"What you should do is start running as fast as you can in the opposite direction!" Larry the Mechanic
I have an announcement to make which I have very mixed emotions about. While it has been clear for a long time I have remained interested, in my small way, in making needed changes concerning the local taxi industry, I never thought (not realistically at least) I would be asked to directly contribute by entering management, but this past Monday, that is exactly what happened when I accepted the task of managing the taxi side of Seattle Yellow Cab.
Yes, whatever my job title is, be it general manager or operating manager of Yellow Fleet (formally known as the BYG Co-op), I have entered a period when Yellow is going through a time of great transition, with the request made for me to shepard the taxi lambs to greener ( dollar green) pastures. And most importantly, creating a permanent financial solvency by putting more drivers in the cabs and keeping them there for more than a few days. In short, I have been asked to put the taxi jigsaw puzzle back together again. At least it isn't Humpty-Dumpty I am trying to paste back together.
For those wondering why I was chosen, explanation one is that I have been planning, as mentioned in previous posts, to begin a comprehensive training program at Yellow, so in one sense a dialogue was already ongoing between me and Yellow Fleet. And finally, like the recent Swedish Hospital CEO change, replacing a non-physician with a very experienced doctor, Yellow decided it would be best to have a "long-in-the-tooth" cabbie in command. That fact, along with my proven track record as someone who once negotiated successfully with the State of Washington over L&I charges, is why I was asked to facilitate the repair. If everything is about money, then it was clear that I once saved everyone a bunch of money, of course endearing me to anyone paying attention to something that might have bankrupted the entire State of Washington taxi industry on the whole.
Do I think I can accomplish what at first glance seems formidable, if not impossible given both present and inherent obstacles and hurdles blocking easy and quick remedy? Yes, my answer is in the affirmative, only because, no matter how wounded Yellow might be, we still retain a very significant customer base which can be, and must be, built upon. But, as I am gaining quick understanding about Yellow Fleet's current situation, I now understand I will have to act quickly during March and April to stem the bleeding.
While the situation isn't particularly positive, it's not like it was in the past, when some mistakes and miscalculations seemed to be either intentional or systemic, more recent errors appearing due more to inexperience and a lack of coordination between Yellow Fleet and Puget Sound Dispatch than anything else. It appears that some issues can easily be put to rest, with others taking a bit more tinkering. Again, gaining ground quickly by the end of April is crucial, with the end of August telling everyone just how well, or not, we are doing collectively as a taxi association. If we are not doing well after six months, I am sure I will be chased out of town all the way down to Mexico.
And what will this effort require, making Yellow Fleet financially strong again? Coordination and cooperation from all concerned, meaning all the drivers and owners and, most importantly, the dispatch side of Yellow operations, Puget Sound Dispatch, allowing us to do what we must most urgently need to do--- creating more 24 hour, around-the-clock business. Even getting close to the old normal will help immensely. Who wants to sit hour after hour staring at the dispatch computer? No one, I can assure you of that!
It may sound obvious, and that's because it is, because at the bottom of all of Yellow's ills and problems is inconsistent business for all the cabbies out there sitting and driving around. What made Yellow so successful was our once large business and customer base. When the Blood Bank utilized Yellow as its sole courier, everyone was busy regardless of time of day and night. While it is true certain kinds of business will never return, assigned to the "Age of Taxi Dinosaurs," there are areas ripe for expansion, especially our Seattle to Sea-Tac business. If we expand our "to Sea-Tac" customer base by at least 50% from where are now, we will be more than fine. Cabbies will be smiling. I can, with a second thought, guarantee you thatwill be true.
The same scenario, once having a large and successful customer base, and seeing it diminish, can be realled by looking back to the 1980s and early 1990s version of Farwest Taxi, which at that moment was the dominate Seattle taxi association. And w hat killed Farwest?
Very poor management making bad and even worse business decisions, this occurring when a large group of arrogant owners (self-appointed know-it-alls) took over and destroyed the greatest account-based customer-base I have ever witnessed. When you're dumb, you're dumb and these guys were the taxi poster-child for unbridled idiocy. On a given noon Monday through Friday there would be 50-60 bells alone sitting downtown crying out for cabs. It was amazing. Even more amazing is how it was all destroyed over an approximate 24 month period, fools plundering the taxi pantry, efficient in their inefficiency
And just what wounded Yellow, albeit not fatally? Yes, management issues to some degree, especially in regard to not quickly adjusting to the competition provided by Uber and Lyft. At various times day and night, Uber has taken 50 to 75 % (my own rough estimate) of what once was our off-the-street and bar-break business. While the situation remains dire, we still have a good percentage of brand loyalty left, something we can and must build upon and expand. While not completely writing off the "20-something, 30-something" customer demographic, I don't see it coming back anytime soon unless Uber's investors tire of annually losing billions of dollars.
But again, I believe innovative advertising and customer outreach plus greatly improved driver professionalism will begin to bring us back to even. And I have given myself 12 months to do it, having given a year commitment and no longer. I already have in mind a few able folks who might be interested in succeeding me. Officially my duties begin March 13th, 2017.
In the meanwhile I will try to get myself oriented to the point where I won't be completely mystified come that pending second Monday in March. I also have to complete by that same March 13th my medallion change from 478 to my lottery acquired City medallion, number 1092. Yes, it is true, that unlike many folks making the transition from worker-drone to management, I will be both, making me somewhat singular in the everyday, workaday world, meaning I will see for myself if indeed we are progressing forward or not.
So, as I began, I am, and will be seeking assistance from everyone connected to Mother-ship Yellow. We are all in this together. Unlike some examples from the past 20-30 years I promise to be completely transparent and, time permitting, always personally welcoming to everyone sharing their ideas and thoughts.
Yellow Cab, being more than one or two managers and supervisors, is a viable community of real living and breathing human beings. I understand that. I recognize that. And that will always be my administrative approach during this upcoming year. If you ever think I have forgotten, please, please remind me and tell me what's what. Again, if I fall asleep, be a friendly alarm clock and wake me up. Though at times sleepy, when its time to be awake and alert, its time and that is just the way it is.
In other words, everyone, Good Morning, Seattle Yellow Taxi! drink that cup of coffee while turning on the cab. It is time to get going, having passengers to pick up and places to go. And can I say, shall we have fun in this entire process here of operating a professional cab company? I hope so, and shall we also make some money while picking up all our happy and satisfied customers?
Fantasy? I don't think so. Instead, I believe success will be our ever present and growing reality. Spring is nearly here. Pick a bunch of taxi blossoms and make a bouquet, presenting it to your passengers, pleasing them and you too, a taxi flower nodding ascent to the world.
Again, Good Morning cabbies! Good Morning! tossing out the old and welcoming the new! Good morning!
Seattle's Traffic Congestion 20th Worst On Planet Earth?
According to something called the INRIX Traffic Scorecard, Seattle's Metro-area traffic ranks 10th worst nationally and 20th overall worldwide. Astounding if true, and after spending a little more time recently on the local taxi roads, I can literally see what they are referring to. Two others ranking systems put Seattle's traffic nationally at 4th and 6th worst respectively. What no one is talking about is why, why is this truly small metropolitan area so clogged with traffic? One answer is geography, essentially locating a relatively large city amidst a mountain range. Bad, bad idea. The other is a lack of vision by city planners. Yes, they are now attempting to catch up but guess what, they are, instead, falling behind.
