New York has an insane party scene as anyone who lives here will attest to. So it was my 1st Saturday night out on the streets as a cabbie and it wasn't quite what I expected but as I saw I had a luckier night than some of my fellow cabbies. I'm not talking in terms of cash, it's Saturday night and there's cash everywhere on the street and I seem to be doing very well compared to the few people I've spoken to. I'm talking about the drunken masses spilling themselves into my car and then spilling the vile contents of their stomachs all over the car or just being obnoxious drunks. I can't begin to tell you how much I hate the smell of drunk breath, it is completely fucking gross.
The night starts off for me at around 4pm and I cruise into the city hoping to replay my Thursday luck of a fare going into Manhattan. No luck but once I'm in the city the race begins and I grab fare after fare it seems for a bit. Everyone is going out tonight and the theaters, bars, and restaurants are in the process of gearing up for the busiest night of the week.
I bounce around Manhattan landing wherever my fares want to go. I don't refuse any fares, considering it's illegal, though I'm finding out it is the norm for many other drivers, especially when it comes to destinations in Brooklyn. I pick up on the Lower East Side, a punky looking girl in her 20's. And she asks me if I'll take her to Bushwick in Brooklyn. She gets in and asks me if I'll take her waiting for me to say "No". I tell her "Of course! Not a problem." as it's not a bad fare and even though I most likely will come back empty it's my fucking job!! I hate hearing people talk about being refused by a taxi. But then again it helps me because the people are more appreciative of me taking them. So we get underway and I feel her out to see if she wants to chat, shes very receptive since and turned out to be a pretty cool passenger. She was on her way to a punk club to meet some friends and we started talking about the typical bullshit like the weather...blah blah blah. Then we get to the job market here in New York. We're in rough shape here, lots of financial jobs being lost and that trickles down to everyone.
It turned out that she just got her degree in journalism specializing in print media and is now realizing that she earned a degree in an industry that is dying not so slowly. She told me that finding a job has been near impossible and her student loans we're coming due. I felt bad for her as she was a sweet girl but she seemed to be taking it in stride. I gave her a few words of wisdom about student loans, one of which is whatever you do DON'T default on them. The federal government is fucking brutal in their efforts to collect. I've been there done that and it sucks.
I dropped the punky girl off and head back to Manhattan, normally I don't pick up when I'm deep in Bushwick because it's not the safest neighborhood despite the gentrification efforts and I don't know it that well. I will pick up near the Williamsburg Bridge because they are most likely going into Manhattan or at the very least I know all the major arteries from there to get somewhere else. I see a goth looking woman with tattoos hail me and I stop, she wants to go to a bar in Red Hook. I tell her I don't know exactly where her destination is but I can get her there. I started using the GPS in my cell if I get stuck, it's pretty decent. So I plug the address she gives me in and off I go. As we drive along we start chatting and I tell her about how I've lived in a a bunch of different places and Baton Rouge was one of them. She lit up when I said that, it turns out she was from Baton Rouge so we go off on how nice it was to live there and the adjustments we had to make when transplanting.
Then we moved onto the gun culture down there. Now I'm left leaning in my politics with some exceptions, one big one is gun control. I think every law abiding citizen should be allowed to easily own a firearm. She totally agreed and we started talking about guns. She really knew her shit too!! I found this very hot, but of course I'm married and always behave but I loved the spirited conversation. She was also into motorcycles but we differed there. I told her I'm a pussy and would never get on a bike, we laughed at my expense and continued chatting about life in the south and moving around from place to place. It was a nice ride with a very cool lady. I dropped her and found my way back into Manhattan.
My night moved right along after with no disasters just money rolling in. I don't really know what a great night should be but I'm happy with what I'm taking in on my nights so far. The traffic in some parts of Manhattan is insane on Saturday, especially in the Theater District. I fucking hated going near there but thank God I only had to once when it was the crazy time. At about 2am I discovered a 24 hour Starbucks...WOOT!! I was out of change and desperate so I went in to get an iced coffee and charmed the girl there into giving me 20 singles. I relaxed and stretched my legs a while then back into battle.
As the night wound down and the fares dried up a little and the time came for me to head back to Queens and drop the cab off. I proceeded up 3rd avenue to 57th street and made a right to go over the upper level of the Queensboro Bridge. As I sat at the light reflecting on the night, suddenly I see the rear door of the taxi in front of me fly wide open and a head pop out, well not pop but more bursting out. It was just in the nick of time too as the guy lets loose with a deluge of puke that Linda Blair would be proud of. I was waiting for his head to spin around, it never happened. :( I resist the urge to yak myself as I can be a sympathetic puker. Then I started to laugh my ass off. As I'm laughing an SUV full of guys to my right are laughing like crazy and rolling the windows down. They start cheering as if he guy scored the winning touchdown in the Superbowl which sparks more laughing from me and them. The puker lets fly again and then in his drunken, pukey state raises his arms in victory. Some fuckin' win, huh? The poor cabbie pulls over as the guy makes his way over to the curb to finish puking. I can't imagine it went on for long the guy puked a friggin river those 1st two times. I hope the guy didn't get it all over the cab because then the poor driver has to clean it up which I know would kill me to have to do.
Overall it was a good night, I was dead tired at the end of it but happy when I got home and kissed my wife and slept like the dead.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
HNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGHHH!!
That sound summed up the end of my Thursday night / Friday Morning shift but it was still a decent night and interesting from the very beginning.
I got to the garage about 3pm on Thursday and handed my license through the slot in the filthy window at the garage. It's just about what you'd expect a taxi garage to look like. It's a kinda grungy little room, and I use that term loosely, off the main service area. There's a little room with a door and 2 bullet resistant (I assume) windows with slots at the bottom that are pretty gross. You hand your license to the dispatcher and then wait for your name to be called. There were a bunch of drivers hanging around waiting for cars, the largest group it seemed was a bunch of African guys all kind chatting together, and a smattering of many different ethnic groups loosely grouped together bullshitting. It wasn't like the groups were totally exclusionary of others but there was definitely a race/ethnic separation going on, not in an evil way just in the way that we gravitate to those that are similar to ourselves. I saw a group of guys somewhere near my type of people, an odd mix of a few Caribbean guys, white guys, Arabs, and Spanish. Not Spain Spanish but South American Spanish.
I'm pretty good with people as much as I hate them sometimes so I sidled up to them and worked into an odd conversation that was going on. I see one of the drivers showing 3 little white packets to everyone there as a lively conversation began. Apparently when he parked his car he got out and looked down to find 3 packets of heroin just sitting there. How do I know it was heroin? I grew up in New York City, in a decent neighborhood but I also had my life running the streets with some unsavory elements doing stupid shit. No, I've never even touched heroin, it was one of the few drugs I was just too fucking scared of trying even in my crazier days. So anyway I knew from the packaging it was dope. Myself, the white and Caribbean drivers all exchanged a few quick drug related war stories from our youth. I guess the Arab guys never experimented back when they were young or wouldn't admit it. I wouldn't admit some of the shit I did when I was a kid either, so I get it. One guy was talking about how you can't get addicted to heroin if you sniff it and other completely stupid shit along those lines. I wasn't going to argue the point of how dumb that was so I just nodded and let him go on.
