No, not Dickens, and no, this is not 1789, San Francisco and Seattle not Paris, not France. But what might be, or is true, is that a new non-monarchical caste has firmly entrenched itself in America, money, having lots of money enfranchising a new nobility class. While one may not be a hereditary King or Queen, money allows individuals an out-sized influence and stature, providing power and influence over others. Travis Kalanick of Uber, and John Zimmer of Lyft are representative of this new class, dominating people's lives not unlike Russia's Catherine the Great's relationship with 18th Century Russian serfs.
Has the interrelational dynamics changed sixteen years into the 21st Century? No, unless surface alterations pass as permanence, choice remaining the same if your pockets, and stomach, are empty. Isn't the worker narrative from slave to serf to indentured servant to option-less modern day laborer the same story, where the underlying directive and message repeating that where and how you were born is what and how you will remain? In America, one of the few escape routes is a university education but even a PHD doesn't guarantee a seat amongst the new social rank, only meaning you have an opportunity not dissimilar to buying a lottery ticket. Yes, you might win but overall odds are slight.
Seattle and San Francisco's story then, taken in this light, are one and the same. While San Francisco's taxi industry is more egalitarian that Seattle's, it remains controlled and stymied by municipal and wealthy elitists who know what is best for their unwashed inferiors. While seemingly an exaggeration it probably isn't, because in both cities their daily fates are dictated by those who have not and never will drive a taxi.
Why? Because, as adults, certain kinds of playgrounds are reserved for children only, and for the New Royalty there is no changing that attitude.. For instance, despite my tugging upon the regulatory sleeve, why am I never listened to? I just told you why, which is perhaps why a return in 1789 would be a good idea. Until then, cabbies will remain subject to the harshest punishments and legal judgments while the real criminals will both remain in charge and rule the world. Glory hallelujah, let Jesus set us free! Or at least for a few minutes. That would be nice.
Monday, May 16, 2016
Friday, May 13, 2016
As The Taxi Stomach Churns: News From San Francisco & Seattle
Taxi is a wild world and the longer I reside on the cabby planet, the wilder it seems to be. For instance how can I explain how and why, on two connective nights, two women, one older, one much younger thrust themselves from the backseat and through the gap between the bucket seats, suddenly looking right at me?. The first was just frantic, and the latter invader was obviously fueled by some unknown drug and alcohol combination, prompting her to attack while we flew down the freeway. Maybe worse were her attempts at apology, her repeated efforts skipping like a flawed CD. Only good part is that I got forty for a 23 dollar fare but jumping into the front seat at that moment was not smart. Fun stuff, huh, but maybe not!
From San Francisco Yellow---
San Francisco taxi buddy Gerald N. provided a great (and informative) tour of the Yellow lot at 1200 Mississippi. Never have I seen a cab lot like this one, reminding me more of a functional taxi city than anything else. With more time permitting I will describe in detail this most amazing functional, all-inclusive and efficient taxi institution. There is much to tell.
Unfortunately they almost lost it all due to an accident settlement, that without legal maneuvering, would have cost them the effort of nearly four decades toward creating something special. The accident itself spells out why industry regulatory reform across the entire nation is necessary.
The City of San Francisco has at least two outmoded rules that assisted in an eighty-year old driver fainting in his cab and careening into two people standing on the sidewalk. One is that to retain medallion ownership you must continue to drive a percentage of the time. And the other is that you never have full ownership, meaning you either lose the medallion upon death or you sell it at an disadvantage, with the City getting a sizable chunk of the owner's profits.
With these kinds of archaic rules it isn't surprising that San Francisco City officials have so eagerly jumped on the Uber and Lyft bandwagon. The City of San Francisco isn't going to support an industry they clearly despise. Instead they have and will continue to treat their local cabbies like criminals, little deserving of anything but a kick in the pants. As for those bastions of upper-middle class propriety and goodness, Uber and Lyft, well, they are in a different and far more exalted category, residing in heaven, not down somewhere here in taxi hell with all us lower-class denizens, minus fans and suntan lotion. And they have the legion of lawyers available preventing 10 million dollar judgments.
One very surprising piece of news is that someone from Seattle Yellow has proposed to buy the Las Vegas dispatch call center which both companies now share. Isn't that interesting? More upon that subject as details become clearer. It something that was discussed at the Monday SF Yellow board meeting.
And something new in San Fran Cab Land is Desoto Taxi's transformation into Flywheel Taxi, which of course is a dispatching app that has been attempting the past three years to become firmly established and operational. In Seattle Flywheel is primarily used by the flat-rate for hire companies.
As for news pertaining to Seattle---
---A Seattle Weekly newspaper ad gave the surprising news of a commerical partnership between the City of Seattle and Lyft offering discount rides during a particular drinking holiday. After contacting everyone I could think of, I did receive a friendly and official response saying that while the City of Seattle remains open to working with local taxi industry, they wanted to offer drunk passengers discounted rides, something taxi can't offer.
I find this response problematic for at least two reasons because I am too tired to think of any more at the moment. One is that this partnership acts as a great public relations promotion for Lyft, giving potential customers the impression that "Lyft really loves them," except perhaps in Austin,Texas; and that when considering some kind of transportation, consider us first, we are your best friends!
And other problem is that it is the City of Seattle (and King County) that isn't permitting us to consider lowering our meter rates, even for a short-term promotion---simultaneously limiting our options while blaming us for not having any options. Now while fully willing to accept accountability, how in the world are we accountable in this situation? Alice in Wonderland, here we come!
---This is what happens when drivers are not fully vetted or checked out thoroughly. A former Seattle police officer who was fired from the department in 2015 for various degrees of sexual harassment of female suspects is now under investigation for sexual assault while driving for Uber. The complaint is that he tried to kiss a female passenger and attempted to get into her apartment. A true background check would have told Uber about his SPD firing, thus preventing the entire incident in the first place.
---Computer system problems continue to plague Yellow. There has been explorations and presentations with and by other companies but isn't the real question here is why did Yellow commit to something without first fully understanding whether it would successfully operate trouble free? At least this time they are allowing operator input. That of course is a great stride forward. We will see if collective decision making really works.