This reminds of a local news item from Mayor Murray decrying about the homeless situation in Seattle, calling it a true emergency that must be urgently addressed. Only problem with the mayor's concern is that he has done little to address outrageous rent increases. In the Ballard neighborhood a friend's rent increased by $900.00. a month. A recent passenger, now staying at an Aurora Avenue North motel, being in-between apartments, had his Ballard studio-apartment go from $500.00 monthly to $1200.00.
Yes, locally, the sky is falling but whose fault is it? Being dimwitted I think I know who is responsible. Or maybe I just don't know anything, having dropped out of school so long ago I can't even write my own name.
USA 2016 Traffic Deaths Increasing Over Past Years
According to new data, the United States traffic deaths for the year 2016 were 40,200 give or take a few random bodies. Yes, not only are the local Seattle and area streets more clogged, they are certainly more dangerous, driving around here becoming some deranged version of automobile dodge-ball. As I tell anyone who is interested in listening, the only terrorists I meet are my fellow motorists who are making every effort to kill me and themselves and everyone around them. Is this an exaggeration? No, it is reality, as the recent national body count shows.
Just for example, how many American soldiers were killed over the three-year long Korean War? 23,000.
And what about the Vietnam War, stretching from 1959-1975? 58,000 Americans dying for what we will never know. There have been individual years during the past three decades where up to 50,000 people have died upon America's vast roadways. While one death is too many, 40 to 50 thousand killed is far beyond acceptability.
So while the Federal Government worries about a few errant individuals you can be sure one of your fellow red-blooded Americans will soon try to kill you. But please, don't take it personally, they have places to go and things to do. They gotta move and you are just in the way. And if you are either injured or killed, that, brothers and sisters, is just how it is.
State HB 1917
Whether it will ever become law, who knows but down in Olympia, Washington's lawmakers are back at work, and one bill of interest is trying to get the fees Sea-Tac cabbie's are paying down to a $2.00 gate from the current $7.00 gate. Why this can be controlled by the State is beyond me but I for one endorse the idea because, as I have said in the past, they (the Sea-Tac cabbies) are, plain and simply, paying way too much. I have also heard of infighting between Teamsters 117 and some who are advocating for the change. What's truly up and truly down I can't tell you but once again, as the old story goes, who ultimately pays the price is the cabbie and no one else.
WA State Bill SB 5620; Just what is Uber & Lyft trying to do?
Again, the Seattle & King County taxi industry owes a great thank you to The Seattle Weekly and staff writer Sara Bernard for keeping us informed upon all items Uber and Lyft. In its Feb 15th. 2017 edition, Bernard writes about the combined Uber and Lyft effort to shift regulatory authority from the municipal and county to the State, making it even harder to get a grip upon the ever elusive Uber. That SB 5620 waters down regulations should go without saying. The taxi industry lobbyist Cindi Laws says "This is a giveaway on the magnitude of a Boeing tax giveaway." And I would agree with that, meaning SB 5620, if becoming law, would further hurt the already wounded Seattle and area taxi industry.
What I find most interesting is not Uber's efforts toward self-preservation. No, it is who is named as the primary sponsor, that being WA State Senator Curtis King, a Republican from the very rural, eastern Washington town of Yakima. As I said in an email to King, why is someone from Yakima working to promote and expand the very urban Uber? I for one think this is a very good question.
If you have any questions you would like answered, please email the good senator at curtis.king@leg.wa.gov. On his website he says he wants to hear from you. So take him at his word and tell him what you think. From what I can see, regulation of Uber and Lyft is currently abysmal. Can it get any worse? I believe it would if Uber and King have their way.
I should add that the same thing is also happening in the state of Iowa, with Republicans in control of both the State House and Senate. The sitting governor is also a Republican. Just like Senator King, his fellow Republicans in the "Hawkeye State" are attempting the same thing, writing legislation that ends municipal control.
Again, Sara, thanks for trying to keep all us sleepyhead cabbies awake. It is appreciated.
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Even The Unconscious Must Pay Their Cab Fare
It has been said that beneath human civility lies the primitive nature, a hidden animal ready to pounce and devour the unsuspecting. And in the introduction from the 1930s radio series, "The Shadow," the narrator poses the question, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?" His reply is that the "Shadow" knows. And I can now add that perhaps I too know all about it.
Taking it even further, I give you the three following quotes from Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and Eric Berne, Berne being the founder of the therapy modality I studied for three years back in 1974-77, Transactional Analysis. Here in Seattle, our TA studies, taught by my mentor Molly Johnson, were aligned with an associated psychological umbrella called Radical Therapy, Radical Therapy itself a TA offshoot founded by Dr. Claude Steiner in Berkley, California.
Back in 1976 I met the famous Steiner himself at a TA conference outside of Iowa City, Iowa. At its height our Seattle-based therapy collective had nearly 200 members including a physician I remain convinced to this day was a government informant. It was those kinds of days, Molly and her various friends and followers chased out of the state of Indiana.
Radical Therapy operational theory was that therapy is a political act, translating into that all human interaction holds a political basis or foundation. Whether true or not, that is what we were all talking about way back then during those very different of times. Ah yes, what mysteries, not to say confusion, lurks in the brains of both men and woman? Do I really want to know the answer to that question? No, I don't think so.
"The tendency of aggression is an innate independent instinctual disposition in man....it constitutes the most powerful obstacle to culture."----Sigmund Freud
"Man's task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious."----Carl Jung
"Awareness requires living in the here and now, and not in the elsewhere, the past or the future." Eric Berne
I mention all this due to a short ride from the Dock Tavern to an address a couple miles away near the intersection of North 45th & Sunnyside Avenue North, having quickly turned into an instant nightmare, with the young woman, clearly in some kind of altered state of consciousness from it seems an unfortunate combination of alcohol and drugs, first refusing to pay the eight dollars owed, then physically attacking me, both hitting me in the face and knocking off my glasses. There are many inherent lessons contained here, but most importantly for me is that I must pay attention at all times regardless of how tired I am. If perhaps I had been paying better attention I would have noticed how disconnected she was, realizing how unsuitable she was as a passenger.
I have met others like her, individuals who are "blacked out" on their feet, making it impossible to communicate in any normal way, their overall quality (and state of mind) being violent aggression melded to a childish immaturity. If you can think of a worse combination, I suggest running as fast as you can in the opposite direction. I assure you it isn't anything you want to be involved with.
My only excuse for all of this is the usual taxi exhaustion blanking my mind at a time I truly needed to think quickly, forgetting to both send message 57 indicating I had an "emergency" and not hitting the emergency button next to my knee. I truly wanted the police to respond but at that moment my telephone screen had gone blank, allowing me to accept calls but not to call out. Since the fare was small I should have just let her go but in my lack of wisdom, deciding to keep the doors locked in a misguided attempt to hold the idiot accountable.
One step I sometimes take in situations like these is to take the person back to where the fare began but again this was a bad idea because the woman was completely berserk and clearly dangerous. On the way back to the Dock I got the bright idea to ask a group of "twenty-somethings" to please call the police. To my dismay they collectively refused, not having the ability to comprehend that something quite serious was occurring, or to put it another way, were confused by the woman screaming, and grew suspicious that the horrible cabbie was going something "mean and awful" to the innocent and victimized passenger.