In the end the packages wound up in the hands of a Caribbean mechanic and after joking about using it and getting his balls busted about how he wouldn't do it, he finally dumped the packages out on the ground and crushed the powder into the ground under his shoe leaving a little white smear on the ground where his shoe dragged over it. I was glad to see that shit gone, the last thing I wanted was to see a guy responsible for keeping the cars that I'll be driving safe doing heroin. Later I pictured some sick dope fiend retracing his steps all over Long Island City going crazy about the 3 packages. I've seen people that are dope sick and it looks like complete hell. Oh well, just another day in the life of that junkie I guess.
As this is wrapping up at about 4pm and I'm getting into a conversation about pot smoking and one guy is talking about how some people get paranoid when they smoke, my name comes over the speaker, very much like on the TV show Taxi but without a Danny Devito type doing it. The guy behind the window is kinda expressionless, a nice guy but it seems any expression is forced. I don't really give a shit, I don't have to be his friend, I just gotta get a cab and make some cash. I get my cab and ask the garage guy to go over the meter with me one more time, I'm glad I did because the buttons were hard to press, so he took it out to fix it. I was just kinda standing around waiting so I could get out there. About 20 minutes later he brings the meter back pops it in and I'm off to do battle with the streets of New York.
My shift got a good start, I grabbed a fare right at the base of the Queensboro Bridge going to Little Italy. The passengers were 2 guys, one was guido type, I mean he was such a stereotype of guys I grew up with, even his last name was the same as a very famous Chicago Gangster. I overheard this and chuckled because I got the impression he tries way to hard to live up to it, as he booked a hotel room on his cell phone. The other was some other ethnicity, Indian or Arab maybe. He was caught up in a conversation with what I assume was his girlfriend and it didn't sound like a good one. He proceeded to tell his friend about some argument they had. It sounded like she wanted a kid and he had no desire for another kid. I'm pretty sure he mentioned something about having a kid of his own already. I can understand that, I'm not a kid person and lucky for me, neither is my wife.In the end it sounds like she's getting the old heave-ho sometime soon. There was traffic so I had them with me for a while and they got to talking about business and went back and forth about clients. The good thing about those types is they usually tip well. $5 on a $20 ride, not too shabby.
I find fares pretty quickly at that time of day, there's money all over the streets for a cab driver on Thursdays early evenings. Everyone is going out to party it seems, which I never quite understood. Isn't Friday a work day? How the fuck does someone get wasted and go into work hungover? But I'm apparently in the minority on this view. I start my night bouncing all over Manhattan like a pinball caught in the bumpers taking people to bars, stores, and restaurants. I pick up a group of Spanish tourists in from Spain and apparently taking advantage of the weak dollar judging by all the shopping bags they had, this is a good thing because New York needs all the money we can get with the economy crashing like it is. I took them to B & H Photo on 34th street for more shopping. They spoke English well enough to chat so I made some small talk while I whizzed them through Manhattan. They were nice people who confirmed my assumption that the weak dollar drew them here for all the bargains they can get.
I'd drop one fare off and get another pretty quickly. I was given some advice which made sense, when you drop off a fare wait 20 seconds or so and many times another fare would jump right in. In this frenzy of activity I got to test my knowledge of Central Park and its transverses. The transverses are the roads used to cross the park from east to west and there are 4 of them. This is essential knowledge for a taxi driver as these roads are vital to getting around. Central Park is huge, it covers about 50 blocks so knowing where to cross is vital.
In this time I picked up one lady who was a reserved Upper East Side type. She looked to be in her 40's, I later found out she was over 50 which was surprising. I would imagine it's not often as a taxi driver you have a customer boost your ego like this one did. We were making small talk as I try to do with any customers I can. This is a change for most New Yorkers and seems to work wonders with my tips. Sometimes it progresses past small talk depending on time and the person. I'm pretty open to a point, it's not like I'm ever going to see any of these people again. Somehow the conversation steered her to tell me that she was offered a position as an administrative judge for the Taxi and Limousine Commission but turned it down because she couldn't live with taking money from hard working drivers. When she said that I fell in love with her right there. I proceeded to tell her about how I always thought of being a lawyer when I was a kid but never moved in that direction.
Back then I wanted it for the money, now I would only become a lawyer to work in the public interest, but I didn't want to incur all the loans on law school and then be forced into some kind of corporate or ambulance chasing capacity just to pay my loans and I was also worried that I was too old to make the move. I'm only 36 so I'm a fucking retard for thinking its too late but I can be retarded sometimes. I want to do something that helps people in need not make some fat corporate douche richer. Upon telling her this, she tells me that she didn't go to law school until she was 38 and had kids that her husband didn't help much with due to his career and such. She also told me that there are law schools that will give large scholarships to people that guarantee to work in the public interest. This was news to me, but I also hadn't researched much on it to begin with. I didn't think anyone wanted to encourage more lawyers in the world. I also mentioned how I was accepted into a special program which would have had me start Hunter College High School in 7th grade but my parents wouldn't let me go due to my having to take the train there and home everyday. This was probably one of the worst decisions my parents ever made regarding my education and she agreed. This is something I still haven't forgiven them for to this day. She proceeded to tell me how I was an extremely articulate and intelligent sounding person and she really hopes I take the plunge. The ease at which I conversed with her made her think I would be a great lawyer. This was better than any tip she could have given me. Most New Yorkers will know that the Upper East Side is a super wealthy part of New York and with that kind of money snobbishness is the norm. This lady was not a snob by any means but still a part of New York's aristocracy, I read them referred to that way on another NY taxi drivers blog and it was such a fitting description of the people of that area. Lots of old money and very powerful people live there so to feel like I won over one of them felt really good to me. I dropped her at Lincoln Center and left elated to continue my night.
The rest of the night was pretty normal. I picked up a couple of Irish tourists who spoke with me about "The Troubles" and health care there versus here. I love their accents and they were so friendly so I was kinda disappointed when the ride was over. I think Ill survive though :P
I whiz through the city until about 2am when I catch a fare to Astoria, Queens from Bleeker St in The Village, 3 drunk guys, one of them lost their job due to the crisis in the financial industry, he didn't seem to concerned thanks to the alcohol which I could easily smell in the from the back seat through the open partition. God, I hate drunk peoples breath!! It was an uneventful ride other than them complementing me on getting them home without direction from them. I shoot back into the city again and decide to see if the bars in the Upper East Side were busy, this was a mistake, it was a ghost town so I make my way down 2nd Ave. to the Lower East Side where my HNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGHHH!! moment occurred.
I was driving along looking for my final fares of the night, at that time it's all gravy for me so I'm ready for another good night to turn great if I get lucky. As I'm thinking, "maybe I can get lucky and catch a New Jersey run I can really make my night a blockbuster night."
