Whoa! Stop! Don't Spend $10,000 For A Seattle Taxi Medallion & Opaque Uber: Why Is It So Hard To Communicate With Uber? & It Is Past Time That The City Of Seattle And King County Create A Readable Website Explaining Step By Step How To Be A TNC (Ride-Share) Operator & After 45 Years, A NYC Cab Driver's Last Fare

 Do Not, I repeat, Do Not Spend Ten Thousand Dollars for a City of Seattle Taxi Medallion!

I found out today that the owner of multiple Seattle taxi medallions sold a medallion for $10,000.  As most know, these days, Seattle taxi medallions are essentially worthless.  I sold my City 1092 medallion for $1000.00, basically giving it away to someone who really needed it.  Why then was some willing to pay so much for the medallion, committing themselves to $500.00 monthly payments for the next 20 months?  Because the desperate soul found himself banned from both Uber and Lyft.  More on that later but it exemplifies the unholy power Uber and Lyft hold over their so-called independent operators.  They have the ability to destroy lives.  And do they care about consequences affecting a dismissed driver and their family?  No, they don't, and don't believe it when they say they do, "crocodile tears" streaming from their TNC eyes.   

The problem with anyone newly committing themselves to driving taxi in Seattle today is that the local industry is moribund, unviable, a sinkhole collapsing upon itself.  The big money making opportunities are gone expect when working events like big-name concerts and Seahawk NFL football games.  All the big money-making accounts are either dead or so diminished that it makes little sense to work them.  The easy days of averaging $30-40.00 per day are long gone, leaving today's Seattle taxi operator with what?--- unending big expenses the sad answer.  

What are taxi expenses compared to Uber and Lyft?   Taxi insurance is going to cost you $5000.00 per year compared to $1400.00 to $2000.00 annually for Uber and Lyft  That makes insurance your only real TNC upfront cost other than your monthly telephone bill.  While yes, TNC dispatch takes out about 40% out of each fare, it is nothing compared to the $195.00 Seattle Yellow (Puget Sound Dispatch) asks for each week.  From my experience, Uber is so busy, allowing you to make $300-500.00 daily translating into you not caring how much money is extracted from each fare.  Who cares?  In Seattle, the "fat and sassy" TNC driver has no need to care.   

As I have written before, the average Seattle cabbie must make $18,000 before they make a penny for themselves, taking 3-4 months to earn it.  All those hours, all that real sweat and blood expired on the taxi road.  As for the guy paying $500.00 monthly installments for this new medallion, add $6,000 to that $18,000 for the first year, adding up to $24,000.  The second year, it will be $22,000 before he has earned a dime.  Painful.  Awful.

Also not to be forgotten is the $1000. plus to paint the car yellow, that's if he has one to paint.  Otherwise, he is looking at buying a car for between $12,000-20,000. Then of course there is the yearly maintenance  like tires and monthly oil changes.  All this for the privilege of working yourself to death.  Anyone thinking this is funny is morbid.  This is nothing but death while breathing.  There is no other good way to describe it.  You are a dead man driving in your own motorized yellow coffin.  Your ignorance is your eulogy. 

What I am saying is that the exploitation of the Seattle cab driver must end, including the complicity of the drivers themselves.  Over the decades that I have been a part of this industry, company owners have  often been too ruthless in their treatment of the drivers, viewing them as so many easily replaceable parts.  This appears to be driven home once again by Puget Sound Dispatch's attitude stating that making money is our only goal, operator well-being simply not a priority.  

All of this is given a "blind eye" by a very theoretical Seattle and King County taxi regulatory leadership.  How can anyone condone the expenses associated with cab ownership?  I've stated this before that all this is immoral.  Sitting twelve hours piloting a cab through Seattle's traffic is no fun.  Try it for one shift and you will agree.   This is not a good way to earn a living.  Again, death is upon your lips, death your mascot, death your unwanted friend. 

Is There Anyone I Can Talk To?