When it became clear they were all about to become righteous vigilantes I kept going but stopping when I came across another Yellow cabbie, telling him to call the police. While waiting there, some of the heroic "twenty-somethings" came running up, with one offering to pay the fare. Handing me a ten, I gave him back his change. Given half a chance I would have told him I would now take the young fool back to her address but he and his comrades appeared more interested in saving the day so whom am I to argue?
My only vindication is that suddenly they had her on their hands, having to deal with the unconscious zombie that she was. Given that, I am sure they all had a good time. How do you communicate with a blank wall? From my experience you simply don't, walls very poor conversationalists.
Later I found her debit card on the rear floorboard, along with a drug pipe and various cosmetics. Anyway, if there is ever a next time, I am letting the fruitcake run where ever they like. I still remember a similar case, upon getting the guy to pay me, I last saw him running down the street screaming at the "top of his lungs." But hopefully, if there is a next time, I will be more alert and never, ever let such people into my cab again. While she was attacking me I clearly pulled a muscle in my back. Oh yes, isn't taxi fun? No, I wouldn't say it is, would you?
My final comment is that the lack of assistance from the kids on the corner reminded me of that famous murder in New York City dating from March 13th, 1964, when Kitty Genovese was stabbed repeatedly by Winston Moseley while people ignored her blood curdling screams. Would they have responded if I had been repeatedly stabbed? A good question for which I have no answer for but since I didn't the time to count all those kids, I still think there were fewer than 37 of them. God lets hope so is all I can say!
Hey, if someone asks to call 911, just do it minus any attempt toward unnecessary analysis. No, heroics aren't required but commonsense certainly is. What is that? Well if you don't know I give up, tired of explaining the what should be as obvious as, is said, the nose on your face. You do know you have a nose, don't you?
Taking it even further, I give you the three following quotes from Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and Eric Berne, Berne being the founder of the therapy modality I studied for three years back in 1974-77, Transactional Analysis. Here in Seattle, our TA studies, taught by my mentor Molly Johnson, were aligned with an associated psychological umbrella called Radical Therapy, Radical Therapy itself a TA offshoot founded by Dr. Claude Steiner in Berkley, California.
Back in 1976 I met the famous Steiner himself at a TA conference outside of Iowa City, Iowa. At its height our Seattle-based therapy collective had nearly 200 members including a physician I remain convinced to this day was a government informant. It was those kinds of days, Molly and her various friends and followers chased out of the state of Indiana.
Radical Therapy operational theory was that therapy is a political act, translating into that all human interaction holds a political basis or foundation. Whether true or not, that is what we were all talking about way back then during those very different of times. Ah yes, what mysteries, not to say confusion, lurks in the brains of both men and woman? Do I really want to know the answer to that question? No, I don't think so.
"The tendency of aggression is an innate independent instinctual disposition in man....it constitutes the most powerful obstacle to culture."----Sigmund Freud
"Man's task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious."----Carl Jung
"Awareness requires living in the here and now, and not in the elsewhere, the past or the future." Eric Berne
I mention all this due to a short ride from the Dock Tavern to an address a couple miles away near the intersection of North 45th & Sunnyside Avenue North, having quickly turned into an instant nightmare, with the young woman, clearly in some kind of altered state of consciousness from it seems an unfortunate combination of alcohol and drugs, first refusing to pay the eight dollars owed, then physically attacking me, both hitting me in the face and knocking off my glasses. There are many inherent lessons contained here, but most importantly for me is that I must pay attention at all times regardless of how tired I am. If perhaps I had been paying better attention I would have noticed how disconnected she was, realizing how unsuitable she was as a passenger.
I have met others like her, individuals who are "blacked out" on their feet, making it impossible to communicate in any normal way, their overall quality (and state of mind) being violent aggression melded to a childish immaturity. If you can think of a worse combination, I suggest running as fast as you can in the opposite direction. I assure you it isn't anything you want to be involved with.
My only excuse for all of this is the usual taxi exhaustion blanking my mind at a time I truly needed to think quickly, forgetting to both send message 57 indicating I had an "emergency" and not hitting the emergency button next to my knee. I truly wanted the police to respond but at that moment my telephone screen had gone blank, allowing me to accept calls but not to call out. Since the fare was small I should have just let her go but in my lack of wisdom, deciding to keep the doors locked in a misguided attempt to hold the idiot accountable.
One step I sometimes take in situations like these is to take the person back to where the fare began but again this was a bad idea because the woman was completely berserk and clearly dangerous. On the way back to the Dock I got the bright idea to ask a group of "twenty-somethings" to please call the police. To my dismay they collectively refused, not having the ability to comprehend that something quite serious was occurring, or to put it another way, were confused by the woman screaming, and grew suspicious that the horrible cabbie was going something "mean and awful" to the innocent and victimized passenger.
When it became clear they were all about to become righteous vigilantes I kept going but stopping when I came across another Yellow cabbie, telling him to call the police. While waiting there, some of the heroic "twenty-somethings" came running up, with one offering to pay the fare. Handing me a ten, I gave him back his change. Given half a chance I would have told him I would now take the young fool back to her address but he and his comrades appeared more interested in saving the day so whom am I to argue?
My only vindication is that suddenly they had her on their hands, having to deal with the unconscious zombie that she was. Given that, I am sure they all had a good time. How do you communicate with a blank wall? From my experience you simply don't, walls very poor conversationalists.
Later I found her debit card on the rear floorboard, along with a drug pipe and various cosmetics. Anyway, if there is ever a next time, I am letting the fruitcake run where ever they like. I still remember a similar case, upon getting the guy to pay me, I last saw him running down the street screaming at the "top of his lungs." But hopefully, if there is a next time, I will be more alert and never, ever let such people into my cab again. While she was attacking me I clearly pulled a muscle in my back. Oh yes, isn't taxi fun? No, I wouldn't say it is, would you?
My final comment is that the lack of assistance from the kids on the corner reminded me of that famous murder in New York City dating from March 13th, 1964, when Kitty Genovese was stabbed repeatedly by Winston Moseley while people ignored her blood curdling screams. Would they have responded if I had been repeatedly stabbed? A good question for which I have no answer for but since I didn't the time to count all those kids, I still think there were fewer than 37 of them. God lets hope so is all I can say!
Hey, if someone asks to call 911, just do it minus any attempt toward unnecessary analysis. No, heroics aren't required but commonsense certainly is. What is that? Well if you don't know I give up, tired of explaining the what should be as obvious as, is said, the nose on your face. You do know you have a nose, don't you?
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
42 Minutes From NYC
Greetings from the great public library at 42nd & 5th, NYC. Now I just have over 40 minutes left to complete this week's posting. If not then I will have to wait a few minutes to get more time with the public computer. Leaving my laptop at home forces me to utilize other computers, similar to my last trip to Europe back in the autumn of 2015.
Let's say everything I am doing has been delayed due to the snow back in Seattle. Yes, snow! began falling on Sunday evening, and by Monday morning there were 2-3 inches, with more coming. My delay was caused by them taking over 2 hours to de-ice the airplane, meaning we left Seattle at about 10:15 AM instead of the scheduled 7:45 AM.
While a great and uneventful ride, it meant I arrived in the dark of a New York City evening, further slowing me down to my eventual arrival to my Brooklyn Bushwick neighborhood AirB&B abode, a room in a house for $118.00 total for four nights. Cheap, believe me, for staying anywhere in greater NYC.
This morning I walked around the clearly shop-worn working-class area while searching for a good cup of coffee. Finding a "Dunkin' Donuts" I joined the many others just escaping the streets for a strong espresso and cake donut.