All of a sudden I am scared shitless by a loud WHAM, some douchebag fucker must have swung left into my lane a bit to make a right turn in a minivan and clipped my mirror smashing it into a million pieces. It's not a mack truck you fucktard!!!!! MOTHERFUCKER!!! I hit the brakes and catch my temper and the asshole is gone, he didn't stop and now here I sit with a busted mirror and not even a plate number to tell the garage, this also means my shift is done almost 2 hours early, I could have easily picked up another few bucks in that time so I'm fuming mad. I can feel my ears on fire from my blood boiling. I get out to check the car, praying that it was only the mirror. I check the mirror and the only the glass is broken but the main assembly is still in tact. As for the rest of the car, there's not a mark on it so I figure I won't get much shit for it back at the garage.
I pulled into the garage not long after that and the $10 shift discount I'm supposed to get is now shot to shit according to the douchebag behind the glass. I've been told that you usually tip the cashier a dollar or two when he cashes you out for the night, well this guy will get dick for a tip for as long as I deal with him for that $10. I didn't think it was fair, one thing has nothing to do with another but such is life in the big city.
I did have another interesting trip but this is so long already I'll save it for the next post.
I got to the garage about 3pm on Thursday and handed my license through the slot in the filthy window at the garage. It's just about what you'd expect a taxi garage to look like. It's a kinda grungy little room, and I use that term loosely, off the main service area. There's a little room with a door and 2 bullet resistant (I assume) windows with slots at the bottom that are pretty gross. You hand your license to the dispatcher and then wait for your name to be called. There were a bunch of drivers hanging around waiting for cars, the largest group it seemed was a bunch of African guys all kind chatting together, and a smattering of many different ethnic groups loosely grouped together bullshitting. It wasn't like the groups were totally exclusionary of others but there was definitely a race/ethnic separation going on, not in an evil way just in the way that we gravitate to those that are similar to ourselves. I saw a group of guys somewhere near my type of people, an odd mix of a few Caribbean guys, white guys, Arabs, and Spanish. Not Spain Spanish but South American Spanish.
I'm pretty good with people as much as I hate them sometimes so I sidled up to them and worked into an odd conversation that was going on. I see one of the drivers showing 3 little white packets to everyone there as a lively conversation began. Apparently when he parked his car he got out and looked down to find 3 packets of heroin just sitting there. How do I know it was heroin? I grew up in New York City, in a decent neighborhood but I also had my life running the streets with some unsavory elements doing stupid shit. No, I've never even touched heroin, it was one of the few drugs I was just too fucking scared of trying even in my crazier days. So anyway I knew from the packaging it was dope. Myself, the white and Caribbean drivers all exchanged a few quick drug related war stories from our youth. I guess the Arab guys never experimented back when they were young or wouldn't admit it. I wouldn't admit some of the shit I did when I was a kid either, so I get it. One guy was talking about how you can't get addicted to heroin if you sniff it and other completely stupid shit along those lines. I wasn't going to argue the point of how dumb that was so I just nodded and let him go on.
In the end the packages wound up in the hands of a Caribbean mechanic and after joking about using it and getting his balls busted about how he wouldn't do it, he finally dumped the packages out on the ground and crushed the powder into the ground under his shoe leaving a little white smear on the ground where his shoe dragged over it. I was glad to see that shit gone, the last thing I wanted was to see a guy responsible for keeping the cars that I'll be driving safe doing heroin. Later I pictured some sick dope fiend retracing his steps all over Long Island City going crazy about the 3 packages. I've seen people that are dope sick and it looks like complete hell. Oh well, just another day in the life of that junkie I guess.
As this is wrapping up at about 4pm and I'm getting into a conversation about pot smoking and one guy is talking about how some people get paranoid when they smoke, my name comes over the speaker, very much like on the TV show Taxi but without a Danny Devito type doing it. The guy behind the window is kinda expressionless, a nice guy but it seems any expression is forced. I don't really give a shit, I don't have to be his friend, I just gotta get a cab and make some cash. I get my cab and ask the garage guy to go over the meter with me one more time, I'm glad I did because the buttons were hard to press, so he took it out to fix it. I was just kinda standing around waiting so I could get out there. About 20 minutes later he brings the meter back pops it in and I'm off to do battle with the streets of New York.
My shift got a good start, I grabbed a fare right at the base of the Queensboro Bridge going to Little Italy. The passengers were 2 guys, one was guido type, I mean he was such a stereotype of guys I grew up with, even his last name was the same as a very famous Chicago Gangster. I overheard this and chuckled because I got the impression he tries way to hard to live up to it, as he booked a hotel room on his cell phone. The other was some other ethnicity, Indian or Arab maybe. He was caught up in a conversation with what I assume was his girlfriend and it didn't sound like a good one. He proceeded to tell his friend about some argument they had. It sounded like she wanted a kid and he had no desire for another kid. I'm pretty sure he mentioned something about having a kid of his own already. I can understand that, I'm not a kid person and lucky for me, neither is my wife.In the end it sounds like she's getting the old heave-ho sometime soon. There was traffic so I had them with me for a while and they got to talking about business and went back and forth about clients. The good thing about those types is they usually tip well. $5 on a $20 ride, not too shabby.
I find fares pretty quickly at that time of day, there's money all over the streets for a cab driver on Thursdays early evenings. Everyone is going out to party it seems, which I never quite understood. Isn't Friday a work day? How the fuck does someone get wasted and go into work hungover? But I'm apparently in the minority on this view. I start my night bouncing all over Manhattan like a pinball caught in the bumpers taking people to bars, stores, and restaurants. I pick up a group of Spanish tourists in from Spain and apparently taking advantage of the weak dollar judging by all the shopping bags they had, this is a good thing because New York needs all the money we can get with the economy crashing like it is. I took them to B & H Photo on 34th street for more shopping. They spoke English well enough to chat so I made some small talk while I whizzed them through Manhattan. They were nice people who confirmed my assumption that the weak dollar drew them here for all the bargains they can get.
I'd drop one fare off and get another pretty quickly. I was given some advice which made sense, when you drop off a fare wait 20 seconds or so and many times another fare would jump right in. In this frenzy of activity I got to test my knowledge of Central Park and its transverses. The transverses are the roads used to cross the park from east to west and there are 4 of them. This is essential knowledge for a taxi driver as these roads are vital to getting around. Central Park is huge, it covers about 50 blocks so knowing where to cross is vital.
In this time I picked up one lady who was a reserved Upper East Side type. She looked to be in her 40's, I later found out she was over 50 which was surprising. I would imagine it's not often as a taxi driver you have a customer boost your ego like this one did. We were making small talk as I try to do with any customers I can. This is a change for most New Yorkers and seems to work wonders with my tips. Sometimes it progresses past small talk depending on time and the person. I'm pretty open to a point, it's not like I'm ever going to see any of these people again. Somehow the conversation steered her to tell me that she was offered a position as an administrative judge for the Taxi and Limousine Commission but turned it down because she couldn't live with taking money from hard working drivers. When she said that I fell in love with her right there. I proceeded to tell her about how I always thought of being a lawyer when I was a kid but never moved in that direction.