There is more but my short nap on the flight back up to Seattle was only a band aide, time for more serous sleep on a sunny May afternoon. Happy Friday the 13th everyone. Watch out for Judas and his glad hand, waiting for that bag of silver.which just might be a bad bargain in the long term. Do we really need two thousand more years of distorted mythology? I don't think so!
From San Francisco Yellow---
San Francisco taxi buddy Gerald N. provided a great (and informative) tour of the Yellow lot at 1200 Mississippi. Never have I seen a cab lot like this one, reminding me more of a functional taxi city than anything else. With more time permitting I will describe in detail this most amazing functional, all-inclusive and efficient taxi institution. There is much to tell.
Unfortunately they almost lost it all due to an accident settlement, that without legal maneuvering, would have cost them the effort of nearly four decades toward creating something special. The accident itself spells out why industry regulatory reform across the entire nation is necessary.
The City of San Francisco has at least two outmoded rules that assisted in an eighty-year old driver fainting in his cab and careening into two people standing on the sidewalk. One is that to retain medallion ownership you must continue to drive a percentage of the time. And the other is that you never have full ownership, meaning you either lose the medallion upon death or you sell it at an disadvantage, with the City getting a sizable chunk of the owner's profits.
With these kinds of archaic rules it isn't surprising that San Francisco City officials have so eagerly jumped on the Uber and Lyft bandwagon. The City of San Francisco isn't going to support an industry they clearly despise. Instead they have and will continue to treat their local cabbies like criminals, little deserving of anything but a kick in the pants. As for those bastions of upper-middle class propriety and goodness, Uber and Lyft, well, they are in a different and far more exalted category, residing in heaven, not down somewhere here in taxi hell with all us lower-class denizens, minus fans and suntan lotion. And they have the legion of lawyers available preventing 10 million dollar judgments.
One very surprising piece of news is that someone from Seattle Yellow has proposed to buy the Las Vegas dispatch call center which both companies now share. Isn't that interesting? More upon that subject as details become clearer. It something that was discussed at the Monday SF Yellow board meeting.
And something new in San Fran Cab Land is Desoto Taxi's transformation into Flywheel Taxi, which of course is a dispatching app that has been attempting the past three years to become firmly established and operational. In Seattle Flywheel is primarily used by the flat-rate for hire companies.
As for news pertaining to Seattle---
---A Seattle Weekly newspaper ad gave the surprising news of a commerical partnership between the City of Seattle and Lyft offering discount rides during a particular drinking holiday. After contacting everyone I could think of, I did receive a friendly and official response saying that while the City of Seattle remains open to working with local taxi industry, they wanted to offer drunk passengers discounted rides, something taxi can't offer.
I find this response problematic for at least two reasons because I am too tired to think of any more at the moment. One is that this partnership acts as a great public relations promotion for Lyft, giving potential customers the impression that "Lyft really loves them," except perhaps in Austin,Texas; and that when considering some kind of transportation, consider us first, we are your best friends!
And other problem is that it is the City of Seattle (and King County) that isn't permitting us to consider lowering our meter rates, even for a short-term promotion---simultaneously limiting our options while blaming us for not having any options. Now while fully willing to accept accountability, how in the world are we accountable in this situation? Alice in Wonderland, here we come!
---This is what happens when drivers are not fully vetted or checked out thoroughly. A former Seattle police officer who was fired from the department in 2015 for various degrees of sexual harassment of female suspects is now under investigation for sexual assault while driving for Uber. The complaint is that he tried to kiss a female passenger and attempted to get into her apartment. A true background check would have told Uber about his SPD firing, thus preventing the entire incident in the first place.
---Computer system problems continue to plague Yellow. There has been explorations and presentations with and by other companies but isn't the real question here is why did Yellow commit to something without first fully understanding whether it would successfully operate trouble free? At least this time they are allowing operator input. That of course is a great stride forward. We will see if collective decision making really works.
There is more but my short nap on the flight back up to Seattle was only a band aide, time for more serous sleep on a sunny May afternoon. Happy Friday the 13th everyone. Watch out for Judas and his glad hand, waiting for that bag of silver.which just might be a bad bargain in the long term. Do we really need two thousand more years of distorted mythology? I don't think so!
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Coffee At 26th & Dolores
Greetings from San Francisco, having caught a 6:10 AM flight from Seattle. Sitting here in a local coffee shop, I am in a very familiar state of taxi exhaustion, having slept a total of about 20 hours the past four days. Ostensibly I am here to visit San Francisco Yellow taxi, hoping to have met with the board but that isn't going to happen. Instead tomorrow I'll be picked up by a taxi buddy and be shown around Yellow. One fact I have leaned about taxi, at least here in the United States, is their inability to understand what is happening and what might be and is important, not understanding priorities. And the reason for this? Well, that is something I will leave for a much later date but I will say it is the same reason we have been decimated by Uber and Lyft. Not only are we in trouble now, we as an industry have been "residing in confusion" ever since my first real introduction back in 1987. I say first because my father, back in 1969, having totally sabotaged his teaching career, began driving taxi in Denver, Colorado, and everything he told me about Denver taxi has been confirmed by Seattle and then some, so why should I expect San Francisco in 2016 to be any different? I don't but it does appear to be different in Austin, Texas, given the municipal government's support for the industry, refusing to take any nonsense from Uber and Lyft. One positive in Seattle are new cab stands, even one newly situated next to the recently opened Capital Hill light-rail station. It took too many years for the new stands to be installed but when you are treated like beggars you expect bread crumbs and little else.
Hansel and Gretel took a long walk in an urban forest
unfortunately getting very lost, the city sweeping their bread
crumbs away,with the mayor, a local witch, telling them who is
boss, insinuating that if you don't obey, that just like Jesus,
you will be nailed to a cross you will pay for daily,
and twice that rate on Sunday, and certainly, my children,
no complaints of any kind or way,
because I am disregarding, and don't you forget it,
anything you might
have to
say.
