Add Fuel and Mix
And do you then self-immolate, a fiery exclamation point to bureaucratic folly, your instant transportation career now engulfed in flames? Perhaps unfortunately not, because due to policies kissing Uber's backside, governments have stripped away any pretense of real regulation and oversight over who can, or cannot drive strangers on and over American roadways for monetary compensation
I found this to be true after checking out Uber and Lyft's very simple online signup/application websites. There is really nothing to it, you just put in your information and poof! almost instantaneously you can now ply the streets of Seattle or any other American regardless of real qualifications. There appears to be only one standard: you are breathing and have a pulse. That's it.
And all you need for your background check is a social security number, whether it's yours or not, because there is absolutely no verification process saying you are who who say you are. Fingerprinting, which would prove you are the real John Joseph Smith or Judy Agnes Johnson is no longer used. Manufacture any and all documents and Uber and Lyft will never know the difference. Worse, the municipal governments overseeing all this have decided to let the TNC companies to have nearly complete control over the process. Unlike cabbies, you don't even need a physical for-hire license in your wallet, instead a TNC for-hire permit sticker is issued for your car.
Thinking about it, with a fictional mind at work, one could imagine how a serial murderer or diabolical poisoner (concentrating upon takeout food deliveries) could run amok, doing all kinds of nasty things, then suddenly disappearing minus anyone knowing the culprit's true identity. Fiction unfortunately sometimes mimics real life and the many real safeguards and and preventative measures that could stop a deranged killer have vanished into governmental created thin air. Better watch that next pizza delivery!
As I have reported in a recent post, in California, Uber is being allowed to deal with reported sexual assaults and rapes in-house, without first reporting the alleged crime to the local police. Of course this isn't reasonable nor wise but this certainly haven't stopped governments from handing the enforcement keys over to Uber and Lyft, whose track record concerning corporate responsibility the past ten years has been abysmal, very less than stellar.
This brings me back to the beginning. Want to drive for Uber and Lyft? Do it because there's nothing stopping you, and you can drive an old car too, 2008 and newer is just fine here in Seattle, your taxi officially cannot be over ten-years old. If you instead wanted to own a cab, good luck finding an available medallion, and worse, straddling yourself with a much higher financial overhead and tougher regulatory scrutiny.
And adding further insult to taxis, your rates driving Uber and Lyft are now higher than a cab, making it much more profitable to drive for a TNC service. Don't be a fool like me and drive a taxi. Be a smart asshole and drive Uber! Don't be dumb! Be an Uber Bum!
David Friend is Out of the Puget Sound Dispatch Door
Yes, it's true, that rascal David Friend, the lawyer who won a big part of a controlling interest in Seattle Yellow Cab years ago in an injury lawsuit, has sold his shares to his buddy Lema. Since I have nothing good to say I won't say anything bad, if you can understand my words. Good luck and other parting epitaphs left unsaid.
A kind of tribute Poem to Sean Singer, that poetry writing former NYC cabbie
It can be fun writing in a style or form not your own, and liking what Sean Singer did in his poetry volume, "Today in the Taxi," I decided to amuse myself by writing a poem in slight imitation of what he accomplished. Many eons ago, in San Francisco, I jokingly wrote a poem in the manner of Charles Bukowski, that infamous poetry writing degenerate, shocking my wife with a Bukowski-style "betting at the racetrack and bangin' a whore in a sordid hotel" poetic tale. Then I was being silly and today only a trifle more serious. Bukowski was a bit of a walking, talking, writing, drinking parody, something Sean Singer is not. He's the real deal---cabbie, writer, poet. And that's good enough for me.
In Friendly Imitation of Sean Singer
Today in my taxi I picked up Madness on its way to Thirteenth and Bedlam to meet a Mister Beelzebub and his nephew Wormwood,
who were all visiting Anne Sexton's ghost residing in a narrow hallway forever repeating,
"We stand in broken lines and wait while they unlock the door and count us at the frozen gates of dinner."
and later I sat parked in a yellow queue at a Big Corporate Hotel waiting for Sanity but of course Madness knowing much better than I,
directing me instead down the dreary drugged phenothiazine infused Monks Orchard Road to Beckenham, Medical Lake, Lakewood and other maladjusted scenic destinations.
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See, wasn't that fun! Ha Ha Ha! The quote is from the American writer Anne Sexton, taken from her most amazing poetic description of living on a psychiatric ward, "You, Doctor Martin." Having worked on psych wards and in a psychiatric hospital, her words ring true. Phenothiazine is a family of drugs used to treat schizophrenia. Back in my youthful days in San Francisco 1979-82, I read that poem to patients in various psych wards. Beelzebub of course is the evil devil and Wormwood is taken from the C. S Lewis novel, "The Screwtape Letters" in which Uncle Screwtape is giving devilish advise to his young nephew Wormwood. Beckenham is where Bedlam Hospital is located. Medical Lake, Washington is home to Eastern State Hospital. Lakewood, Washington is where Western State Hospital is located, where very recently a patient killed his roommate. Monks Orchard Road will take you to Bedlam.
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