Back then I wanted it for the money, now I would only become a lawyer to work in the public interest, but I didn't want to incur all the loans on law school and then be forced into some kind of corporate or ambulance chasing capacity just to pay my loans and I was also worried that I was too old to make the move. I'm only 36 so I'm a fucking retard for thinking its too late but I can be retarded sometimes. I want to do something that helps people in need not make some fat corporate douche richer. Upon telling her this, she tells me that she didn't go to law school until she was 38 and had kids that her husband didn't help much with due to his career and such. She also told me that there are law schools that will give large scholarships to people that guarantee to work in the public interest. This was news to me, but I also hadn't researched much on it to begin with. I didn't think anyone wanted to encourage more lawyers in the world. I also mentioned how I was accepted into a special program which would have had me start Hunter College High School in 7th grade but my parents wouldn't let me go due to my having to take the train there and home everyday. This was probably one of the worst decisions my parents ever made regarding my education and she agreed. This is something I still haven't forgiven them for to this day. She proceeded to tell me how I was an extremely articulate and intelligent sounding person and she really hopes I take the plunge. The ease at which I conversed with her made her think I would be a great lawyer. This was better than any tip she could have given me. Most New Yorkers will know that the Upper East Side is a super wealthy part of New York and with that kind of money snobbishness is the norm. This lady was not a snob by any means but still a part of New York's aristocracy, I read them referred to that way on another NY taxi drivers blog and it was such a fitting description of the people of that area. Lots of old money and very powerful people live there so to feel like I won over one of them felt really good to me. I dropped her at Lincoln Center and left elated to continue my night.
The rest of the night was pretty normal. I picked up a couple of Irish tourists who spoke with me about "The Troubles" and health care there versus here. I love their accents and they were so friendly so I was kinda disappointed when the ride was over. I think Ill survive though :P
I whiz through the city until about 2am when I catch a fare to Astoria, Queens from Bleeker St in The Village, 3 drunk guys, one of them lost their job due to the crisis in the financial industry, he didn't seem to concerned thanks to the alcohol which I could easily smell in the from the back seat through the open partition. God, I hate drunk peoples breath!! It was an uneventful ride other than them complementing me on getting them home without direction from them. I shoot back into the city again and decide to see if the bars in the Upper East Side were busy, this was a mistake, it was a ghost town so I make my way down 2nd Ave. to the Lower East Side where my HNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGHHH!! moment occurred.
I was driving along looking for my final fares of the night, at that time it's all gravy for me so I'm ready for another good night to turn great if I get lucky. As I'm thinking, "maybe I can get lucky and catch a New Jersey run I can really make my night a blockbuster night."
All of a sudden I am scared shitless by a loud WHAM, some douchebag fucker must have swung left into my lane a bit to make a right turn in a minivan and clipped my mirror smashing it into a million pieces. It's not a mack truck you fucktard!!!!! MOTHERFUCKER!!! I hit the brakes and catch my temper and the asshole is gone, he didn't stop and now here I sit with a busted mirror and not even a plate number to tell the garage, this also means my shift is done almost 2 hours early, I could have easily picked up another few bucks in that time so I'm fuming mad. I can feel my ears on fire from my blood boiling. I get out to check the car, praying that it was only the mirror. I check the mirror and the only the glass is broken but the main assembly is still in tact. As for the rest of the car, there's not a mark on it so I figure I won't get much shit for it back at the garage.
I pulled into the garage not long after that and the $10 shift discount I'm supposed to get is now shot to shit according to the douchebag behind the glass. I've been told that you usually tip the cashier a dollar or two when he cashes you out for the night, well this guy will get dick for a tip for as long as I deal with him for that $10. I didn't think it was fair, one thing has nothing to do with another but such is life in the big city.
I did have another interesting trip but this is so long already I'll save it for the next post.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
I think I found a home
As anyone who has been reading this knows I have been looking for a garage that I can work weekends out of. The problem I have been having with this is that the weekends are the most lucrative time to work and most garages allow the dispatchers to shakedown the drivers for a few bucks to work and get a decent car. This is a shitty practice which I wasn't going to get sucked into if I could help it.
Driving a cab is not an easy job in any capacity. There's the endless hours sitting in the car, traffic, and the risk, though small here in NYC, of being robbed. And drivers are the ones taking all the risks, so fuck anyone who wants to shake me down just for the privilege of busting my hump for 12 hours. I realized this attitude isn't conducive to getting what I want, which is to make decent money driving, but I also wanted to take a shot at finding someplace I felt comfortable and respected.
I was caught between a rock and a hard place to some extent until I decided to ask someone, but who could I ask? Being a white American born guy I don't know many other Taxicab drivers. Most taxicab drivers in NYC are immigrants who have come here and are busting their asses and I don't know any of them to ask. Another thing I've come to realize is that the other guys out there driving aren't my friends or co-workers, we are competitors so I guess sharing information isn't wise. Does Best Buy share info with Circuit City? I think not. Being an outsider in every way I didn't really know where to turn.
I'm a pretty resourceful guy so I thought about it and decided to contact Melissa Plaut who wrote an awesome book about her experiences driving a taxi in New York City and ask her where to go. In her book Hack: How I Stopped Worrying About What to Do With My Life and Started Driving a Yellow Cab she spoke highly of the garage she worked and said that the dispatchers aren't allowed to shakedown the drivers. The problem is that she changed the name of the garage in her book to protect people she worked with. I tried looking at the list of taxi garages on the Taxi and Limousine Commission to try to figure it out but had no luck. I figured I would email her, hoping she would help me out and she actually did give me a referral. I can't begin to express how much I appreciate this small act of kindness.
I went there yesterday and everything she said was 100% true. This is the only garage of the 3 I went to that someone sat down and went over everything with me and the owner of the garage seems to actually respects the work that drivers do. When I mentioned my concerns about having to grease the dispatchers just for the privilege of working 12 hours, he said something along the lines of drivers work too hard for their money and he's not going to let them get shaken down at his garage. I haven't heard ANYONE in the management end of this industry say anything that indicated respect for drivers so I was happy to hear this. It was refreshing and gave me some hope.
This is going to sound completely silly but the woman who took all my license information noticed that it was my birthday and wished me a happy birthday. I know its retarded but I'm a sucker for shit like that. I'm 36 today but that's a whole other can of worms. Of course I said yes and he went on to tell me a few things he thought I should know. Then the owner asked me if I wanted some tips on being a hack. We spent about 20 minutes with this, most of it seemed like common sense but that probably comes from reading about a similar conversation Melissa Plaut relayed in her book from when she started there. From there I was taken down to the garage and passed off to someone to show me how their meters worked. I sat in a taxi and went over the basic meter functions, it's all pretty common sense but there are a few different models of meters used and each has it's own little differences.
After a few minutes of that I was done and walked back through the industrial streets of Long Island City to the train home. I was happy, a little patience and resourcefulness seemed to pay off. I should be working Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'm not crazy about working Sunday nights but the owner needed drivers for Sundays and I figured it would be a good trade off to get the nights I really wanted. If Sunday nights completely suck I'll just tell them I can't work Sundays and take it from there. All in all I'm a happy cabbie for now.