Hansel and Gretel took a long walk in an urban forest
unfortunately getting very lost, the city sweeping their bread
crumbs away,with the mayor, a local witch, telling them who is
boss, insinuating that if you don't obey, that just like Jesus,
you will be nailed to a cross you will pay for daily,
and twice that rate on Sunday, and certainly, my children,
no complaints of any kind or way,
because I am disregarding, and don't you forget it,
anything you might
have to
say.
Thursday, May 5, 2016
The Bane of Denial---An American Ethos
During last week's operator and management meeting, I heard a flurry of denials from both sides, making or believing statements not completely reality based. That got me to thinking about how commonplace denial has become, seemingly now an essential part of our cultural dialogue. And related to that thought, just how did we arrive to this greater societal agreement, replacing fact with denial and obfuscation, collectively condoning what should be unacceptable? A quick examination verifies what now should be obvious.
Everyday new discoveries of dinosaur fossils dating from millions of years ago tell us how life was formed yet many around our planet hold beliefs saying everything was instead created in a mere 7 days, namely in a universal minute. Of course many other associated myths connected to that notion sprout up, further entangling the mind. While these kinds of refusals might be the ultimate denial of our shared reality, it is only foundational--- begetting other kinds of more mundane denials of what is right in front of our noses.
Denial has become so popular that even criminals who clearly have committed an offense are both allowed and encouraged to plea not guilty even though irrefutable evidence exists that they did do what they shouldn't have. And if you are someone who is clearly mentally ill, the accused might be found not guilty by reason of insanity even when it is obvious that the defendant instead should be found guilty because they are truly mad, their cognitive situation being the reason the action, be it murder etc, occurred. In these cases, the denial is twofold in that someone is seen both not culpable and innocent for what they did. There is true cause, it exists, so why deny it?
Another commonplace associated denial is that prosecutors will say that the person is not nuts when clearly they are, the only interest being a guilty verdict and not justice. If prevalent denial weren't in play, everyone would and could admit to what is truly obvious and known.
Adding fuel to the denial fire is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump who both denies functional reality and his own lack of presidential resume. Of course I can, he says, and millions of fellow deniers agree with him, a conspiracy of the blind leading the blind down a dead end constitutional alley.
Referring back to the driver meeting, more than one board member said that problems with our current computer dispatch system occurs only 2 percent total out of an entire operational year, repeatedly giving us the figure of 98 percent efficiency when none of them have spent a minute this year or last sitting in a taxi staring, like we have, at a dead computer. There is denial and then there is denial, swallowed whole by crocodiles swimming in the River Nile.
There were also statements made about levels of business and account activity while simultaneously not knowing that weekly HopeLink account availability hours have been slashed by 96 hours out of a potential 168, leaving a mere 72 account hours left. This kind of denial then only adds to driver frustration which logically leads to irrational shouting and screaming, one tied to the other.
On the driver side, their primary denial were obvious costs and financial obligations PSD sustains weekly. That is why I asked for financial records to be released and presented, allowing us to understand why a $180.00 weekly dispatch fee remains necessary.
If PSD wants all of us to keep paying at the current rate, proof is required. Isn't anything short of that just another kind of denial, saying regardless of anything---declining business, reduction in supervisor and cashier hours--- we must keep paying what was paid prior to Uber and Lyft entry into our market?
As I have said, there you have it, denial our reliable friend, forever backing questionable contentions. Is truth and clarity better? What can't be denied is that most deny those alternatives. Try denying that?!
Everyday new discoveries of dinosaur fossils dating from millions of years ago tell us how life was formed yet many around our planet hold beliefs saying everything was instead created in a mere 7 days, namely in a universal minute. Of course many other associated myths connected to that notion sprout up, further entangling the mind. While these kinds of refusals might be the ultimate denial of our shared reality, it is only foundational--- begetting other kinds of more mundane denials of what is right in front of our noses.
Denial has become so popular that even criminals who clearly have committed an offense are both allowed and encouraged to plea not guilty even though irrefutable evidence exists that they did do what they shouldn't have. And if you are someone who is clearly mentally ill, the accused might be found not guilty by reason of insanity even when it is obvious that the defendant instead should be found guilty because they are truly mad, their cognitive situation being the reason the action, be it murder etc, occurred. In these cases, the denial is twofold in that someone is seen both not culpable and innocent for what they did. There is true cause, it exists, so why deny it?
Another commonplace associated denial is that prosecutors will say that the person is not nuts when clearly they are, the only interest being a guilty verdict and not justice. If prevalent denial weren't in play, everyone would and could admit to what is truly obvious and known.
Adding fuel to the denial fire is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump who both denies functional reality and his own lack of presidential resume. Of course I can, he says, and millions of fellow deniers agree with him, a conspiracy of the blind leading the blind down a dead end constitutional alley.
Referring back to the driver meeting, more than one board member said that problems with our current computer dispatch system occurs only 2 percent total out of an entire operational year, repeatedly giving us the figure of 98 percent efficiency when none of them have spent a minute this year or last sitting in a taxi staring, like we have, at a dead computer. There is denial and then there is denial, swallowed whole by crocodiles swimming in the River Nile.
There were also statements made about levels of business and account activity while simultaneously not knowing that weekly HopeLink account availability hours have been slashed by 96 hours out of a potential 168, leaving a mere 72 account hours left. This kind of denial then only adds to driver frustration which logically leads to irrational shouting and screaming, one tied to the other.
On the driver side, their primary denial were obvious costs and financial obligations PSD sustains weekly. That is why I asked for financial records to be released and presented, allowing us to understand why a $180.00 weekly dispatch fee remains necessary.
If PSD wants all of us to keep paying at the current rate, proof is required. Isn't anything short of that just another kind of denial, saying regardless of anything---declining business, reduction in supervisor and cashier hours--- we must keep paying what was paid prior to Uber and Lyft entry into our market?
As I have said, there you have it, denial our reliable friend, forever backing questionable contentions. Is truth and clarity better? What can't be denied is that most deny those alternatives. Try denying that?!
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Failure To Gain Consensus
Yesterday's failed meeting between Yellow Taxi association operators and its board of directors is all about history and unmet expectations and grievances. It is not coincidental that the chief complainants is that new group of operators now leasing individual medallions, a group that before now, were ultimately powerless to influence association policy. Like the newly emancipated slave, they now want their equal rights, demanding an instantaneous recognition heretofore unachievable.
