we are so mean, frazzled, crazy.
Devaluation. Of drivers. They shouldn't sit there and wonder why they can't keep veteran drivers in the industry. The truth has been plain for the last 9 years. And yet there are still drivers at my fleet who have been driving far longer than I. Strangely enough, many of them drive day shift. They are either resigned and defeated, or just at peace. Talking to some of the former, it can be hard to tell whether they are joking or not. The level of sarcasm they operate at is from the beyond.