Driving a cab is not an easy job in any capacity. There's the endless hours sitting in the car, traffic, and the risk, though small here in NYC, of being robbed. And drivers are the ones taking all the risks, so fuck anyone who wants to shake me down just for the privilege of busting my hump for 12 hours. I realized this attitude isn't conducive to getting what I want, which is to make decent money driving, but I also wanted to take a shot at finding someplace I felt comfortable and respected.
I was caught between a rock and a hard place to some extent until I decided to ask someone, but who could I ask? Being a white American born guy I don't know many other Taxicab drivers. Most taxicab drivers in NYC are immigrants who have come here and are busting their asses and I don't know any of them to ask. Another thing I've come to realize is that the other guys out there driving aren't my friends or co-workers, we are competitors so I guess sharing information isn't wise. Does Best Buy share info with Circuit City? I think not. Being an outsider in every way I didn't really know where to turn.
I'm a pretty resourceful guy so I thought about it and decided to contact Melissa Plaut who wrote an awesome book about her experiences driving a taxi in New York City and ask her where to go. In her book Hack: How I Stopped Worrying About What to Do With My Life and Started Driving a Yellow Cab she spoke highly of the garage she worked and said that the dispatchers aren't allowed to shakedown the drivers. The problem is that she changed the name of the garage in her book to protect people she worked with. I tried looking at the list of taxi garages on the Taxi and Limousine Commission to try to figure it out but had no luck. I figured I would email her, hoping she would help me out and she actually did give me a referral. I can't begin to express how much I appreciate this small act of kindness.
I went there yesterday and everything she said was 100% true. This is the only garage of the 3 I went to that someone sat down and went over everything with me and the owner of the garage seems to actually respects the work that drivers do. When I mentioned my concerns about having to grease the dispatchers just for the privilege of working 12 hours, he said something along the lines of drivers work too hard for their money and he's not going to let them get shaken down at his garage. I haven't heard ANYONE in the management end of this industry say anything that indicated respect for drivers so I was happy to hear this. It was refreshing and gave me some hope.
This is going to sound completely silly but the woman who took all my license information noticed that it was my birthday and wished me a happy birthday. I know its retarded but I'm a sucker for shit like that. I'm 36 today but that's a whole other can of worms. Of course I said yes and he went on to tell me a few things he thought I should know. Then the owner asked me if I wanted some tips on being a hack. We spent about 20 minutes with this, most of it seemed like common sense but that probably comes from reading about a similar conversation Melissa Plaut relayed in her book from when she started there. From there I was taken down to the garage and passed off to someone to show me how their meters worked. I sat in a taxi and went over the basic meter functions, it's all pretty common sense but there are a few different models of meters used and each has it's own little differences.
After a few minutes of that I was done and walked back through the industrial streets of Long Island City to the train home. I was happy, a little patience and resourcefulness seemed to pay off. I should be working Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'm not crazy about working Sunday nights but the owner needed drivers for Sundays and I figured it would be a good trade off to get the nights I really wanted. If Sunday nights completely suck I'll just tell them I can't work Sundays and take it from there. All in all I'm a happy cabbie for now.
Monday, September 15, 2008
I gotta throw something about techie stuff in here right?
I was thinking about this blog as I find it is consuming my thoughts to an extent. This is how I am when I get started on something I'll obsess about it at first, then I usually fall into a pattern which eventually bores me and I'll blow it off. I'm not saying thats going to happen here because I am finding this somewhat cathartic but I'm warning anyone who reads this about me being me. I'm so sure there are people out there who might just die if I didn't ever blog again. 
I got some great advice from an e-friend who also blogs, here and I love what she writes, so read it when you get a chance. Hopefully I'll see things a bit differently and it'll help make this more interesting to read.
On to the tech tip I promised. I was thinking the other day how can I involve technology here and then started questioning my choice of blog titles...blah, blah, blah. Then I thought aren't I driving to get a minor break from working with computers. Of course as much as I say I hate them computers are an important part of my (and probably yours too so
) life.
Everyone I know has lost something important when their computer up and takes a shit on them. In all my years working on computers I can't begin to count how many times I would get that blank stare and dumb look when I asked a customer, "Didn't you back your pictures and documents up onto a disk?" I've had it happen to me more times than I'd care to admit and it sucks. Backing up can be a pain in the ass and people get lazy about it.
My most recent hard drive crash was actually a 2 pronged attack by cosmic forces out to fuck me. I lost one hard drive with a short warning and I transferred everything I could to another new one just in the nick of time. Great, right?? Wrong!! Most hard drives give you some kind of warning before they fail. Not this one, The brand new server drive I purchased replacement shits the bed on me!!! I'm sitting there watching some videos that I downloaded and then all of a sudden a loud click and the whole computer freezes up. I restart and of course the computer is acting like the hard drive isn't there. Damn it, I paid more for a high end drive to prevent this and poof. There I am feeling that same blank stare and dumb look of someone who lost important stuff in a computer crash come over me. And I'm supposed to know better. Fucking Seagate!!!
I lost my last 3 years taxes which I don't have hard copy of, 3 years of emails (I'm a pack rat so sue me). Not a huge deal but I like having that stuff in case I need it. The worst of it was losing a few .wav (sound) files from my voice mail from my grandmother that I had saved. She died a few years ago so there is no replacing them and I loved her more than anything. So after that I will really never hear her again. It really sucked and I was truly sad to lose them. I got real choked up about it and contemplated smashing something to pieces but didn't, But in the words of the great Artie Lange, WAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH FUCKIN WAAAAAAAHHHHH!
I also have another issue which most people wouldn't. I have a dual boot system using both Ubuntu Linux and Windows Vista. I use Windows mostly for games and just to stay abreast of the computer field and Linux for everything else. Most solutions you find or Windows systems. My Mac friends in particular like to cry about this but I have found a great cross-platform solution. This works for everyone, Linux, Mac, or Windows users.
Here is Dropbox. This is very friggin cool to a geek like me, all it does is set up a folder of your choosing and everything you put in it is backed up to their secure server using encryption. It has the ability to easily share things you want with others. It's also accessible from anywhere with web access, so even if you're away from home you can get to your files. And it allows anyone with a computer regardless of the operating system to use it. They start you out with a FREE 2 gigs of storage which is not bad, and they plan on allowing people to upgrade to more space for a small fee in the future. check out the site and take a tour of what it can do for you. Here is an article about it from the Linux users perspective. I've set it up on both the Linux and Windows partitions of my system and it works great.
I hope this helps someone, don't expect much tech only content here unless it some how ties into my driving a cab. I just liked this so much and wanted to post something here to keep it fresh. I just need to get the shifts I want and start working more steadily so I can have some stuff to write about here.
I got some great advice from an e-friend who also blogs, here and I love what she writes, so read it when you get a chance. Hopefully I'll see things a bit differently and it'll help make this more interesting to read.