While that emotion is understandable, it fails to understand that all of us in Seattle's taxi industry have labored under a false hierarchy and power structure created and maintained solely by Seattle and King County regulators. By limiting the number of medallions, this artificial shortage allowed a class structure of have and have-nots to be created. That the individuals profiting from this system are reluctant to retreat from what has been, until recently, an enviable "gravy train" is understandable and part of America's inherent economic system. It is simple supply and demand. In the past I have paid as little as $75.00 a month for an apartment in Seattle, and unbelievably, $29,000 for my first home in the Capital Hill neighborhood. As everyone knows, those prices are long-gone, never to return.
Returning to the meeting, it started off badly when it was postponed from 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM. Having to attend to some business concerning my cab, I missed the near riot and the calling of the police. By the time we were all assembled in a small room, I clearly saw that, at least for this day, we would not be making much progress. A list of demands were presented, including an unrealistic request to reduce the weekly dispatch lease payment from $180.00 to $80.00. I can say that I did not participate in earlier operator meetings, which probably was a mistake. I did tell one colleague prior to the meeting that the discount requested was too large, and would be met with disdainful resistance.
And surprise, surprise, that is exactly was happened. From there it was a downhill degeneration, with misunderstanding and some shouting taking over. Where we proceed from here is any one's guess.
Even with time constraints, I will attempt to make more of future planning sessions. It would be a mistake to repeat yesterday's fiasco. There isn't any point. While long-term resolution is necessary, what occurred yesterday is counter-productive. It is simply back to the revolution drawing board and hopefully we will all come up with a better blueprint, remembering never to get the police involved again in our affairs, their involvement certainly beyond sense and necessity.
While that emotion is understandable, it fails to understand that all of us in Seattle's taxi industry have labored under a false hierarchy and power structure created and maintained solely by Seattle and King County regulators. By limiting the number of medallions, this artificial shortage allowed a class structure of have and have-nots to be created. That the individuals profiting from this system are reluctant to retreat from what has been, until recently, an enviable "gravy train" is understandable and part of America's inherent economic system. It is simple supply and demand. In the past I have paid as little as $75.00 a month for an apartment in Seattle, and unbelievably, $29,000 for my first home in the Capital Hill neighborhood. As everyone knows, those prices are long-gone, never to return.
Returning to the meeting, it started off badly when it was postponed from 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM. Having to attend to some business concerning my cab, I missed the near riot and the calling of the police. By the time we were all assembled in a small room, I clearly saw that, at least for this day, we would not be making much progress. A list of demands were presented, including an unrealistic request to reduce the weekly dispatch lease payment from $180.00 to $80.00. I can say that I did not participate in earlier operator meetings, which probably was a mistake. I did tell one colleague prior to the meeting that the discount requested was too large, and would be met with disdainful resistance.
And surprise, surprise, that is exactly was happened. From there it was a downhill degeneration, with misunderstanding and some shouting taking over. Where we proceed from here is any one's guess.
Even with time constraints, I will attempt to make more of future planning sessions. It would be a mistake to repeat yesterday's fiasco. There isn't any point. While long-term resolution is necessary, what occurred yesterday is counter-productive. It is simply back to the revolution drawing board and hopefully we will all come up with a better blueprint, remembering never to get the police involved again in our affairs, their involvement certainly beyond sense and necessity.
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
For The Next Few Weeks, Taxi Brevity Will Be The Usual
Last week's post took me over the course of four days to write and correct. Given that, six months after my return from Europe, my new book remains unfinished, I have to reset priorities and give most of my spare time to completion. For those of you who wish I was less verbose, your wish, at least over the short term, has been granted. While I could go back to school, obtain the necessary degrees and start a private therapy (psychology) practise I am still remaining focused of my writing getting me permanently out of taxi. I am also putting together a push toward the creation of a political ad agency, given my obvious interest in all things political. Even if that goes forward, my primary purpose there is to make enough money to write full time minus all distractions. Writing and reading and farming remains the goal I am aiming for this probably last quarter of my life. Yes, being in reasonable health allows me various options but being 62 signals to me it is now or never if I am going to fully live the life I want and desire. Being a good cabby just isn't enough justification to continue on my present course. All the big tips coming my way expresses my passenger's gratitude for efficiency but the time is now for me to change and I am getting closer to my taxi exit. I have done my taxi time. It is that simple, past due for my final release.
Before closing today, I want to provide two amazing examples of "taxi synchronicity" plus news that a big taxi meeting will be occurring tomorrow at Yellow, Wednesday April 27th, 2016. Since I was elected by a committee of drivers to attend, I will be there. Drivers representing County and Sea-Tac operators will be there in additional to folks from Teamsters 117. As I have been saying, finally, given the huge decline in business, my fellow cabbies now realize their very survival is at stake. I personally believe ultimately we will be okay but the struggle has begun, and just where and how it will end I don't know. I truly appreciate that a large group of drivers have taken the initiative to organize and proceed forward. It is a great sign of better things to come.
And upon the amazing and astonishing magical occurrences I sometimes experience, I give two "cases-in-point," one relatively simple, the other more inter-connected and complex. More than once I have relayed examples of how my last ride of the night very often takes me in the direction home, unexplainable synchronicity at work. This more of that type of thing.
Sunday night I wanted to wash my car at the car wash located next to the Uncle Ike's Marijuana store, Ike's of course handing out free ten dollar car wash cards upon the delivery of yet another "weed" fiend. Dropping off at a club on 1st Avenue South, 3 women jump in for what is my last fare of the weekend, and where did they go? Incredibly, 21st and East Union, a mere two blocks from the car wash! How in the world did that happen?
The other more complicated series of sequences began last Monday afternoon, 4/18/2016 at about 4:15 PM. Belled into the 7th Avenue PolyClinic, another Yellow stole my fare but the clinic said, here, take this guy, he needs a cab. I clearly ask the Vietnamese man just how was he was paying, understanding he could be some kind of account fare. Cash, are you paying cash, I asked. Yes, he clearly responded. It turns out he has hearing issues.