A friend's recent ordeal of being suspended from Uber says everything bad about their communication and methodology.  The messaging told him he didn't have his required TNC for-hire permit.  The problem was, he had done everything he was supposed to, and for some unknown reason, Uber hadn't forwarded his information to King County.  He was blamed, made responsible for something not his responsibility.  He was also temporarily knocked off the Lyft platform because they hadn't received his DDC defensive driving test results, not realizing they were not automatically sent to both companies.  Not very computer savvy, he had difficulty reaching Uber's callcenter, and when he did, he was told that his van was no longer eligible, that he needed a EV to continue driving Uber.  Of course this wasn't true.  What kind of real regulatory oversight is provided by the City of Seattle and King County. None whatsoever is the real answer.  Get banned by Uber because a passenger said you winked at her?   Just the way it is, buddy, you're burnt toast.

But Joe, We Already Have that Step-By-Step Website

I wrote to my favorite King County (truly a nice guy) regulator telling him that a very detailed TNC "how to apply" website is necessary.  A major reason why my friend encountered so many bureaucratic obstacles is because he didn't know how to start, and when he did, he took some wrong turns.  I checked out their website and was not impressed, KC making assumptions the applicants knew what they were doing.  Anyone long associated with the cab industry knows that's a false postulation.  Instead, thinking that the individual knows little to nothing is a more correct stance.  

Beginning with the title, it should be some like "SO YOU ARE INTERESTED IN BECOMING AN UBER OR LYFT DRIVER?"   Ask any any Uber driver what the acronym TNC stands for, and I bet the vast majority won't know.  "Spoon feeding" the applicant the necessary information is the only way to avoid confusion.

Not only does the County need to be clear how the TNC/ride-share for-hire process works, the County needs to follow the process from beginning to end, concluding with the operator being issued their for-hire along with a car decal.  In my roughly one-year-long association with Uber, nothing is what I received.  

The more specifics the better.  Write the website in a way acknowledging that the applicant has been in the USA for abut twenty minutes.  Communicate in the simplest terms.  Then, and only then, will the applicant understand.  And even then, he or she might require assistance. 

Ending on a Softer Note

In the February 25th New York Times "Metropolitan Diary," a reader says he grabbed a cab from East Harlem to the Upper West Side, during which the cabbie said this was his last fare.  The passenger thought he meant it was his final ride of the day but "No, you don't understand.  You are not my last fare for the day.  You are my last fare forever."  Turns out the cabbie had been driving for 45 years in New York City and this indeed was his last fare.  Hopefully the passenger gave him a good tip, like say a million dollars.  That would be about right, after all those painful years.  But this is really like cab driving as it truly is. The guy could have been the best cabbie New York City had ever known but his exit causing no fanfare or celebration.  Nothing was noted, nothing was said except this chance encounter very accidentally pointed out.  Just like taxi as I know and hate it.  Good luck, sucker!

Greetings Again From Seattle: How The Unending Bias Against Taxi Drivers Influences Police And Media Coverage & Update On Tukwila Cabbie Murder & RT Taxi Ride Yellowknife, NWT To Seattle And Back & Chinese Cabbie's Lament & Cancun Cabbies Keep Attacking & I Am Selling My Yellow KIA

Disgusting Police Bias

I have been back in Seattle since February 6th, a Tuesday but the following day began exhibiting sign of some kind of serious influenza/viral infection.  The following Monday, soon after a clinical appointment where I was refused medication, I developed a non-stop cough along with other symptoms leaving me with a physical state I have never before experienced: I thought I was going to die.  Understanding I needed instantaneous relief, I consulted Dr. Wang, the most effective (and most expensive) acupuncturist and Chinese medicine physician I know of.  Though not licensed to practice "western" medicine in the USA, he has a medical degree from Chinese, effectively utilizing both schools of knowledge.  If possible, I wanted to avoid hospitalization, though sometimes infernal sources of even worse infections.  Thankfully, after a couple of treatments, and drinking many foul-tasting cups of herbal medicine, I appear to be on the mend, thus allowing me to even begin writing again.  Such misery I have never been acquainted with.  It was, and continued to be, scary.   I wouldn't wish this illness on anyone save a politician, especially one or two now prominent upon the national and international stage.  Given their ages, they might not survive, their departures not troubling me in the least. 