On to the tech tip I promised. I was thinking the other day how can I involve technology here and then started questioning my choice of blog titles...blah, blah, blah. Then I thought aren't I driving to get a minor break from working with computers. Of course as much as I say I hate them computers are an important part of my (and probably yours too so
) life.Everyone I know has lost something important when their computer up and takes a shit on them. In all my years working on computers I can't begin to count how many times I would get that blank stare and dumb look when I asked a customer, "Didn't you back your pictures and documents up onto a disk?" I've had it happen to me more times than I'd care to admit and it sucks. Backing up can be a pain in the ass and people get lazy about it.
My most recent hard drive crash was actually a 2 pronged attack by cosmic forces out to fuck me. I lost one hard drive with a short warning and I transferred everything I could to another new one just in the nick of time. Great, right?? Wrong!! Most hard drives give you some kind of warning before they fail. Not this one, The brand new server drive I purchased replacement shits the bed on me!!! I'm sitting there watching some videos that I downloaded and then all of a sudden a loud click and the whole computer freezes up. I restart and of course the computer is acting like the hard drive isn't there. Damn it, I paid more for a high end drive to prevent this and poof. There I am feeling that same blank stare and dumb look of someone who lost important stuff in a computer crash come over me. And I'm supposed to know better. Fucking Seagate!!!
I lost my last 3 years taxes which I don't have hard copy of, 3 years of emails (I'm a pack rat so sue me). Not a huge deal but I like having that stuff in case I need it. The worst of it was losing a few .wav (sound) files from my voice mail from my grandmother that I had saved. She died a few years ago so there is no replacing them and I loved her more than anything. So after that I will really never hear her again. It really sucked and I was truly sad to lose them. I got real choked up about it and contemplated smashing something to pieces but didn't, But in the words of the great Artie Lange, WAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH FUCKIN WAAAAAAAHHHHH!
I also have another issue which most people wouldn't. I have a dual boot system using both Ubuntu Linux and Windows Vista. I use Windows mostly for games and just to stay abreast of the computer field and Linux for everything else. Most solutions you find or Windows systems. My Mac friends in particular like to cry about this
but I have found a great cross-platform solution. This works for everyone, Linux, Mac, or Windows users.Here is Dropbox. This is very friggin cool to a geek like me, all it does is set up a folder of your choosing and everything you put in it is backed up to their secure server using encryption. It has the ability to easily share things you want with others. It's also accessible from anywhere with web access, so even if you're away from home you can get to your files. And it allows anyone with a computer regardless of the operating system to use it. They start you out with a FREE 2 gigs of storage which is not bad, and they plan on allowing people to upgrade to more space for a small fee in the future. check out the site and take a tour of what it can do for you. Here is an article about it from the Linux users perspective. I've set it up on both the Linux and Windows partitions of my system and it works great.
I hope this helps someone, don't expect much tech only content here unless it some how ties into my driving a cab. I just liked this so much and wanted to post something here to keep it fresh. I just need to get the shifts I want and start working more steadily so I can have some stuff to write about here.
Friday, September 12, 2008
I broke my cherry
So I found a garage in Long Island City and got signed up to work this week. I worked Wednesday night and really had a good night.
It started out a bit rocky, no one told me about the switch that turns the off duty light on and off. I was told this was tied to the meter and it wasn't which I though was against the TLC rules. I guess not. Once I got that resolved after my 1st fare who tipped me $12 on a $8 ride, after I told him he was my 1st fare ever. After about 3 more rides my meter runs out of paper which basically put me out of commission. No spare roll in the car anywhere, of course.
I was so pissed when this happened, I was on the west side and would've had to go back to Queens to get it. I almost had to turn a fare away because of it, but the lady really needed a cab and offered me what she usually paid. This was a blessing because it at least made it so I got paid to get to the east side making it a bit more palatable. Thank God a fellow hack helped me out with a spare roll he had when I told him at a light what was going on.
So I basically bounce around the city for a while, mostly normal people, all easy destinations. Then a group of 4 really cute Asian girls get in in Midtown and want to go to Freeman Alley. I was like where the heck is that? But staying cool, I ask them and they give me a clue and I look it up on the map as I go. This street is tiny, you look on a map and its no bigger than an 1/8 of an inch, but I found it like a champ.
There really wasn't many interesting fares except for 3 of them. The first was a man and two women from Houston and they were wasted. The first thing they say when they got in was "Wow! you're white!". Then I started chatting with them a bit and told them it was my first night out and they were real cool. I dropped them at the Empire state Bldg and they handed me a $20 on a $8 and change fare.
The second memorable fare wasn't really slightly interesting but it was a $120 fare to Wal-something-or-other N.J. in Bergen county. A NYC Yellow cab has to take you anywhere in NYC, Nassau or Westchester County, or Newark Airport. All of these are metered rides, some with special rules doubling the meter once you leave the 5 boroughs. But this was a flat rate ride which means I charge what I want. I looked it up in the out of town rate book and it said $87, so I told the guy and he handed me a $100 and said there is more when we get there. SCORE!! When I dropped him he handed me another $20. This put me well over what I needed to cover the night and got me rolling to a super night.
The last memorable ride was some real cute, and very drunk girl going from the West Village to the East Village. She was very chatty right from the beginning and even though I find most drunks annoying, she was funny. She sold gym memberships and even gave me some free passes for the gym. So in the short ride in which she had me go around the block so she could finish advising me on getting fit. We also talked about quitting smoking, something I'm dying to do but can't seem to make happen. Then she relayed an interesting story about how she was invited to Bobby Flay's apartment for a super bowl party. Anyone who has seen Bobby Flay cook on TV would basically die for the chance to have a meal cooked by him. The kicker of the whole story was that she got sick and couldn't go. And this she attributed to the fact that she smoked at the time and that was the catalyst to make her quit. Good for her, I wish I could.
Then I got a real thrill on Thursday, I had emailed Melissa Plaut, who wrote a great book about her experiences driving a NYC Taxi. If you want a true feel for the job she definitely delivers. The cool thing to me was I had a question about finding a garage and she actually answered my email and gave me a recommendation. I know its not a huge thing but I appreciate any kindness someone shows me.
I still haven't found a garage I like but I've only looked at 2 so far and the first one wasn't my type of place and the location sucked for getting into Manhattan. The second can't guarantee me a car on the nights I want, hopefully Melissa's recommendation works out for me. I think I've punished your eyes and minds enough for now.
It started out a bit rocky, no one told me about the switch that turns the off duty light on and off. I was told this was tied to the meter and it wasn't which I though was against the TLC rules. I guess not. Once I got that resolved after my 1st fare who tipped me $12 on a $8 ride, after I told him he was my 1st fare ever. After about 3 more rides my meter runs out of paper which basically put me out of commission. No spare roll in the car anywhere, of course.
I was so pissed when this happened, I was on the west side and would've had to go back to Queens to get it. I almost had to turn a fare away because of it, but the lady really needed a cab and offered me what she usually paid. This was a blessing because it at least made it so I got paid to get to the east side making it a bit more palatable. Thank God a fellow hack helped me out with a spare roll he had when I told him at a light what was going on.
