Who Told Who?: Confusion About $5.00 Per Day Owed To Yellow Cab & Junkie's Frolic In Seattle, Breaking My Car Window

Puget Sound Dispatch's "Return to Work" fee

As local cabbies are notorious for not paying attention to almost anything, an issue arose concerning as to how well PSD communicated to the owners taking their weeks of unemployment leave.  Some owners have said this request for money is new to them, no one having told then about this financial liability but new information potentially negates that assertion.   

In a recent telephone conversation, the PSD staff member responsible for recording dispatch payments assured me that each owner was told of a five dollar per day obligation to be paid in lieu of the usual $180.00 per week dispatch fee.  I believe her, finding her serious when dealing with an owner's money, fully understanding our very lives depend upon an accurate accounting of money coming in and paid out.  Along with our concerns, there is also her concern for PSD's very survival during this time of stress and pandemic. At this point, I am told we only have 123 cabs working, which is less than half of the entire Yellow taxi fleet.  Hopefully, all current dispatch fees are going directly to operations and not into board member pockets but given how PSD is organized and structured, I or anyone else will never know for sure where the money is ultimately going. 

Additional confusion has arisen concerning PSD's decision to limit returning cabs to a cap of 160.  Can they legally do this is the current question, but it does seem to be true that PSD alerted the City and County to its intention of charging the five dollars, this per a conversation with a city official. But in truth, when it comes to this and taxi in general, "who knows who told what to whom" will remain a mystery not even a Sherlock Holmes could unravel.  

Such is the way, such is the reason I want to cry, and please, concerning the obvious, don't ask me why!

Four Car Break-ins in Four Years

Thursday morning it happened again, with the rear trunk hatch window broken on my personal car, the fourth of in a series of local junkies attacking my cars. It happened once in Tacoma, and twice, here in Seattle, my cab 1092 violated by drug fiends, the last time in late April.  This is not funny.  And each time they have gotten nothing of real value for their efforts.    

Latest COVID-19 Report

Worldwide, the current novel coronavirus death toll stands at 833,000.  Here in the USA, we now have 184,000 deaths, with a daily average of over 1000.

Confirmed American COVID cases is 5.98 million, with a daily average of over 43,000. 

During the GOP convention ending yesterday, nary a word about the pandemic other than the lie that Trump has done a wonderful job containing the virus.  If this is his best effort, I would hate see his worse.