It was fun just walking the streets, just as I have been doing here in Manhattan. Walking around I can clearly see I am suffering from boredom, Seattle's too well known streets offering me little in terms of either novelty or entertainment. Not only am I bored with taxi, Seattle too adds to the tedium of something I dearly need to say goodbye to. At this point, I require either the noise of a giant city or the compete reverse, the total quiet of birdsong and the great prairie and its open skies.
In terms of Seattle taxi news the only important item to report is the sudden resignation of Port of Seattle CEO Ted Fick, who stands accused of many things including giving himself an unreported $24.000 raise. With more time I will list the litany of items the Port Commission is unhappy with but short to say, some of the charges are disturbing, including one alleging he directed Port business contacts to his father's company.
Fick himself got my attention during the various Port hearings concerning Seattle Yellow's past Sea-Tac contract, during which he couldn't conceal his displeasure when Yellow's issues were brought up for discussion. His obvious disdain was expressed through his irritation with Port staff and what he saw as their poor accounting practises in relation to Yellow Cab's potential Sea-Tac ride-counting errors. Going back to a 17th Century Spanish proverb, it is now seems like Fick is the "pot calling the kettle black." How I love the righteously indignant, especially when it proves otherwise. Should I laugh or cry?
Upon that I have 8 minutes to do my final editing. By the way, I left the snow behind in Seattle. Here in NYC it is a spring-like 46 degrees F. God! what a world and planet!
Let's say everything I am doing has been delayed due to the snow back in Seattle. Yes, snow! began falling on Sunday evening, and by Monday morning there were 2-3 inches, with more coming. My delay was caused by them taking over 2 hours to de-ice the airplane, meaning we left Seattle at about 10:15 AM instead of the scheduled 7:45 AM.
While a great and uneventful ride, it meant I arrived in the dark of a New York City evening, further slowing me down to my eventual arrival to my Brooklyn Bushwick neighborhood AirB&B abode, a room in a house for $118.00 total for four nights. Cheap, believe me, for staying anywhere in greater NYC.
This morning I walked around the clearly shop-worn working-class area while searching for a good cup of coffee. Finding a "Dunkin' Donuts" I joined the many others just escaping the streets for a strong espresso and cake donut.
It was fun just walking the streets, just as I have been doing here in Manhattan. Walking around I can clearly see I am suffering from boredom, Seattle's too well known streets offering me little in terms of either novelty or entertainment. Not only am I bored with taxi, Seattle too adds to the tedium of something I dearly need to say goodbye to. At this point, I require either the noise of a giant city or the compete reverse, the total quiet of birdsong and the great prairie and its open skies.
In terms of Seattle taxi news the only important item to report is the sudden resignation of Port of Seattle CEO Ted Fick, who stands accused of many things including giving himself an unreported $24.000 raise. With more time I will list the litany of items the Port Commission is unhappy with but short to say, some of the charges are disturbing, including one alleging he directed Port business contacts to his father's company.
Fick himself got my attention during the various Port hearings concerning Seattle Yellow's past Sea-Tac contract, during which he couldn't conceal his displeasure when Yellow's issues were brought up for discussion. His obvious disdain was expressed through his irritation with Port staff and what he saw as their poor accounting practises in relation to Yellow Cab's potential Sea-Tac ride-counting errors. Going back to a 17th Century Spanish proverb, it is now seems like Fick is the "pot calling the kettle black." How I love the righteously indignant, especially when it proves otherwise. Should I laugh or cry?
Upon that I have 8 minutes to do my final editing. By the way, I left the snow behind in Seattle. Here in NYC it is a spring-like 46 degrees F. God! what a world and planet!
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
The Textbook Standard Method For Dealing With The Inebriated Soul
Too often taxi presents a problem, like it did upon my very first fare Saturday morning, that is not easily resolved---it becoming abundantly clear that drunk in the backseat (Why me! I thought to myself) was beyond expected coherency, and intervention of some kind was necessary. Having seen this too many times in the past, I now have a mental check list of viable and potential options on how to address the unavoidable.
The first step is the obvious recognition that something is wrong, that a problem exists.
The second step is understanding whether the problem will just go away minus direct intervention. When it becomes clear that what the drunk is telling me to do is to continue driving forward into Lake Washington and our subsequent drowning; it is then readily apparent the passenger is beyond normal kinds of communication, and that a kind of taxi "shock therapy" is now called for.
Step three is the warning, at least the attempt to tell the inebriated soul lounging the in the back that his/her drunken intransigence will no longer be tolerated.
Step four is deciding what is the best remaining option, deciding this time that police were required and taking him to the South Precinct station was the easiest solution. On the way, I did try to get a passing patrol car's attention but they didn't see me.
Step Five will always be to remain both calm and resolute, knowing I tried to make this easy but when the individual neither will tell me where he is going and refuses to provide "up-front" money to continue a senseless meandering, I know something else has to quickly occur.
Pulling up to the police station fortunately brought quick relief as three SPD officers came to my assistance, finally (it was a verbal struggle) getting his address out of him---30_ _ South Austin Street and the now $25.00 displayed on the meter to the cabbie. Asked whether I would now take it home I cheerfully replied, "Sure. No problem." and got him there within three minutes, the now contrite gentleman mumbling what seemed like a sincere apology.
No, he wasn't a bad guy or criminal, just drunk beyond reason which is as commonplace as the wind blowing leaves down the street. Taking his actions as a personal insult or physically yanking him out of the cab would have been a mistake. That he victimized himself doesn't mean he needs to be further victimized by an angry cabbie, socking him in the nose not improving (or proving) anything.
Furthermore, dealing with the drunk and the insane and the foolish and the stupid is all part of the taxi terrain, like a hill you must either proceed up or go around. If you are not ready and prepared to deal with every aspect of human nature then you cannot call yourself a cabbie.
Being not just a driving professional, you are also instant psychiatrist, social worker and best friend administering to the stressed soul sitting behind you. Not only are there no other options, it is you only option---what you are, what you became when stepping into that cab and sitting beneath the top-light.
You are now taxi priest to the world as we know it, so bless all wayward travelers and they in turn will hopefully bless you either in words or money and simple expressed gratitude, all of us only humans sharing this great and grand and utterly mysterious, confounding experience called living upon plant earth. It is all we have.
#DeleteUber
In response to a perception that Uber was taking advantage of the New York City JFK Saturday 01/28/2017 cabbie strike in response to Trump's actions concerning immigration, a movement over Twitter, with the hashtag #DeleteUber has been raging the past few days. More and more it seems, for various reasons, more people have or are becoming disillusioned with Uber, which I call "the New Plantation," making the reference to pre-American Civil War Southern States Slave culture.
Another development is Uber's partnership with Toyota dealerships and the purchase/leasing of new Prius cars to new Uber drivers. For instance, Burien Toyota has its own separate section devoted entirely to this end. Only problem is that a mere two or three unsubstantiated negative comments will get the driver tossed off the Uber app while remaining legally liable for the car.
As I said, welcome to the "New Plantation" and the whips and shackles. Fun, ain't it, when totally subjective opinion, minus any ability to appeal, can ruin your life, impacting you and your family for years to come. Fair? This has nothing to do with fairness, profit the sole motivator.
Next Week in NYC
Monday Feb 6th I will be flying into that same JFK airport to spend a few days looking at paintings, specifically the "Max Beckmann in NYC" show. Given time and energy, next week's entry will probably be brief.
