Flare-up, Anger And Peace At The Cashier Window & Craig Leisy's Book

Us cabbies are a solitary species, taxi wolverines plying the urban landscape but occasionally, like actual wolverines, (gulo gulo, Latin for glutton) we find ourselves in the same locale, snarling and spiting, attempting communication and commonplace civility.  Yesterday afternoon, while doing "our turn" at the cashier's window, a verbal altercation broke out involving four drivers, three against the one WAT (wheelchair driver) over the mundane issue of the 10 cents fee all Seattle-area cabbies pay per trip to supplement the WAT operators.  Always controversial, many Yellow drivers are upset since PSD management released an income list stating some of us are making $2000.00 per week, this in response to many cabbies pleading poverty.   And according to practical theory, the only guys who could make this are the WAT owners who receive, within City boundaries, $20.00 per wheelchair trip in addition to the meter rate.  It is indeed sweet getting a built-in tip with nearly every fare you receive.

Call it jealously, all it anything you wish but most drivers are angered with what they see as  bureaucratic (and discriminatory) treatment favoring the WAT operators, unfairly padding their wallets while pilfering money from ours.  Yesterday, guys got angry, targeting one individual who tried to be calm until he too losing his temper.  Eventually, order was restored, tempers cooled and more-or-less civil conversation ensued, all recognizing who and what the real culprit is: dumbbell administrators and their hackneyed policies.

Yes, the taxi majority feel victimized by decisions adversely affecting their daily bread, mindless policies made by the clearly clueless.  If you don't think this is true, go to any current Seattle City Council meeting and witness the prattle emanating from the outgoing Sally Bagwell, and like I have, becoming depressed listening to the theoretical musings espoused by this astounding fill-in-the-blank.  As I continue to say, "taxi-gods-help-us-all!"  Yes, Ms Bagwell, what kind of creature are you?  Or maybe a new species already---stultus fatuus?  Welcome to the Seattle Governmental Zoo, "How do you do?"

And Kshama Sawant too---indus paulo follis.  And Bruce Harrell?  Sorry, I give up!  Time to be polite in the taxi night, day is breaking and my cabbie heart is aching, buckets of tears pouring into my local beer.  Or something like that!



Craig Leisy Wrote a Taxi Book

Most Seattle readers will remember Craig, that former City of Seattle taxi licensing manager recently retired to Colorado.  Now that he is no longer daily plaguing us, he has written a sympathetic tome concerning how the Uber incursion nearly killed us.  He even quoted me.  Stay tuned in the next few weeks for a review.  I bought a copy and should be done reading soon.

Transportation Network Companies and Taxis: The Case of Seattle

Published by Routledge

go to the website, www.routledge.com and enter code SOC19 to receive a 20% discount.  But I warn you, even with the discount, it is pricy.