23 dollars later and now on south Beacon Hill I find out he is indeed a HopeLink client. We worked out a deal that he would pay me in cash and I would do my best to get the authorization number and then return him his money. That is how it worked out, and on Saturday afternoon I made it back to his house on the 8600 thousand block of Beacon Avenue South, giving Tan back his money. We shook hands, with everyone happy with the outcome.
Fast forward to now 2:30 AM Sunday morning and a couple flags me on Capital Hill, taking me back to an address directly next to Tan's. And the fare? You guessed it, 23 dollars! Amazing and amazing, the taxi universe rewarding the honest cabby!
It is obvious that life remains mysterious. Welcome again to taxi as I know it, in all its nuances and twists and turns across our known and unknown earth.
Before closing today, I want to provide two amazing examples of "taxi synchronicity" plus news that a big taxi meeting will be occurring tomorrow at Yellow, Wednesday April 27th, 2016. Since I was elected by a committee of drivers to attend, I will be there. Drivers representing County and Sea-Tac operators will be there in additional to folks from Teamsters 117. As I have been saying, finally, given the huge decline in business, my fellow cabbies now realize their very survival is at stake. I personally believe ultimately we will be okay but the struggle has begun, and just where and how it will end I don't know. I truly appreciate that a large group of drivers have taken the initiative to organize and proceed forward. It is a great sign of better things to come.
And upon the amazing and astonishing magical occurrences I sometimes experience, I give two "cases-in-point," one relatively simple, the other more inter-connected and complex. More than once I have relayed examples of how my last ride of the night very often takes me in the direction home, unexplainable synchronicity at work. This more of that type of thing.
Sunday night I wanted to wash my car at the car wash located next to the Uncle Ike's Marijuana store, Ike's of course handing out free ten dollar car wash cards upon the delivery of yet another "weed" fiend. Dropping off at a club on 1st Avenue South, 3 women jump in for what is my last fare of the weekend, and where did they go? Incredibly, 21st and East Union, a mere two blocks from the car wash! How in the world did that happen?
The other more complicated series of sequences began last Monday afternoon, 4/18/2016 at about 4:15 PM. Belled into the 7th Avenue PolyClinic, another Yellow stole my fare but the clinic said, here, take this guy, he needs a cab. I clearly ask the Vietnamese man just how was he was paying, understanding he could be some kind of account fare. Cash, are you paying cash, I asked. Yes, he clearly responded. It turns out he has hearing issues.
23 dollars later and now on south Beacon Hill I find out he is indeed a HopeLink client. We worked out a deal that he would pay me in cash and I would do my best to get the authorization number and then return him his money. That is how it worked out, and on Saturday afternoon I made it back to his house on the 8600 thousand block of Beacon Avenue South, giving Tan back his money. We shook hands, with everyone happy with the outcome.
Fast forward to now 2:30 AM Sunday morning and a couple flags me on Capital Hill, taking me back to an address directly next to Tan's. And the fare? You guessed it, 23 dollars! Amazing and amazing, the taxi universe rewarding the honest cabby!
It is obvious that life remains mysterious. Welcome again to taxi as I know it, in all its nuances and twists and turns across our known and unknown earth.
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Why Don't We Just Teach People How To Drive A Car? & Immersion Into The Boiling Pot: Dispatching Learning Curve
"We live in an age in which the autonomous individual is ceasing to exist---or perhaps one ought to say, in which the individual is ceasing to have the illusion of being autonomous."
George Orwell, from the 1941 essay "Literature and Totalitarianism," from the collection "My Country Right or Left, 1940-1943"
This past weekend, talking to a couple of taxi buddies, Loon and Ted, both separately mentioned the issue of autonomous or self-driving cars and how they might or will affect us, we the erstwhile cab driving cabbies. Both felt that the advent of such transportation was nigh, Ted saying he expected to see them operational in a mere five years.
During both conversations I voiced skepticism that the United States was anywhere close to that kind of driving revolution, and an article by Mike Monticello in the May 2016 edition of "Consumer Reports, "The State of the Self-Driving Car," pretty much backing my contention. Speaking to Loon, I said that we were at least 20 years away, and probably much further than that, if ever, before these cars become more than theoretical discussion.
What I told Ted, and I believe to be totally true, is that the "self-driving car" scenario has been intentionally inserted in the cultural conversation by those who will profit from this so-called positive technological innovation. If you think I am buying into yet another conspiracy theory, consider this quote from the article's introductory pages:
"Google isn't looking to become a car manufacturer, though. Rather, the online-search company wants its software to be the electronic brains of cars built by established automakers."
This concept and approach might sound to familiar to us who are confronting Uber and Lyft, companies utilizing technology that is used by other others, thus reducing risk while enhancing maximum profits. While never saying there aren't some well intentioned individuals at Google and other companies, I say it is a wrong-headed approach because self-driving cars takes away responsibility and autonomy (and accountability) from the individual, transferring it to technology instead of teaching people to be functional and skillful drivers.
The attitude being preached is that humans are fallible, will always remain fallible, and since the human species is hopeless, let technology save the dumbbells from themselves. It is the "why-chop-with-a-knife" philosophy when instead you can now use a food processor? Why tire your brain (and hands) when technology can do the work for you? Yes, why copulate when you can alternatively impregnate your wife utilizing a sperm bank, even using your own sperm? You like that technological solution? I bet not!
Another quote succinctly spells this out, saying that the human species are a hopeless lot, and only technological intervention will save us from ourselves:
"We have 1.2 million people killed worldwide, 33,000 killed in the US per year; that's incredible," says Google's Chris Urmson. "The 33,000 number is comparable to a 737 falling out of the sky almost five days a week, which would be completely unacceptable in air travel."
Urmson should have added that annually worldwide 50 million are also injured in car accidents. No one, and certainly not me, will deny that American roadways are insanely dangerous due to incautious driving. As I have said to passengers many times before, "The only terrorists I meet are on the roadways, trying to kill you and me and everyone else." But, isn't the real question posed is just why IS this current reality, and can anything be done to alter what is occurring on America's highways?
