Talkin' Taxi: Originations & Strategies

Today Ladies & can I say Gentleman we will examine for a few trifle moments some informal taxi science which greatly affects all drivers even if they are totally unaware of analytical checks and balances influencing their money making abilities.  Reality is like that even if completely unaware.  Where you place yourself in a given zone or neighborhood can either enhance or detract from your effectiveness.  In other terms, where the fare originates is part of that science.  Hotel stands are clearly an equation many drivers understand though not always adding or subtracting the total benefit.  Another way of putting it is where you sit is where or how you go in terms of distance and monetary success.  Cabbies are firm believers in the Golden Goose which for many means downtown (Pet Clark's endorsement) or the airport.  Most don't realize that geese are poor mathematicians. As aviators they are unsurpassed, flying north to south for thousands of miles, though many cabbies missing that geese for the most part avoid runways and city centers thus making most drivers silly instead of golden. One should attempt to be orginal in their choice of originations contary to following the flock.  Feathers may tickle the nose but the wise cabbie remains discerning and fickle, weighting the odds, eyeing the prize moment by minute disecting deception's disguise!  Easy to be fooled but due consideration can lead to birds of a better feather even though their song dissonant yet melodious.  Finding money ain't easy and I will never say that it is.  A 7-11 store can provide a fare to Blaine, Washington on the Canadian border which the Lake City store did a few years back or just 'round the block to the local bar which is more usual.  Or again if you get lucky like I did this just past early Saturday morning a State Patrol officer will pull up to  to the Northgate 7-11 and want to know if you needed a fare to Everett?  Some locations are beacons and others are not.  Placement can be everything.  Who would guess that the corner of NE 41th and 15th NE is a prime location but multiuple fares to the eastside confirms that sitting near an important bus stop early in the morning is fruitful.

Taxi strategies are many so briefly I will comment upon my most recent Sunday morning start which was influenced by the summer cruise ship season opening areas normally clogged with sitting taxis, allowing me to freely work where I am.  This Sunday I started with a fare from 104th and Greenwood taking me about five blocks to Patty's Eggnest and $7.00.  Next I drove over to NW 65th & 22 NW and dropped off near the Tin Hat and $8.00.  83rd & 10th NW took me to 97th & Greenwood and ten bucks.  NE 80th & 1st NE brought me twenty dollars down to Pike Place Market.  Three quick additional area fares brought me $28.00 and over to the train station and off to Sea-Tac netting $35.00 after I informed them of the flat rate.  All this "pin-balling" as I call it, allowing one fare taking me swiftly to another brought me a total of $108.00 in just about two hours, $54.00 per hour perfectly acceptable.  That's talkin' taxi as it is and more later in the coming weeks upon the subject of making and missing the not always easy money.  Taxi is all about the moola and nothing else. The cultural experience, as one might call it, is not completely sustaining, passengers too often plainly tedious and beyond kind definations. Taxi is a thin gruel for the hungry fool.  Unfortunately I rarely have time for breakfast.  Just ask Goldilocks about cold porridge, her spoon rigid in the amorphous mass.  And with only one Denny's within the city limits, what is a famished cabbie to do?