Postscript 02/01/2017---A Message From Seattle/King County
Yesterday I received my new for-hire driving license in the mail, and along with that came an enclosed slip of paper with the following message, a message I am sure will interest all Seattle & KC area cabbies:
Attention For-Hire Drivers:
"Seattle Municipal Code 6.310.450 (C) and, King County Code 6.64.620 requires you to post a 5 1/2" in height and 81/2" in length reproduction of your for-hire driver's license in the taxicab and shall be contained under a sealed transparent cover, in such a manner that the contents cannot be altered or substituted, placed inside each taxicab in such a location that the license is clearly visible from the passenger compartment at all times that the licensee is operating, driving or using the vehicle"
There is a second paragraph telling you can go to a print shop and they will do all the work for you. Perfect Copy & Print, located at 111 Broadway East, Seattle, is a great place to have it done, charging less than $3.00 to do the enlargement. There is now a cab stand just across the street so it couldn't be any easier to get it done, giving you a free place to park your cab minus interference from SPD.
Anyway, the missive from Seattle/KC ends on an ominous note. Beware and be aware!
"Failure to post your for-hire driver's license is a violation subject to civil or criminal sanctions."
Ain't that interesting, you the innocent cabbie suddenly the instant criminal for not displaying the license. All I got to say is, just do what they ask and get on with your taxi life. Good grief!
The first step is the obvious recognition that something is wrong, that a problem exists.
The second step is understanding whether the problem will just go away minus direct intervention. When it becomes clear that what the drunk is telling me to do is to continue driving forward into Lake Washington and our subsequent drowning; it is then readily apparent the passenger is beyond normal kinds of communication, and that a kind of taxi "shock therapy" is now called for.
Step three is the warning, at least the attempt to tell the inebriated soul lounging the in the back that his/her drunken intransigence will no longer be tolerated.
Step four is deciding what is the best remaining option, deciding this time that police were required and taking him to the South Precinct station was the easiest solution. On the way, I did try to get a passing patrol car's attention but they didn't see me.
Step Five will always be to remain both calm and resolute, knowing I tried to make this easy but when the individual neither will tell me where he is going and refuses to provide "up-front" money to continue a senseless meandering, I know something else has to quickly occur.
Pulling up to the police station fortunately brought quick relief as three SPD officers came to my assistance, finally (it was a verbal struggle) getting his address out of him---30_ _ South Austin Street and the now $25.00 displayed on the meter to the cabbie. Asked whether I would now take it home I cheerfully replied, "Sure. No problem." and got him there within three minutes, the now contrite gentleman mumbling what seemed like a sincere apology.
No, he wasn't a bad guy or criminal, just drunk beyond reason which is as commonplace as the wind blowing leaves down the street. Taking his actions as a personal insult or physically yanking him out of the cab would have been a mistake. That he victimized himself doesn't mean he needs to be further victimized by an angry cabbie, socking him in the nose not improving (or proving) anything.
Furthermore, dealing with the drunk and the insane and the foolish and the stupid is all part of the taxi terrain, like a hill you must either proceed up or go around. If you are not ready and prepared to deal with every aspect of human nature then you cannot call yourself a cabbie.
Being not just a driving professional, you are also instant psychiatrist, social worker and best friend administering to the stressed soul sitting behind you. Not only are there no other options, it is you only option---what you are, what you became when stepping into that cab and sitting beneath the top-light.
You are now taxi priest to the world as we know it, so bless all wayward travelers and they in turn will hopefully bless you either in words or money and simple expressed gratitude, all of us only humans sharing this great and grand and utterly mysterious, confounding experience called living upon plant earth. It is all we have.
#DeleteUber
In response to a perception that Uber was taking advantage of the New York City JFK Saturday 01/28/2017 cabbie strike in response to Trump's actions concerning immigration, a movement over Twitter, with the hashtag #DeleteUber has been raging the past few days. More and more it seems, for various reasons, more people have or are becoming disillusioned with Uber, which I call "the New Plantation," making the reference to pre-American Civil War Southern States Slave culture.
Another development is Uber's partnership with Toyota dealerships and the purchase/leasing of new Prius cars to new Uber drivers. For instance, Burien Toyota has its own separate section devoted entirely to this end. Only problem is that a mere two or three unsubstantiated negative comments will get the driver tossed off the Uber app while remaining legally liable for the car.
As I said, welcome to the "New Plantation" and the whips and shackles. Fun, ain't it, when totally subjective opinion, minus any ability to appeal, can ruin your life, impacting you and your family for years to come. Fair? This has nothing to do with fairness, profit the sole motivator.
Next Week in NYC
Monday Feb 6th I will be flying into that same JFK airport to spend a few days looking at paintings, specifically the "Max Beckmann in NYC" show. Given time and energy, next week's entry will probably be brief.
Postscript 02/01/2017---A Message From Seattle/King County
Yesterday I received my new for-hire driving license in the mail, and along with that came an enclosed slip of paper with the following message, a message I am sure will interest all Seattle & KC area cabbies:
Attention For-Hire Drivers:
"Seattle Municipal Code 6.310.450 (C) and, King County Code 6.64.620 requires you to post a 5 1/2" in height and 81/2" in length reproduction of your for-hire driver's license in the taxicab and shall be contained under a sealed transparent cover, in such a manner that the contents cannot be altered or substituted, placed inside each taxicab in such a location that the license is clearly visible from the passenger compartment at all times that the licensee is operating, driving or using the vehicle"
There is a second paragraph telling you can go to a print shop and they will do all the work for you. Perfect Copy & Print, located at 111 Broadway East, Seattle, is a great place to have it done, charging less than $3.00 to do the enlargement. There is now a cab stand just across the street so it couldn't be any easier to get it done, giving you a free place to park your cab minus interference from SPD.
Anyway, the missive from Seattle/KC ends on an ominous note. Beware and be aware!
"Failure to post your for-hire driver's license is a violation subject to civil or criminal sanctions."
Ain't that interesting, you the innocent cabbie suddenly the instant criminal for not displaying the license. All I got to say is, just do what they ask and get on with your taxi life. Good grief!
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Persecution Complex? Yes, But Perhaps It's True---Pressing Issues Facing Seattle's Taxi Industry 2017
Over the past two weeks I focused upon hardships and maltreatment associated with cab driving, wanting, more than anything else, to communicate the reality of spending too many hours in the worse working conditions possible and its immediate consequences when forever dodging errant drivers and less-than-sane customers. Am I seeing phantoms and ghosts in every shadowy corner? Yes and no and yes, I might be letting all this madness get to me. Understandable, to be affected by a deranged environment but paranoia is better left to someone else as I simply don't have the time to remain delusional or unbalanced.
In Seattle Times' Monday 01/23/2017 edition, the picture puzzle feature Hocus-Focus (original artist and creator, Henry Boltinoff,---1914-2001) presented a woman taxi passenger in the back seat screaming at a much irritated cabby, a cartoon funny in the stark reality of how it can truly be---you the inanimate object berated by the righteous, indignant customer. Having experienced exactly that, a female passenger screaming at the top-of-her-lungs during a torrential rain storm, I can attest that it is a real and true portrayal. That she finally muted herself was a blessing bestowed by the taxi angels. God! what an absolute _____ she was!
