Greetings from Willows, California---The Poisoned Taxi Candy Box: Requiring A One Million Insurance Rider

The American cabbie is certainly embattled, attacked on all sides, be it Uber or mindless bureaucracy bogging us down with ceaseless requests for both more money and endless documentation.  If anyone in the Seattle taxi industry can believe it, the Seattle School District is now requesting an additional one million dollars in insurance coverage to continue what we have been doing for years: transporting District children from home to school and back again.  Given no warning, we jointly as an industry feel both blindsided and betrayed, given our years of safe and impeccable service to not only the Seattle School District, but all the local school districts in the greater Seattle area. How much this will cost, at this point, no one knows.

But, as the deadline nears in a month or two, we in the industry will witness more of the anguish I saw Saturday, when many worried drivers came up to me and asked what are we going to do?  In short, I don't have a quick answer, in part due to I am moving all my belongings, mostly books and records, to a 120 year old adobe house in San Lorenzo, New Mexico.  In other words, I am on the road driving this big, 26 foot long U-haul truck/van, the biggest anything I have driven since my Metro bus driving days back in 1983-84.  Suffice to say, I am busy, and will not be back into the cab until the afternoon of October 19th.  Maybe then, I will have a spare moment to understand the how and why of all this.  When I know, I will tell everyone else.

A Question of Racial Profiling

A comment received implied I was back on the Southern plantation, pre-Civil War, and once again, just like in the 1850s, not understanding the racial implications of my words written last week.  But I challenge anyone who doesn't think that all behavior has its origins in reactive (and responsive) psychological imprinting both good and bad, to think again.  All the demographics listed in the quiz all have readily identifiable features.

And with that, I must quit and get some sleep.  Again and always, your comments are most welcome and appreciated.