Some Questions Concerning Light-rail & For-hire Cars as Taxis?

Some folks are under the illusion (or maybe delusion) that Seattle is a cosmopolitan and sophisticated city, both smart and efficient, a miniature Paris or London.  Those of us who have long observed the place know quite differently.  Add one confused Atlanta, Georgia businessman to that number of potential skeptics.  I found the guy at one-thirty Saturday morning standing outside the Beacon Hill Light-rail station chilled to his toes and mad as hell because a downtown train taking him to the airport had instead gone out of service half a mile out of the station.  I told him welcome to Seattle as I took him back to the Sea-Tac Doubletree.  He was so shook up that he even left his telephone in the back seat and I had to return it to him.  He just couldn't understand what had happened and why.  "And I had no idea where I was," he lamented.  As I told him, he wasn't the first victim of the light-rail system that I have encountered and nor will he be the last. 

Earlier this year I found a completely bewildered passenger with a bunch of luggage standing at the intersection MLK & Rainier Ave. South.  having been tossed off an in-bound train from Sea-Tac.  It was 12:30 on an early Monday morning and rain was falling.  He too couldn't believe what had just occurred.

Anyway, returning to Mr. Atlanta, he was freaked out.  I don't blame him for that. The experience was too much for him to bear. I suggested that next time he wear a hat.  I also told him to file a complaint.  Let's hope he did.  If Seattle/KC doesn't get its act  together  some isolated soul is going to be found murdered in Rainier Valley, all because of a simple expectation that a train ride begun will be a ride completed..  Ha Ha! that's certainly humorous, don't you agree?

Walking down Broadway East this morning I met an ex-Yellow driver now in his very own "for hire" vehicle. He showed me his very extensive flat-rate list covering every inch of Seattle and King County.  It was impressive.  He also said that he and his "for-hire" brothers are going to try to make it legal for them to pick up passengers just like the taxis.  He obviously was sitting on Broadway waiting for the random walk-up.  Even without any future legal permission he and everyone else knows that enforcement of the laws governing his actions are non-existent.  Craig Leisy and Seattle/KC have released a monster upon the local streets.  Will it ever be recaptured and and locked back into Pandora's Box?   Personally, I think it is highly doubtful.  The "for-hires" are here to stay.  Again, what is there to impede them?  We all know the answer.

Labor & Industry Official Ride-Along

It looks like I (and we, the local industry) made State of Washington history by having a L&I official, William Moomau, ride as an observer in my taxi for approximately three hours this past Sunday.  In an earlier email I had invited any and all L&I officials to come and take a glance at taxi as you and I know it. Mr. Moomau, an over 30 year veteran of the L&I wars proved to be a good student, asking many questions pertaining to our daily concerns. I made every attempt to communicate our reality versus any perceived scenarios.  He suggested that the amount L&I might be requesting of the local industry is falling closer to initial expectations.  Let us hope so.  As I have been saying, it is not reasonable to compare or suggest that out market matches a city like New York.  It also appears to have been helpful to have new voices added to the chorus.  L&I is truly interested in assisting and protecting the lease-driver/independent contractor community while simultaneously making a correct and fair assessment of what the overall taxi industry can afford.  I appreciate the effort being made.

L&I Update 11/08/11

In a telephone conversation this morning with a L&I official, he sought clarification about lease-driver sentiment concerning Craig Leisy's (Seattle Consumer Affairs) proposed taximeter and lease-driver rate increase.  I told him that it was an unequal parallel, expecting Seattle lease-drivers to pay as much as $100.00 per shift, equal to what drivers in NYC are paying.  To think or imagine that Seattle's taxi market and consumer base matches that of one of the world's greatest cities is pure fantasy.  I emphasized that point.  I also pointed out that the current meter rate is nearly the highest in the country.  Raising it will only impact our ability to make a living.

He reported that it appears that our opposition has had an impact.  He believes that the current estimation of $1.11 per mile will be at least halved.  Let us hope so.  Potentially a decision will be made this upcoming Thursday, with that decision being signed officially for enactment at the end of this month.  My last suggestion is to contact Mr. Leisy directly and tell him how you feel.

The Real Reason I Am Driving Taxi (or at least one of primary justifications) & How Taxi Drivers REALLY Feel About Working Beneath the Top-light

I saw him being passed up by a Northend Taxi at the intersection of NE 125th & 15th NE at about 1:30 in the morning just this past Saturday.   I pulled just past of the intersection and stopped, adjacent to the 7-11 store, waiting for him to cross the street.  "Are you stopping for me," he asked?  And, "Of course I am," I said, "where are you going?"  He seemed uncertain then said to take him up to NE 145th & 15th NE.  On this rainy and chilly evening he had on a heavy cotton shirt but no jacket nor hat. A bit shabby perhaps but not unlike myself, as I am more bum than bank executive.  He mentioned about the other taxi but I reassured him that it appeared to me that he was on his way to a call.  He then mentioned that he was treated poorly in the 7-11, having just gone there to get something to eat. He was browbeaten and downcast. He then said take me to the QFC, the grocery store located at the previously mentioned corner. I responded give me Five and be done with it.