So I basically bounce around the city for a while, mostly normal people, all easy destinations. Then a group of 4 really cute Asian girls get in in Midtown and want to go to Freeman Alley. I was like where the heck is that? But staying cool, I ask them and they give me a clue and I look it up on the map as I go. This street is tiny, you look on a map and its no bigger than an 1/8 of an inch, but I found it like a champ.
There really wasn't many interesting fares except for 3 of them. The first was a man and two women from Houston and they were wasted. The first thing they say when they got in was "Wow! you're white!". Then I started chatting with them a bit and told them it was my first night out and they were real cool. I dropped them at the Empire state Bldg and they handed me a $20 on a $8 and change fare.
The second memorable fare wasn't really slightly interesting but it was a $120 fare to Wal-something-or-other N.J. in Bergen county. A NYC Yellow cab has to take you anywhere in NYC, Nassau or Westchester County, or Newark Airport. All of these are metered rides, some with special rules doubling the meter once you leave the 5 boroughs. But this was a flat rate ride which means I charge what I want. I looked it up in the out of town rate book and it said $87, so I told the guy and he handed me a $100 and said there is more when we get there. SCORE!! When I dropped him he handed me another $20. This put me well over what I needed to cover the night and got me rolling to a super night.
The last memorable ride was some real cute, and very drunk girl going from the West Village to the East Village. She was very chatty right from the beginning and even though I find most drunks annoying, she was funny. She sold gym memberships and even gave me some free passes for the gym. So in the short ride in which she had me go around the block so she could finish advising me on getting fit. We also talked about quitting smoking, something I'm dying to do but can't seem to make happen. Then she relayed an interesting story about how she was invited to Bobby Flay's apartment for a super bowl party. Anyone who has seen Bobby Flay cook on TV would basically die for the chance to have a meal cooked by him. The kicker of the whole story was that she got sick and couldn't go. And this she attributed to the fact that she smoked at the time and that was the catalyst to make her quit. Good for her, I wish I could.
Then I got a real thrill on Thursday, I had emailed Melissa Plaut, who wrote a great book about her experiences driving a NYC Taxi. If you want a true feel for the job she definitely delivers. The cool thing to me was I had a question about finding a garage and she actually answered my email and gave me a recommendation. I know its not a huge thing but I appreciate any kindness someone shows me.
I still haven't found a garage I like but I've only looked at 2 so far and the first one wasn't my type of place and the location sucked for getting into Manhattan. The second can't guarantee me a car on the nights I want, hopefully Melissa's recommendation works out for me. I think I've punished your eyes and minds enough for now.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
And the bullsh*t begins
I went to a garage yesterday to see about getting a taxi from them to work Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. This has been my plan from the beginning, they are the busiest nights and I can make the most money from everything I've heard.
Well, guess what, the place I went to in College Point didn't mention that they don't need drivers those nights before I got there. Actually they waited to mention this after I spent 30 minutes there filling out and reading a bunch of papers. I got the impression the dispatcher was looking for me to "grease his palm".
If there is one thing that is an undeniable truth in New York City it's that everyone has their hand out. I'm a native New Yorker but I've lived outside NY for short periods of time and no place I've been is like NY in that sense. It's shakedown city sometimes plain and simple. I remember offering tips to various people in Baton Rouge or Florida (two places I've lived) and being looked at like I had three heads. In the same situations here in NYC, it's become very much expected. It just pisses me off sometimes which may seem odd being so reliant on tips now. But some jobs just aren't jobs where tips should be expected. And shaking down hard working cab drivers just so they can get out and works is just plain fucked up.
I guess I have a bug up my ass because I planned on working certain nights and it looks like I wont get what I want and that probably plays into it. I can be a bit of an asshole when things don't go the way I think they should. Oh well I'm boring myself writing something I wont tell anyone about so I'm done for now.
Well, guess what, the place I went to in College Point didn't mention that they don't need drivers those nights before I got there. Actually they waited to mention this after I spent 30 minutes there filling out and reading a bunch of papers. I got the impression the dispatcher was looking for me to "grease his palm".
If there is one thing that is an undeniable truth in New York City it's that everyone has their hand out. I'm a native New Yorker but I've lived outside NY for short periods of time and no place I've been is like NY in that sense. It's shakedown city sometimes plain and simple. I remember offering tips to various people in Baton Rouge or Florida (two places I've lived) and being looked at like I had three heads. In the same situations here in NYC, it's become very much expected. It just pisses me off sometimes which may seem odd being so reliant on tips now. But some jobs just aren't jobs where tips should be expected. And shaking down hard working cab drivers just so they can get out and works is just plain fucked up.
I guess I have a bug up my ass because I planned on working certain nights and it looks like I wont get what I want and that probably plays into it. I can be a bit of an asshole when things don't go the way I think they should. Oh well I'm boring myself writing something I wont tell anyone about so I'm done for now.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
It's here, so now what?
I opened my mailbox this afternoon and there it was, my NYC hack license. Waiting much longer would've driven me completely insane. Now a decision needs to be made as to where to work. There are a bunch of garages and I have one in mind located in College Point. I found them through fliers left at Master Cabbie and they seem like a big operation. I know there are probably others but I'm going to take the easy way and go with one of the fliers rather than hunt for a place. I am planning on working 2 or 3 nights a week, most likely Thursday, Friday, and Saturday which I've been told are the best nights to work. Aside from dealing with the drunken passengers, it should be interesting to say the least. And just think it'll save anyone who reads this more boring ramblings.
I'm debating on when to actually start. Well, its not really a debate, but that sounds better than what it really is, procrastination. I'm a bit of worrier, so now the self doubt kicks in and I am questioning my ability to do this job. Seeing how shitty a rap the NYC cab driver gets and not being someone who takes other peoples shit well. I started to wonder how I'll fare being that it seems there is no shortage of nasty people here. Will it make me miserable?Then I've thought about the first fare I get, they will hit me with some destination I have no idea exists and I'll freeze like a deer in headlights. Once again, it's possible but I always function well under pressure yet I still worry about silly shit like this. I'll figure it all out and one way or another make it work for me, I'm all about making it easy on me.
I'm debating on when to actually start. Well, its not really a debate, but that sounds better than what it really is, procrastination. I'm a bit of worrier, so now the self doubt kicks in and I am questioning my ability to do this job. Seeing how shitty a rap the NYC cab driver gets and not being someone who takes other peoples shit well. I started to wonder how I'll fare being that it seems there is no shortage of nasty people here. Will it make me miserable?Then I've thought about the first fare I get, they will hit me with some destination I have no idea exists and I'll freeze like a deer in headlights. Once again, it's possible but I always function well under pressure yet I still worry about silly shit like this. I'll figure it all out and one way or another make it work for me, I'm all about making it easy on me.
Doctors have patients.
It's something completely retarded my father used to say to annoy my mother whenever she told him have patience. Well, most of us are influenced by those that spawned us, so I am also one incredibly impatient person.
Anyone who knows me knows I don't wait well. Anyway, why does this matter? It doesn't, this is the internet nothing matters here.