And yesterday, the young doormen at the Stadium Silver Cloud Hotel actually requested my car keys when all I was doing was zipping into the lobby to find a passenger who had already grabbed the first cab driving by. I told them that, one, I didn't trust them, and two, that I required psychiatric help but truly I was joking because their request wasn't at all humorous, the first time in 29 years I have heard such utter nonsense.
Over the years, hotel doorman have displayed a decorum translating into the recognition that we are all working together. All I got at that moment in time were some very dirty looks when my actions made it clear that, contrary to all previous preconceived notions, they really were not in charge. But the truth is, if the hotel architects had designed a pull-off in front on 1st Avenue South, all this kind of nonsense would not exist. See what happens when you go to college for 12 years to learn everything except commonsense and accommodation to reality?---wide spread misery and confusion for all concerned. If you don't think that is true then you should go back to college for another one hundred years until you get it straight that architectural design is about human accommodation and function and little else. Are buildings works of art? Only if they also serve the joint purpose of allowing people to work and function. If not, the structure is a failure and redesign is the order of the new day.
But getting back to the subject at hand, last week's blog requires a clarification, given I misspoke concerning City and County Uber requirements. John Megow, current manager at the City of Seattle for Regulatory Compliance and Consumer Protection, sent me an email spelling out the rules as they pertain to TNC operators. John sent me item F, reproduced here, which spells out succinctly what is expected:
F. Requires that passengers be able to view a picture of the driver and vehicle license plate number on smart phone, tablet or other mobile device used to connect with the TNC dispatch application before the trip is initiated. (Class B)
This makes perfect sense, explaining why the Uber consumer can locate their particular operator in a sea of cars. I always wondered how that was managed.
Mister Megow also said they were looking into the situation I encountered a few weeks ago in the Fremont, having observed an Uber car with a top-light attached atop of the driver's blue Toyota. When approached, the young guy informed me that "He was a free man and could do anything he wanted to do!" He then went into a rant about communists controlling societal rules. Given that he was a true "loon" I kind of liked him, recognizing him as a fellow "taxi lunatic" though he is competitor and out to take my potential fare. I can say the same about my fellow Yellow-ites but knowing that we are in the same taxi-boat we clearly tolerate each other. And of course we have taken our daily medications.
Given then what I now know, I suppose the City of Seattle had the right to issue tickets to those four Yellow cabbies after all but I do question why they were not initially warned instead. If anyone truly needs to know a cabbie's identity all they need to do is write down the cab number and contact the City or County. Unlike Uber and Lyft, we cabbies are the proverbial sore thumb, our neon Yellow cars broadcasting to all who we are.
What is the secret? There is no secret. And in some cites, cities of course that care about their cabbies, the cab number in printed in large numerals atop the car, making it viewable from the air. In short, everyone knows, and can know who we are, secret agent men ( or women) we ain't.
Important Issues 2017
Regulators
Probably the most significant issue facing us in the taxi industry is how we are treated and regulated by regulatory authorities both locally and nationally. For instance it isn't funny what is happening at Sea-Tac with the taxi operators since the transfer over to Eastside. Again and again I hear reports of drivers not receiving one solitary dispatched call in over three months. This and having their actual airport hours substantially reduced is solely the Port Commission's responsibility and no one else.
If they truly care, as they repeat over and over, then the Port Commission will reopen their decision and thoroughly reexamine the situation minus any and all previous opinion. But unfortunately this is just one example of an industry under siege from the very people responsible for protecting them. Does this make any sense? No, not if you are completely honest---it doesn't make any sense.
Cab Associations and Companies
If you can't depend upon the very associations and companies you are connected with, then an intimate trust has been broken, making it something that is very difficult, if not impossible, to mend. That the American cab companies and associations have treated cabbies as their personal cash cows goes without question. As questionable as this business arrangement and relationship has been, it worked when taxi was the dominant ride transportation provider. Now with its ascendancy in wane, new questions to old problems arise. Will the great adjustment required happen before taxi itself disappears from the American transportation arena, taxi becoming a mere nostalgic memory? One hopes, just as is necessary with governmental regulators, that commonsense will prevail and what was once a hierarchical arrangement transposes into a functional partnership.
To that end, the plan currently at Seattle Yellow is for me to develop a heretofore unseen comprehensive training program that will both revolutionize and modernize driving training, assuring as much as humanly possible, that the newly minted Yellow cabbie will have some idea how to find a address and relate to the difficult passenger. That Yellow has agreed to this is the kind of necessary acknowledgement I am referencing. It is a beginning. It is a start.
Driver Professionalism
Without good and efficient cabbies we are dead, hopelessly adrift in the transportation sea. There has to be a recognition from the majority of cabbies nationally that we must be better than Uber and Lyft. Now that shouldn't be very hard given that they are, across the board, clueless amateurs, and that we, especially the veterans amongst us, are capable of providing superior service.
It is simple. We in the taxi industry must be the pinnacle of professionalism. Anything short of that must be deemed unacceptable. Be clear, guys and gals, we are in a fight for our very professional lives. Take the challenge seriously or collectively we are doomed. That is the way it is. Any opinion to the opposite is erroneous. It is wrong.
01/26/2017 Postscript----HopeLink News
Pushing myself to finish last night before the library closed, I forget to add what many will find very interesting: Feb 1st, 2017 HopeLink rates will go up from $2.15 per mile to $2.50 per mile. That should bring a smile to everyone who works the HopeLink account.
Another piece of HopeLink news relates to what many of you already know, that once dispatch was transferred to the Las Vegas call center, available HopeLink hours were reduced by 96 hours from a normal 168 hour week. What I didn't know was why it happened. Yesterday I was told that the change came, not from Puget Sound Dispatch, but from HopeLink administrators who were uncomfortable with out-of-state call takers. My only hope is that in the near future HopeLink can be convinced to change its policies concerning this. Personally, my largest fares ever have been generated by HopeLink over the weekends. What it means in real terms is that on Saturday and Sunday other service providers are taking Hopelink passengers over the Cascades to Yakima and other points East. I know that all of us would like to have that $300-400.00 fare instead.
In Seattle Times' Monday 01/23/2017 edition, the picture puzzle feature Hocus-Focus (original artist and creator, Henry Boltinoff,---1914-2001) presented a woman taxi passenger in the back seat screaming at a much irritated cabby, a cartoon funny in the stark reality of how it can truly be---you the inanimate object berated by the righteous, indignant customer. Having experienced exactly that, a female passenger screaming at the top-of-her-lungs during a torrential rain storm, I can attest that it is a real and true portrayal. That she finally muted herself was a blessing bestowed by the taxi angels. God! what an absolute _____ she was!
And yesterday, the young doormen at the Stadium Silver Cloud Hotel actually requested my car keys when all I was doing was zipping into the lobby to find a passenger who had already grabbed the first cab driving by. I told them that, one, I didn't trust them, and two, that I required psychiatric help but truly I was joking because their request wasn't at all humorous, the first time in 29 years I have heard such utter nonsense.
Over the years, hotel doorman have displayed a decorum translating into the recognition that we are all working together. All I got at that moment in time were some very dirty looks when my actions made it clear that, contrary to all previous preconceived notions, they really were not in charge. But the truth is, if the hotel architects had designed a pull-off in front on 1st Avenue South, all this kind of nonsense would not exist. See what happens when you go to college for 12 years to learn everything except commonsense and accommodation to reality?---wide spread misery and confusion for all concerned. If you don't think that is true then you should go back to college for another one hundred years until you get it straight that architectural design is about human accommodation and function and little else. Are buildings works of art? Only if they also serve the joint purpose of allowing people to work and function. If not, the structure is a failure and redesign is the order of the new day.