A minute into the ride he asked if I knew where the tent city was, that being where he currently lives.  He muttered 'tent city, tent city" a couple of times.  As we neared the QFC he said it was hard to stay warm in a tent.  Exiting the taxi he repeated more than once how much he appreciated that I had picked him up, that other taxi drivers had kept driving by.  I responded it was nothing, and besides, that was what I am doing in the taxi, there to provide rides to those who required them.   I told him that he looked okay, that I was experienced and that there was absolutely no reason for anyone to not pick him up.  I watched as he steadied himself and began walking toward a destination he had no desire whatsoever to reach.

Sure, I drive taxi to make money and support myself while I continue to strive toward complete writing independence.  But meeting this fellow explains to myself why I am still doing this,  perhaps being the major (and solitary) reason: I am here to interact with the downtrodden, the disenfranchised.  Oddly the money, and I did make a small fortune this weekend is secondary to that kind of quick and momentary relationship.  His emotional state reminds me of the true state of the species and the world.  Privilege, even my own hard-earned ease holds a value that deserves daily examination, of how we justify our culture's goals and manifestations while the majority (this fellow & the developing world) peer in from the outside at the unattainable.  Empathy is what is called for, not the celebration of someone who cultivates chain hamburgers and eat-to-you-explode pizza as successful life and business formulas.  Clearly I despise this reality I reside and dwell, at least pleased that I can at step on 478's accelerator and temporary fly up and past the next desolate and despondent corner.

What Drivers Truly Believe

Waiting at the cashier's window today a fellow directly in front of me, a Bulgarian immigrant, was holding his young son, perhaps age 3 or 4, truly a cute tyke.  I hesitated then said, wondering what the reaction might be, that the child was  possibly a future taxi driver.  Immediately two drivers reacted strongly, saying let him be a doctor or lawayer, anything but a taxi driver, one gentleman saying that there had to be a reason to justify all the pain we experience.  That, in a taxi nutshell, is the true unadulterated opinion of perhaps all of us taxi warriors.  Wednesday night, as I was passing taxi 366 to Thomas, a long-time taxi veteran, he proudly told me that his 25 year old son had just passed the State of New York bar.  My friend John has a son, Sebastien, who is a junior at MIT.  The simple unblemished reality is that taxi is hell, plain and simple.  If I wasn't writing, I too would be gone tomorrow, the gutter an improvement upon unbridled insult.  Oh yes, you say, Mr. Blondo is so melodramatic!  Yes, that must be the explanation.

Reminded Again Why I Don't Drive During the Week Plus Commisson & TAG Reports

It has been months since I have driven an extra shift other than a holiday.  Given that I had to be in town (I now dwell in Tacoma) Tuesday for the taxi advisory commission meeting and Wednesday for Craig Leisy's favorite forum, his Taxi Advisory Group (TAG) meeting, I thought why not drive a Wednesday night shift.  Amazing how I always discover just why it was a poor idea. Last night did hold the opportunity of the Sounder's playoff game, which guaranteed something if there was nothing else to be had. And without going into much of the boring details it was okay but really I wasn't much interested.  The "adjacent area (zone) automatic belling feature" on the MDT (computer) was totally maddening, offering you fares where you weren't, preventing you from picking up from where you were sitting.  Like the song moans, "when will they ever learn?"  At this rate I wouldn't place any bets with Lloyd's of London!  I did have a delayed round-trip from and back to Swedish Hospital, a nurse spending her long break at the Riverside Casino in Tukwila.  She recounted a miraculous  trip to Las Vegas where she won $100,000 over a long weekend.  This time she lost $100.00 and no tip for me due to her losing.  Later in the shift I had a few round-trips to ATM machines, those not-so-mysterious rides in the wee hours of the morn.  At times I truly hate knowing how folks conduct their lives.  Depressing is the word!  Who wants to know?! Not me!

Tuesday's commission meeting was so much fun we have decided to do it all over again on November 22nd.  Two members have a personal issue in the fire and monopolize the proceedings they have.  Though I do have sympathy for their plight, the commission was not designed to be one or two individual members' personal forum.  And besides, I know full well that the bad situation they are attempting to address was self-created.  I too would be upset if I had lost tens of millions in equity and most of my taxi association.  It all seems too little too late!  Regardless  I see the commission as a maturation process though I wish members would at least reach adolescence soon!  Diapers are so messy!  What else did we do? Craig Leisy made a presentation about his L&I-based proposals and also talked about the for-hire vehicles.  The meeting was held at the Yellow lot and everyone got a tour.  Is it only Seattle who appoints taxi advisory commission members who know little to nothing concerning taxis?  Let's hope so.  What other city would be this ________!?