I was annoyed today because knowing that I have actually been issued a license means I am expecting it in the mail. It didn't get there today after someone convinced me that "its the computer age, it should be there tomorrow." So now instead of waiting patiently for the license to come in the mail, I'm now uptight about it. Its not like its the end of the world not having it, I just want to get the first time out as a NYC hack out of the way.
I also want something slightly interesting to post about here, not that anyone has read this yet. The more I think about what to write about here the more I realize how boring and ordinary I have become. I have great stories but none I would blog about as of now. I have been told that I am great at telling a story. I don't know how that will translate to me writing them in a way that anyone even gives a shit about it.
I guess I'll find out.
Anyone who knows me knows I don't wait well. Anyway, why does this matter? It doesn't, this is the internet nothing matters here.
I was annoyed today because knowing that I have actually been issued a license means I am expecting it in the mail. It didn't get there today after someone convinced me that "its the computer age, it should be there tomorrow." So now instead of waiting patiently for the license to come in the mail, I'm now uptight about it. Its not like its the end of the world not having it, I just want to get the first time out as a NYC hack out of the way.
I also want something slightly interesting to post about here, not that anyone has read this yet. The more I think about what to write about here the more I realize how boring and ordinary I have become. I have great stories but none I would blog about as of now. I have been told that I am great at telling a story. I don't know how that will translate to me writing them in a way that anyone even gives a shit about it.
I guess I'll find out.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
So its about to begin, but where?
I have been in IT for years, I worked tech support for a major tri-state ISP which wasn't as bad as it sounds, and have been running my own computer business for years. So what the hell am I doing writing a blog about driving a NYC Taxi. I've been bored out of my mind with computers for a while now so I decided to take a semi-break driving a Taxi. I don't even know why I decided to blog about it or if Ill even keep up blogging for long. I guess it depends if anyone is interested in reading the ramblings of a computer guy driving a taxi.
It wont be my 1st time driving for a living but it has been a while. Years ago I drove car service in Queens and limos and black cars for a few years all over the tri-state area so the thought of being on the road for a living isn't alien to me. The thought of letting strange people off the streets in my car is a bit odd. With car service there's a call made to a base, and there's the perception that its safer. I don't believe that but who knows, it is definitely pot luck driving a yellow cab in NYC.
I started the process to become a NYC taxicab driver in August. Its a process that is much easier in recent years. Last time I went for a TLC license I had to wait outside in line from early morning hours to get in when they opened at 8 am. If I remember correctly I was out there at 4 am and not even close to he front of the line back in the early 90's. Now you can get there close to 8am open and wait like a human being indoors out of the weather. It sorta went like this, pay money to TLC, pay money to LabCorp, pee in cup, pay more money, go to taxi school, pay more money and finally take the test.
I fulfilled all the requirements except the taxi school within a week of applying. I then made the decision to go to Master Cabbie in Long Island City and take their 24 hour course. I regret this decision now because the 24 hour course they offer is inadequate unless you know the city well already and I got the impression this is so they can upsell you to their $700 class. The yellow book they give you has many errors and all the questions in it are not in the same format as on the TLC test. From what I have heard the taxi school at LaGuardia College is better and there is nothing they upsell there, just the 24 and 80 hour classes. The only real benefit of the $700 class at Master Cabbie I could see was the coveted red book, which is just a book full of 1000 or so questions that have appeared on the TLC test which would've been helpful but whatever. I know the streets of NY well, not as well in some places as others but I knew I'd get by just fine and I wasn't spending $700 for a freaking book and a few free sample tests.
So 2 weeks ago on Friday I took the test and had to sweat through until Wednesday for the result. I don't know why I was nervous but I've always been that way with tests, even when I know Ill do fine. I found out I passed and was happy to say the least. Now I just have to wait for the license in the mail. I did get a thrill today when I looked at the TLC website and downloaded the list of all licensed taxi drivers and saw my name on it. I figure it should be any day that I get the license in the mail but with NYC agencies you never know.
So now I just wait to start working. I have to admit there's a certain amount of excitement over this turn in my life. Its not a glamorous job but I get to play an integral part in keeping NYC moving at the insane pace it seems to keep up. Plus, I've always been a people person so I'll enjoy the wide array of people I come in contact with most of the time. And I figure I have a distinct advantage being an American who speaks English as my 1st language in communicating with the people in my cab. Well that's what everyone keeps telling me.
I guess I'm just gonna leave this as is for now because I feel as if I'm rambling already. Maybe Ill write a bit about who I am in the next post.
It wont be my 1st time driving for a living but it has been a while. Years ago I drove car service in Queens and limos and black cars for a few years all over the tri-state area so the thought of being on the road for a living isn't alien to me. The thought of letting strange people off the streets in my car is a bit odd. With car service there's a call made to a base, and there's the perception that its safer. I don't believe that but who knows, it is definitely pot luck driving a yellow cab in NYC.
I started the process to become a NYC taxicab driver in August. Its a process that is much easier in recent years. Last time I went for a TLC license I had to wait outside in line from early morning hours to get in when they opened at 8 am. If I remember correctly I was out there at 4 am and not even close to he front of the line back in the early 90's. Now you can get there close to 8am open and wait like a human being indoors out of the weather. It sorta went like this, pay money to TLC, pay money to LabCorp, pee in cup, pay more money, go to taxi school, pay more money and finally take the test.
I fulfilled all the requirements except the taxi school within a week of applying. I then made the decision to go to Master Cabbie in Long Island City and take their 24 hour course. I regret this decision now because the 24 hour course they offer is inadequate unless you know the city well already and I got the impression this is so they can upsell you to their $700 class. The yellow book they give you has many errors and all the questions in it are not in the same format as on the TLC test. From what I have heard the taxi school at LaGuardia College is better and there is nothing they upsell there, just the 24 and 80 hour classes. The only real benefit of the $700 class at Master Cabbie I could see was the coveted red book, which is just a book full of 1000 or so questions that have appeared on the TLC test which would've been helpful but whatever. I know the streets of NY well, not as well in some places as others but I knew I'd get by just fine and I wasn't spending $700 for a freaking book and a few free sample tests.
So 2 weeks ago on Friday I took the test and had to sweat through until Wednesday for the result. I don't know why I was nervous but I've always been that way with tests, even when I know Ill do fine. I found out I passed and was happy to say the least. Now I just have to wait for the license in the mail. I did get a thrill today when I looked at the TLC website and downloaded the list of all licensed taxi drivers and saw my name on it. I figure it should be any day that I get the license in the mail but with NYC agencies you never know.
So now I just wait to start working. I have to admit there's a certain amount of excitement over this turn in my life. Its not a glamorous job but I get to play an integral part in keeping NYC moving at the insane pace it seems to keep up. Plus, I've always been a people person so I'll enjoy the wide array of people I come in contact with most of the time. And I figure I have a distinct advantage being an American who speaks English as my 1st language in communicating with the people in my cab. Well that's what everyone keeps telling me.
I guess I'm just gonna leave this as is for now because I feel as if I'm rambling already. Maybe Ill write a bit about who I am in the next post.
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