To me the answer is fairly simple. As in any task, one must be fully trained and prepared before you are deemed ready. If you are going to be a physician, you are facing a minimum of five to seven and even more years of intense medical training. Another example is the budding concert pianist who usually starts playing the piano during early childhood, and maybe, just maybe, once reaching their mid-twenties, completely ready for Liszt and and the concert stage.
But to drive a car in the United States most people receive maybe 20-40 hours of actual road training ( if that) before taking simple written tests and perhaps a 15-30 minutes road test which then allows them to enter the most dangerous man-made environment the world has ever known save active warfare, but statistics say driving is even more hazardous than bombs exploding round your head. Nice thought, isn't it?
That 33,000 driving death figure is in fact a vast improvement, the USA once averaging 40-50 thousand auto-related deaths annually. During the Korean War, America suffered over 23,000 deaths during a three-year span. Over the 15-year span of the Vietnam War, America lost 55,000 plus soldiers. So let us begin doing some simple math. 2 times 33,000 is 66,000. 4 times 33,000 is 132,000. 10 times 33,000 is 660,000, which more or less matches the total deaths occurring during the American Civil War, 1861-1865.
Given these horrific figures, why has American high school driving training been eliminated from most school districts? Why is driving treated as just another simplistic task equal to walking down the sidewalk? You can see why none of this making little if any sense. If you thought all this loss of life was something that needed to be addressed, logic dictates society would be doing everything necessary to end the crisis. Billions have been put toward cancer research but only mere hours are given to individual driver training. Is this either reasonable or sane? I would say not.
So what is interesting is that instead of taking the relatively cheap option of training all potential drivers properly, instead we have all this talk of a very complicated technological change that will cost untold billions to create and bring into reality. The required 3D mapping will take decades to complete. And why is 3D mapping necessary?
Instead of me providing the answer, I suggest that everyone do the proper research and reading before repeating the now popular mantra, "We will all be in self-driving cars soon!" What happens if the American electricity grid fails?. Or all those orbiting GPS satellites fall out of the sky? And onto your soft heads!
Why, I ask, does everyone think that our current infrastructure is lasting and sustainable? Has anyone given this serous thought? Knowing the human animal like I do, I strongly doubt it. Why think when you can instead dream of yet another magical technological solution to brighten your future day, thinking requiring effort while dreaming is easy. All you have to do is go to sleep. Would you like a pillow? Just please remember to place it beneath your head and not upon your face and nose, breathing one unavoidable necessity.
And the reason I quote Orwell should be obvious, having warned in his writings about people either being fooled by prevailing authority, or even worse, willingly giving up their personal autonomy by cooperating with the cultural status quo, be that 1930s Soviet Union, Nazi Germany or in the United States 2016. I am currently reading a book that talks much about societal failure, "A Brief Stopover On The Way From Auschwitz," by the Swedish writer, Goran Rosenberg. I will be buying copies to give to friends. Going along then isn't always the best choice. And that of course is a mild understatement.
Immersion: Yellow's New Call Center---Dealing with the Ding-Dong Cabby
Frustration is clearly the best word to describe the Las Vegas call center's initial introduction into the ever chaotic world that is Seattle taxi. Having personally dealt with a dispatcher's over reaction on Monday afternoon, it is evident, after talking to two call center supervisors, that they feel desperate dealing with a large percentage of feral cabbies who just won't do the simplest of taxi tasks: making sure they get the passenger into the taxi.
I know it sounds strange but too many drivers fail to do the obvious like calling the passenger or, if the pickup is a house, to get their lazy butt out of the cab and knock upon the door. Why they do this is sometimes puzzling to the outsider but an explanation, or a series of reasons, at least of a kind, does exist. While not justifying a driver's stupid and truly self-defeating behavior, they do have their reasons however inane or distorted or illogical they might be.
The biggest number one reason these individuals fail to pickup the passenger is that they are not taxi drivers at all but only posing, pretending to be what they are not. Even the most dedicated cabby is someone who would rather be doing something else. The daily stress alone is enough to kill the average elephant so when someone is inserted beneath the top-light minus a second of real training and orientation you get what Las Vegas has discovered---a species of worker insolent, ill-tempered and rude. And given this very bad beginning, they develop contradictory habits that only become more entrenched as each taxi year slogs by.
Furthering worsening their attitude is the current deterioration of business, especially easy business, the kind served up upon the taxi platter at the train station. Why go out and hunt for your next customer when instead you can stand around, gossip with your cabby cronies, and then reluctantly get back into the cab, doing everyone the huge favor by pulling forward and picking up the waiting passengers?
I will say that in today's ever more competitive business environment, even after having a good attitude and working hard hunting down that next fare, there is no sure guarantee of success. Last Saturday morning I went a full THREE hours without a fare, the first time ever that has happened in nearly 29 years plying the streets.
And since I do know what I am doing, you can guess what happens to the taxi rookie. They go absolutely nuts, and in their panic, driving dispatch, as I said, to extreme frustration, not understanding why these guys are constantly screwing up what, as I said, is the relative simple business of getting the passenger into the cab. But, as I said a few sentences earlier, over-reaction will only inflame what is occurring, making the sulky cabby even less responsive, if that can be imagined!
Current dispatch response in part has been to either send out threatening messages to the perceived recalcitrant taxi fleet, or in some cases, actually de-authorize drivers 30 minutes off the dispatch system. I advised instead that both Yellow and Las Vegas explore what legal options exist before proceeding even further down a questionable path.
Of course I have suggested to Yellow more times than I can remember to please clarify what they legally can and cannot do when working with independent contractors who clearly ARE NOT in any way, shape or form, employees. That Yellow has never done this says much about the failures centered around the City of Seattle mandated association system.
And if you think the City of Seattle is interested in finding solutions, you are fantasizing because Seattle's City Council, in all of its lack of wisdom, has eliminated almost all "hands-on" training. While the previous training efforts were deplorable, what is left is insane, putting drivers out there who cannot find 38th and East Olive. I know this because this past Saturday a Fremont Olympic doorman personally walked up to my taxi and asked, "Do you know how to get to this address?" after the Farwest cabby gave up, this after the out-of-town passengers told him they had no idea how to get there.