As for the TAG, we were all much more civil while Mr. Leisy held court explaining the details of his L&I related proposal and how all of us drivers will make more money though he estimates we will lose at 159,000 trips (fares) due to the fare increase.  It was the last TAG of the year though soon you will be getting reports about the pending Seattle city council and King County council hearings.  I can't wait to be there. Ha! Ha! Ha!

I Was Wrong. L & I Impact Upon the Lease-Driver

I have a quick apology to make.  I have been telling anyone who asked that the pending L&I decision would not have an immediate impact upon the lease-driver.  I was wrong, completely wrong.  If the rate of $380.00 per car per month holds up (though I don't believe it will), then the shift rate will be increased by $10.00 per shift.  For instance, a week day (M-F) day-shift at Yellow, when a driver has a NPG (natural gas) powered vehicle, he/she will be paying a total of $100. per shift when the $15.00 "green vehicle surcharge" is added on.  For all of us who knows just how hard it can be to earn a taxi dollar, does L&I understand just what that means on a January or February or March morning when nothing is occurring anywhere and the mere making of your lease and gasoline (or natural gas) is a small miracle. This is why it is imperative that the L&I rate becomes a figure that will not bankrupt the industry. Make no mistake, this kind of translation is unavoidable. Whatever the final decision is, the cost will be transferred to the lease-driver. Another factor to also remember is that the cost will also be transferred to the taxi customer as an increased meter rate, changing from 1/10 per mile to 1/9 per mile.  It is the unavoidable taxi food chain.  One major fear of course is that there will be fewer passengers or that a percentage of the customer base will use "for-hire" vehicles instead. None of this bodes well in the short term.  That is why it will be extremely helpful if you begin contacting L&I  and voice your displeasure.  In a future posting, perhaps later today, I will provide a list of important email adresses.

You Were Not Born in India, Were You? (or somethng to that effect)

Every taxi driver knows too well that passengers say the craziest (not like Art Linkletter, where kids said the darnest things) nonsense, bringing up topics more fit for an asylum than a taxi, but come to mention it the average taxi is a rolling psychiatric ward, where hopefully the most incoherent customers (inmates) disappear quickly and painlessly away.  This posting then is a brief entry into that lexicon-fueled world known as passenger dialogue.  Most taxi conversation is reasonable, friendly and coherent, but not always as the first example given here amply displays.

The guy from top of Queen Anne going to the Pan Pacific Hotel kept asking whether I was from India?  At first I responded not at all.  Upon persistence I initially told him that it was a big secret, too important to divulge.  Then after further consideration I confessed that no, I was not born in India but in a town named after an American Native tribe or nation, Puyallup.  He fortunately had no further comment but one wonders why the question was asked at at, just to why it held any significance one way or the other where the driver was born.  Clearly I don't look like any native of that distant subcontinent.  His genealogical interest was truly peculiar, motivated by what pathology I truly am not interested in knowing.  It is only too typical when the passenger sees you not at all and cares about you not at all and upon getting out of the taxi remembers you not at all.  Did I just have a human to human interaction?  Obviously, not at all!

I had a family in my taxi yesterday from Saudi Arabia, a father and his three children.  Being the only English speaker, the father began translating our conversation for his children's benefit.  Upon discovering that I was a writer and (very nominally) aware of his region and culture his questions became more probing.  As with the older couple from Kuwait last weekend, I have found that the majority of foreign visitors and temporary residents are always pleasantly surprised, if not shocked to meet a reasonably informed and knowledgeable American as it appears that American cultural illiteracy is now legendary and transferred to all of my fellow citizens.  I dropped the Saudi family off at the Red Roof Inn, Sea-Tac with the father repeating that he would buy my book on Amazon.  I would find that pleasing, as I am always ready to be a reasonable representative and emissary for our confounding country.

Yesterday I picked up at the Vulcan (Paul Allen) Boeing Field Facility.  As with my other contacts with the Vulcan empire I always feel I have been transported back to Iron Curtain Europe (I was in Hungary in 1984) where a secretive and opaque bureaucracy divulges as little as possible, suspicion the generously supplied entree.  I mentioned this Soviet-era atmosphere to the somewhat superior gentleman I was taking to Sea-Tac. He immediately softened and became more human. One point that hasn't been mentioned during these "Occupy Wall Street" times is that many of us are not at all interested in doing what is necessary to become a "one percenter."  I could care less.  I have more important things to do than manipulate money markets and require that others make my bread & butter.  How boring!  Why even driving a taxi is better than that!

Question?  Where was Winston Churchill speaking when he made his famous "Iron Curtain" reference? 
Answer:  A place of very little iron, Kanas!