But getting back to the subject at hand, last week's blog requires a clarification, given I misspoke concerning City and County Uber requirements. John Megow, current manager at the City of Seattle for Regulatory Compliance and Consumer Protection, sent me an email spelling out the rules as they pertain to TNC operators. John sent me item F, reproduced here, which spells out succinctly what is expected:
F. Requires that passengers be able to view a picture of the driver and vehicle license plate number on smart phone, tablet or other mobile device used to connect with the TNC dispatch application before the trip is initiated. (Class B)
This makes perfect sense, explaining why the Uber consumer can locate their particular operator in a sea of cars. I always wondered how that was managed.
Mister Megow also said they were looking into the situation I encountered a few weeks ago in the Fremont, having observed an Uber car with a top-light attached atop of the driver's blue Toyota. When approached, the young guy informed me that "He was a free man and could do anything he wanted to do!" He then went into a rant about communists controlling societal rules. Given that he was a true "loon" I kind of liked him, recognizing him as a fellow "taxi lunatic" though he is competitor and out to take my potential fare. I can say the same about my fellow Yellow-ites but knowing that we are in the same taxi-boat we clearly tolerate each other. And of course we have taken our daily medications.
Given then what I now know, I suppose the City of Seattle had the right to issue tickets to those four Yellow cabbies after all but I do question why they were not initially warned instead. If anyone truly needs to know a cabbie's identity all they need to do is write down the cab number and contact the City or County. Unlike Uber and Lyft, we cabbies are the proverbial sore thumb, our neon Yellow cars broadcasting to all who we are.
What is the secret? There is no secret. And in some cites, cities of course that care about their cabbies, the cab number in printed in large numerals atop the car, making it viewable from the air. In short, everyone knows, and can know who we are, secret agent men ( or women) we ain't.
Important Issues 2017
Regulators
Probably the most significant issue facing us in the taxi industry is how we are treated and regulated by regulatory authorities both locally and nationally. For instance it isn't funny what is happening at Sea-Tac with the taxi operators since the transfer over to Eastside. Again and again I hear reports of drivers not receiving one solitary dispatched call in over three months. This and having their actual airport hours substantially reduced is solely the Port Commission's responsibility and no one else.
If they truly care, as they repeat over and over, then the Port Commission will reopen their decision and thoroughly reexamine the situation minus any and all previous opinion. But unfortunately this is just one example of an industry under siege from the very people responsible for protecting them. Does this make any sense? No, not if you are completely honest---it doesn't make any sense.
Cab Associations and Companies
If you can't depend upon the very associations and companies you are connected with, then an intimate trust has been broken, making it something that is very difficult, if not impossible, to mend. That the American cab companies and associations have treated cabbies as their personal cash cows goes without question. As questionable as this business arrangement and relationship has been, it worked when taxi was the dominant ride transportation provider. Now with its ascendancy in wane, new questions to old problems arise. Will the great adjustment required happen before taxi itself disappears from the American transportation arena, taxi becoming a mere nostalgic memory? One hopes, just as is necessary with governmental regulators, that commonsense will prevail and what was once a hierarchical arrangement transposes into a functional partnership.
To that end, the plan currently at Seattle Yellow is for me to develop a heretofore unseen comprehensive training program that will both revolutionize and modernize driving training, assuring as much as humanly possible, that the newly minted Yellow cabbie will have some idea how to find a address and relate to the difficult passenger. That Yellow has agreed to this is the kind of necessary acknowledgement I am referencing. It is a beginning. It is a start.
Driver Professionalism
Without good and efficient cabbies we are dead, hopelessly adrift in the transportation sea. There has to be a recognition from the majority of cabbies nationally that we must be better than Uber and Lyft. Now that shouldn't be very hard given that they are, across the board, clueless amateurs, and that we, especially the veterans amongst us, are capable of providing superior service.
It is simple. We in the taxi industry must be the pinnacle of professionalism. Anything short of that must be deemed unacceptable. Be clear, guys and gals, we are in a fight for our very professional lives. Take the challenge seriously or collectively we are doomed. That is the way it is. Any opinion to the opposite is erroneous. It is wrong.
01/26/2017 Postscript----HopeLink News
Pushing myself to finish last night before the library closed, I forget to add what many will find very interesting: Feb 1st, 2017 HopeLink rates will go up from $2.15 per mile to $2.50 per mile. That should bring a smile to everyone who works the HopeLink account.
Another piece of HopeLink news relates to what many of you already know, that once dispatch was transferred to the Las Vegas call center, available HopeLink hours were reduced by 96 hours from a normal 168 hour week. What I didn't know was why it happened. Yesterday I was told that the change came, not from Puget Sound Dispatch, but from HopeLink administrators who were uncomfortable with out-of-state call takers. My only hope is that in the near future HopeLink can be convinced to change its policies concerning this. Personally, my largest fares ever have been generated by HopeLink over the weekends. What it means in real terms is that on Saturday and Sunday other service providers are taking Hopelink passengers over the Cascades to Yakima and other points East. I know that all of us would like to have that $300-400.00 fare instead.
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
A Biblical Pestilence?
What Have We Wrought?
Can it be true,
or can it be not,
what we have brought
upon ourselves?
Could it be a divine
old Testament
pestilence
reminding us sins are
counted
and the numbers are in,
God
smiting us like
so many wayward
Egyptians
in a blood-red
sea?
Again
having done what,
what have we
done
to be punished so?
While of course an exaggeration, it does at times seem that we in taxi industry are cursed or under attack from less than benign spirits, given the numbers of obstacles placed in from of us, obstructing from making a simple dollar. Last week four Yellow cabbies were given citations from the City of Seattle for the crime of not having their for-hire licenses copied, enlarged, then posted in the cab.
That the 10,000 plus Seattle Uber and Lyft drivers, under the same requirement having a current and valid for-hire license are neither stopped nor cited for similar violations says much about what is occurring. The question is both why are we treated differently and just why does the City of Seattle and King County think we in the taxi industry will continue to accept the unacceptable? Puzzling it is but certainly not indecipherable.
When actions like these are this contradictory, there must be an easily assessable key to unlock what isn't truly a mystery, Sherlock Holmes I am sure quickly solving the case because the perpetrators are well known, knowing who they are other than personal motives. Just what are their motives, and if they are not working for us, who is their employer? Yes, Mister Holmes, help us as we tire, growing weary from this unjust and inhumane persecution. Enough already, enough!
Laura Nyro's "Save the County"
For anyone depressed about current happenings in our country, I suggest you listen to Laura Nyro's (1947-1997) song from her 1969 album, "New York Tendaberry"----"Save The Country," something that might boost the spirits.
"Come on people
come on children
come on down to the glory river
gonna wash you up
and wash you down
gonna lay the devil"
(we're gonna lay that devil down!)
Again
having done what,
what have we
done
to be punished so?
While of course an exaggeration, it does at times seem that we in taxi industry are cursed or under attack from less than benign spirits, given the numbers of obstacles placed in from of us, obstructing from making a simple dollar. Last week four Yellow cabbies were given citations from the City of Seattle for the crime of not having their for-hire licenses copied, enlarged, then posted in the cab.