Las Vegas has both the City of Seattle, King County and Yellow to thank for the mess they have been given. But corporal punishment is not the answer. I might have some solutions but will anyone truly cooperate? Stay tuned, as I often say. It would be great to have some kind of resolution before January 2017, and that my friends, might be wildly optimistic.
Gunter Grass poem
Since I have been writing about perceived realities I will end with this incredible statement by the author of "The Tin Drum."
In The Egg (German title---Im Ei)
We live in the egg.
We have covered the inside wall
of the shell with dirty drawings
and the Christian names of our enemies.
We are being hatched.
Whoever is hatching us
is hatching our pencils as well.
Set free from the egg one day
at once we shall draw a picture
of whoever is hatching us.
We assume that we're being hatched.
We imagine some good-natured fowl
and write school essays
about the color and breed
of the hen that is hatching us.
When shall we break the shell?
Our prophets inside the egg
for a middling salary argue
about the period of incubation.
They posit a day called X.
Out of boredom and genuine need
we have invented incubators.
We are much concerned about our offspring inside the egg.
We should be glad to recommend our patent
to her who looks after us.
But we have a roof over our heads.
Senile chicks,
polyglot embryos
chatter all day
and even discuss their dreams.
And what if we're not being hatched?
If this shell will never break?
If our horizon is only that
of our scribbles, and always will be?
We hope that we're being hatched.
Even if we only talk of hatching
there remains the fear that someone
outside our shell will feel hungry
and crack us into the frying pan with a pinch of salt.
What shall we do then, my brethren inside the egg?
______________________________________________
from the German translation by Michael Hamburger,
taken from "20th Century German Poetry, An Anthology,"
edited by Michael Hofmann,
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
2005
George Orwell, from the 1941 essay "Literature and Totalitarianism," from the collection "My Country Right or Left, 1940-1943"
This past weekend, talking to a couple of taxi buddies, Loon and Ted, both separately mentioned the issue of autonomous or self-driving cars and how they might or will affect us, we the erstwhile cab driving cabbies. Both felt that the advent of such transportation was nigh, Ted saying he expected to see them operational in a mere five years.
During both conversations I voiced skepticism that the United States was anywhere close to that kind of driving revolution, and an article by Mike Monticello in the May 2016 edition of "Consumer Reports, "The State of the Self-Driving Car," pretty much backing my contention. Speaking to Loon, I said that we were at least 20 years away, and probably much further than that, if ever, before these cars become more than theoretical discussion.
What I told Ted, and I believe to be totally true, is that the "self-driving car" scenario has been intentionally inserted in the cultural conversation by those who will profit from this so-called positive technological innovation. If you think I am buying into yet another conspiracy theory, consider this quote from the article's introductory pages:
"Google isn't looking to become a car manufacturer, though. Rather, the online-search company wants its software to be the electronic brains of cars built by established automakers."
This concept and approach might sound to familiar to us who are confronting Uber and Lyft, companies utilizing technology that is used by other others, thus reducing risk while enhancing maximum profits. While never saying there aren't some well intentioned individuals at Google and other companies, I say it is a wrong-headed approach because self-driving cars takes away responsibility and autonomy (and accountability) from the individual, transferring it to technology instead of teaching people to be functional and skillful drivers.
The attitude being preached is that humans are fallible, will always remain fallible, and since the human species is hopeless, let technology save the dumbbells from themselves. It is the "why-chop-with-a-knife" philosophy when instead you can now use a food processor? Why tire your brain (and hands) when technology can do the work for you? Yes, why copulate when you can alternatively impregnate your wife utilizing a sperm bank, even using your own sperm? You like that technological solution? I bet not!
Another quote succinctly spells this out, saying that the human species are a hopeless lot, and only technological intervention will save us from ourselves:
"We have 1.2 million people killed worldwide, 33,000 killed in the US per year; that's incredible," says Google's Chris Urmson. "The 33,000 number is comparable to a 737 falling out of the sky almost five days a week, which would be completely unacceptable in air travel."
Urmson should have added that annually worldwide 50 million are also injured in car accidents. No one, and certainly not me, will deny that American roadways are insanely dangerous due to incautious driving. As I have said to passengers many times before, "The only terrorists I meet are on the roadways, trying to kill you and me and everyone else." But, isn't the real question posed is just why IS this current reality, and can anything be done to alter what is occurring on America's highways?
To me the answer is fairly simple. As in any task, one must be fully trained and prepared before you are deemed ready. If you are going to be a physician, you are facing a minimum of five to seven and even more years of intense medical training. Another example is the budding concert pianist who usually starts playing the piano during early childhood, and maybe, just maybe, once reaching their mid-twenties, completely ready for Liszt and and the concert stage.
But to drive a car in the United States most people receive maybe 20-40 hours of actual road training ( if that) before taking simple written tests and perhaps a 15-30 minutes road test which then allows them to enter the most dangerous man-made environment the world has ever known save active warfare, but statistics say driving is even more hazardous than bombs exploding round your head. Nice thought, isn't it?
That 33,000 driving death figure is in fact a vast improvement, the USA once averaging 40-50 thousand auto-related deaths annually. During the Korean War, America suffered over 23,000 deaths during a three-year span. Over the 15-year span of the Vietnam War, America lost 55,000 plus soldiers. So let us begin doing some simple math. 2 times 33,000 is 66,000. 4 times 33,000 is 132,000. 10 times 33,000 is 660,000, which more or less matches the total deaths occurring during the American Civil War, 1861-1865.
Given these horrific figures, why has American high school driving training been eliminated from most school districts? Why is driving treated as just another simplistic task equal to walking down the sidewalk? You can see why none of this making little if any sense. If you thought all this loss of life was something that needed to be addressed, logic dictates society would be doing everything necessary to end the crisis. Billions have been put toward cancer research but only mere hours are given to individual driver training. Is this either reasonable or sane? I would say not.
So what is interesting is that instead of taking the relatively cheap option of training all potential drivers properly, instead we have all this talk of a very complicated technological change that will cost untold billions to create and bring into reality. The required 3D mapping will take decades to complete. And why is 3D mapping necessary?
Instead of me providing the answer, I suggest that everyone do the proper research and reading before repeating the now popular mantra, "We will all be in self-driving cars soon!" What happens if the American electricity grid fails?. Or all those orbiting GPS satellites fall out of the sky? And onto your soft heads!
Why, I ask, does everyone think that our current infrastructure is lasting and sustainable? Has anyone given this serous thought? Knowing the human animal like I do, I strongly doubt it. Why think when you can instead dream of yet another magical technological solution to brighten your future day, thinking requiring effort while dreaming is easy. All you have to do is go to sleep. Would you like a pillow? Just please remember to place it beneath your head and not upon your face and nose, breathing one unavoidable necessity.
And the reason I quote Orwell should be obvious, having warned in his writings about people either being fooled by prevailing authority, or even worse, willingly giving up their personal autonomy by cooperating with the cultural status quo, be that 1930s Soviet Union, Nazi Germany or in the United States 2016. I am currently reading a book that talks much about societal failure, "A Brief Stopover On The Way From Auschwitz," by the Swedish writer, Goran Rosenberg. I will be buying copies to give to friends. Going along then isn't always the best choice. And that of course is a mild understatement.
Immersion: Yellow's New Call Center---Dealing with the Ding-Dong Cabby
Frustration is clearly the best word to describe the Las Vegas call center's initial introduction into the ever chaotic world that is Seattle taxi. Having personally dealt with a dispatcher's over reaction on Monday afternoon, it is evident, after talking to two call center supervisors, that they feel desperate dealing with a large percentage of feral cabbies who just won't do the simplest of taxi tasks: making sure they get the passenger into the taxi.
I know it sounds strange but too many drivers fail to do the obvious like calling the passenger or, if the pickup is a house, to get their lazy butt out of the cab and knock upon the door. Why they do this is sometimes puzzling to the outsider but an explanation, or a series of reasons, at least of a kind, does exist. While not justifying a driver's stupid and truly self-defeating behavior, they do have their reasons however inane or distorted or illogical they might be.
The biggest number one reason these individuals fail to pickup the passenger is that they are not taxi drivers at all but only posing, pretending to be what they are not. Even the most dedicated cabby is someone who would rather be doing something else. The daily stress alone is enough to kill the average elephant so when someone is inserted beneath the top-light minus a second of real training and orientation you get what Las Vegas has discovered---a species of worker insolent, ill-tempered and rude. And given this very bad beginning, they develop contradictory habits that only become more entrenched as each taxi year slogs by.
Furthering worsening their attitude is the current deterioration of business, especially easy business, the kind served up upon the taxi platter at the train station. Why go out and hunt for your next customer when instead you can stand around, gossip with your cabby cronies, and then reluctantly get back into the cab, doing everyone the huge favor by pulling forward and picking up the waiting passengers?
I will say that in today's ever more competitive business environment, even after having a good attitude and working hard hunting down that next fare, there is no sure guarantee of success. Last Saturday morning I went a full THREE hours without a fare, the first time ever that has happened in nearly 29 years plying the streets.
And since I do know what I am doing, you can guess what happens to the taxi rookie. They go absolutely nuts, and in their panic, driving dispatch, as I said, to extreme frustration, not understanding why these guys are constantly screwing up what, as I said, is the relative simple business of getting the passenger into the cab. But, as I said a few sentences earlier, over-reaction will only inflame what is occurring, making the sulky cabby even less responsive, if that can be imagined!
Current dispatch response in part has been to either send out threatening messages to the perceived recalcitrant taxi fleet, or in some cases, actually de-authorize drivers 30 minutes off the dispatch system. I advised instead that both Yellow and Las Vegas explore what legal options exist before proceeding even further down a questionable path.
Of course I have suggested to Yellow more times than I can remember to please clarify what they legally can and cannot do when working with independent contractors who clearly ARE NOT in any way, shape or form, employees. That Yellow has never done this says much about the failures centered around the City of Seattle mandated association system.
And if you think the City of Seattle is interested in finding solutions, you are fantasizing because Seattle's City Council, in all of its lack of wisdom, has eliminated almost all "hands-on" training. While the previous training efforts were deplorable, what is left is insane, putting drivers out there who cannot find 38th and East Olive. I know this because this past Saturday a Fremont Olympic doorman personally walked up to my taxi and asked, "Do you know how to get to this address?" after the Farwest cabby gave up, this after the out-of-town passengers told him they had no idea how to get there.
Las Vegas has both the City of Seattle, King County and Yellow to thank for the mess they have been given. But corporal punishment is not the answer. I might have some solutions but will anyone truly cooperate? Stay tuned, as I often say. It would be great to have some kind of resolution before January 2017, and that my friends, might be wildly optimistic.
Gunter Grass poem
Since I have been writing about perceived realities I will end with this incredible statement by the author of "The Tin Drum."
In The Egg (German title---Im Ei)
We live in the egg.
We have covered the inside wall
of the shell with dirty drawings
and the Christian names of our enemies.
We are being hatched.
Whoever is hatching us
is hatching our pencils as well.
Set free from the egg one day
at once we shall draw a picture
of whoever is hatching us.
We assume that we're being hatched.
We imagine some good-natured fowl
and write school essays
about the color and breed
of the hen that is hatching us.
When shall we break the shell?
Our prophets inside the egg
for a middling salary argue
about the period of incubation.
They posit a day called X.
Out of boredom and genuine need
we have invented incubators.
We are much concerned about our offspring inside the egg.
We should be glad to recommend our patent
to her who looks after us.
But we have a roof over our heads.
Senile chicks,
polyglot embryos
chatter all day
and even discuss their dreams.
And what if we're not being hatched?
If this shell will never break?
If our horizon is only that
of our scribbles, and always will be?
We hope that we're being hatched.
Even if we only talk of hatching
there remains the fear that someone
outside our shell will feel hungry
and crack us into the frying pan with a pinch of salt.
What shall we do then, my brethren inside the egg?
______________________________________________
from the German translation by Michael Hamburger,
taken from "20th Century German Poetry, An Anthology,"
edited by Michael Hofmann,
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
2005
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