That the 10,000 plus Seattle Uber and Lyft drivers, under the same requirement having a current and valid for-hire license are neither stopped nor cited for similar violations says much about what is occurring. The question is both why are we treated differently and just why does the City of Seattle and King County think we in the taxi industry will continue to accept the unacceptable? Puzzling it is but certainly not indecipherable.
When actions like these are this contradictory, there must be an easily assessable key to unlock what isn't truly a mystery, Sherlock Holmes I am sure quickly solving the case because the perpetrators are well known, knowing who they are other than personal motives. Just what are their motives, and if they are not working for us, who is their employer? Yes, Mister Holmes, help us as we tire, growing weary from this unjust and inhumane persecution. Enough already, enough!
Laura Nyro's "Save the County"
For anyone depressed about current happenings in our country, I suggest you listen to Laura Nyro's (1947-1997) song from her 1969 album, "New York Tendaberry"----"Save The Country," something that might boost the spirits.
"Come on people
come on children
come on down to the glory river
gonna wash you up
and wash you down
gonna lay the devil"
(we're gonna lay that devil down!)
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Essay: The Psychological Toll Of Driving A Cab
Why Driving A Taxi Is A Mental Heath Issue
Everybody knows cabbies are crazy. Just visit Manhattan and manifested before your eyes will be thousands of Travis Bickles, Robert De Niro's famously deranged character in the 1976 film, "Taxi Driver." But what is never discussed is why even I can become, even just for a minute, another Travis Bickle, a human being suddenly out-of-their-mind, recklessly accelerating their cab down the crowded roadway?
Inherently connected to cab driving is an unending, incessant battering of body and psyche guaranteed to debilitate anyone. From my personal experience I don't see how anyone alive could remain immune from the combined insult that is taxi, Darwinian evolution not adjusting fast enough to the untenable, when within a mere few minutes with the wrong passenger, all personal tranquility is utterly and instantly destroyed, breaking you down and transforming you into something you never, ever wanted to be: a thoroughly discouraged and miserable human being, with your worse instincts taking over, especially immaturity, miring you in a sticky morass not completely of your own making.
Again, what I have found is that this state of mind, or state of mental health, is unavoidable when driving a cab, the implications serious and personal. Of course every occupation, even the highest and most prestigious, contain drawbacks and inherent negatives. The real danger and problem connected to the "crazed cabbie" syndrome is its potential permanency, similar to various types of schizophrenia, this very real psychosis incorporating into an individual's real and extant personality; and once entrenched, making it extremely difficult to remove. How many cabbies are inclined to seek therapy, parking themselves upon the psychiatric couch or join the embracing circle of group therapy? Not many is the quick answer.
As said, it is nearly impossible for me or any other cabbie to resist the unavoidable, the unrelenting physical and mental beating we all experience daily. Imagine the interminable pounding of the sea upon the shoreline and you have a good idea of our average day. My sole motivation for writing this examination is concern over my own behavior, worried that carryover is affecting what I am doing overall, which for me means my writing, my current book and what I am doing to ultimately be successful and live solely from my writing.
As mentioned multiple times, my previous professional background as counselor, case-manager and therapist puts me in a special position to comprehend what is happening around me. And seeing I am unable to insulate myself from taxi's damaging impact, it scares the hell out of me, strongly suggesting that what I am doing might be suicidal, ultimately killing myself by a thousand cuts. I have always viewed taxi as the means to a positive conclusion, not a dead-end leading to confusion and failure.
And given that, there has always been an assigned logic for my travelling to Mexico and other points across the globe as often as I do, travel acting as a necessary antidote to the poison that is taxi. Without travel I could not keep driving cab. It is as simple as that but as is usually acknowledged, poison habitually ingested leads to inevitable death regardless of steps taken.
Friday I will be back in the cab for a least a half a shift, fully knowing it is a less than healthy choice. As is well-known with the therapeutic process, awareness of a personal issue or problem is just the beginning of the path forward toward resolution and well-being. Can I and all my fellow cabbies do the work necessary to alter the unchangeable?
My honest response is I don't know, feeling the odds are against us, the raging taxi sea the ultimate victor, old Neptune throwing his net and dragging us down to deepest fathoms of despair, our broken selves then tossed back upon the rocks, destined for the fishes or unmarked graves, collectively more than forgotten, our suffering never noticed nor seen, acknowledgment never to be our final benediction.
Everybody knows cabbies are crazy. Just visit Manhattan and manifested before your eyes will be thousands of Travis Bickles, Robert De Niro's famously deranged character in the 1976 film, "Taxi Driver." But what is never discussed is why even I can become, even just for a minute, another Travis Bickle, a human being suddenly out-of-their-mind, recklessly accelerating their cab down the crowded roadway?
Inherently connected to cab driving is an unending, incessant battering of body and psyche guaranteed to debilitate anyone. From my personal experience I don't see how anyone alive could remain immune from the combined insult that is taxi, Darwinian evolution not adjusting fast enough to the untenable, when within a mere few minutes with the wrong passenger, all personal tranquility is utterly and instantly destroyed, breaking you down and transforming you into something you never, ever wanted to be: a thoroughly discouraged and miserable human being, with your worse instincts taking over, especially immaturity, miring you in a sticky morass not completely of your own making.
Again, what I have found is that this state of mind, or state of mental health, is unavoidable when driving a cab, the implications serious and personal. Of course every occupation, even the highest and most prestigious, contain drawbacks and inherent negatives. The real danger and problem connected to the "crazed cabbie" syndrome is its potential permanency, similar to various types of schizophrenia, this very real psychosis incorporating into an individual's real and extant personality; and once entrenched, making it extremely difficult to remove. How many cabbies are inclined to seek therapy, parking themselves upon the psychiatric couch or join the embracing circle of group therapy? Not many is the quick answer.
As said, it is nearly impossible for me or any other cabbie to resist the unavoidable, the unrelenting physical and mental beating we all experience daily. Imagine the interminable pounding of the sea upon the shoreline and you have a good idea of our average day. My sole motivation for writing this examination is concern over my own behavior, worried that carryover is affecting what I am doing overall, which for me means my writing, my current book and what I am doing to ultimately be successful and live solely from my writing.
As mentioned multiple times, my previous professional background as counselor, case-manager and therapist puts me in a special position to comprehend what is happening around me. And seeing I am unable to insulate myself from taxi's damaging impact, it scares the hell out of me, strongly suggesting that what I am doing might be suicidal, ultimately killing myself by a thousand cuts. I have always viewed taxi as the means to a positive conclusion, not a dead-end leading to confusion and failure.
And given that, there has always been an assigned logic for my travelling to Mexico and other points across the globe as often as I do, travel acting as a necessary antidote to the poison that is taxi. Without travel I could not keep driving cab. It is as simple as that but as is usually acknowledged, poison habitually ingested leads to inevitable death regardless of steps taken.
Friday I will be back in the cab for a least a half a shift, fully knowing it is a less than healthy choice. As is well-known with the therapeutic process, awareness of a personal issue or problem is just the beginning of the path forward toward resolution and well-being. Can I and all my fellow cabbies do the work necessary to alter the unchangeable?
My honest response is I don't know, feeling the odds are against us, the raging taxi sea the ultimate victor, old Neptune throwing his net and dragging us down to deepest fathoms of despair, our broken selves then tossed back upon the rocks, destined for the fishes or unmarked graves, collectively more than forgotten, our suffering never noticed nor seen, acknowledgment never to be our final benediction.
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