The ongoing investigation of the Tukwila/SouthCenter cabbie murder dating from January 14 has gotten me thinking about the overall treatment of taxi drivers here in the United States.  Though a suspect has been found, as of this date, no charges have been filed.  Much more on this later but one fact I soon discovered about driving taxi way back in Sept 1987 is that cabbies were considered worthless.  Exchanging my weekday role of psychiatric case manager to weekend cabbie told me everything I didn't want to know concerning societal attitudes.  Not did I suddenly have less value, worse, I was expendable.  Having no experience perviously with the police, other than being the sole staff member working at psychiatric half-way houses, I was shocked at the treatment received, getting pulled over for nothing whatsoever, and then, after stupidly defending myself, issued tickets for contrived and made-up violations.  It was a revelation never forgotten.  The police hated me and hated all my fellow cabbies.   Why was this true?  What was this bias all about?  

When punishment is your goal, someone must be punished, and that someone is usually considered diminished or of lesser value, be you a black teenager or a criminal cabbie.  Why criminal?  Because everyone knows the cab driver is willing to do anything for a dollar while breaking every traffic rule in the hunt for that dollar.  You know and I know that's true.  The police certainly do, explaining why it was a constant battle to maintain your driving license, you the "toplight evil" menacing society.  

Media bias in America is less clear.  While at times making efforts to thoroughly cover a particular taxi subject,  overall indifference is what I have seen and experienced.  Once the initial sensation of a cabbie murder is over, coverage rarely continued, the details of where, how and why losing tenor.  Cab drivers are not important cultural actors unless you are someone like the composer Philip Glass, graduating from the cab to the symphony hall.   If my newest book takes off, I assure you that much commentary will be as to why I drove taxi when "look how well he writes."  It is predicable.

Tukwila Cabbie Murder Update

It has been 37 days since Olympic RediCab driver Nicholas Hokema was found dead, his cab missing, with his body dumped upon the parking lot of Tukwila's SouthCenter Mall.   It took police authorities two weeks but they found both cab and the probable murderer in the Eastside city of Richmond, Washington.  The suspect is a US Army deserter, Army Specialist Jonathan Kang Lee, and now convicted child molester.  Lee had been charged with the rape of two underage children, ages 6 and 7; and having skipped his trial, was sentenced, in absentia, to 64 years in prison.  The mystery now is who is holding him in custody, the US Army or the Richmond Police?   As from the start of this case, there has been very little information issued or known. 

RediCab emailed to tell me that Lee drove off JBL/Fort Lewis base on January 14th.  Nothing beyond that is known.  No one is telling how he met up with Hokema.   When new information is provided, I will repeat it here. There is a gofundme account for Nick. I donated $100.00.   The account is as follows: http://gofundme/f/nick-hokema 

It is very important that we in the industry support our fallen comrades.  How many actual murderers did I have sitting behind me during my 35 plus years driving cab?   More, I am sure, than I want to think.  Cab driving is a deadly profession, Nick's death yet another sorry expression of that fact. 

Long Cab Ride

While I never got the "grand slam" of cab rides, when recently in Ajijic, Mexico, I was told of one.  He was a very lucky fellow.  A few years back, a cabbie working in the Canadian NW Territories city of Yellowknife, drove someone round-trip from Yellowknife to Seattle and back again.  The passenger got in, told the driver we are "picking up a case of liquor" and off they went.  That's a distance of 1,542 miles.  Upon arrival, they stayed a week, then back up they went, along with more booze.  I believe it.  I have had shorter versions.  Longest ride I serviced was 215 miles.  This ride was over 3000 miles.  My informant did not know how much the cabbie got paid.  I would like to know.

Lunar New Year Lament 

A Shanghai, China cabbie was featured about money making during the new "Year of the Dragon" celebrations.  Business was down, he would not be eating like be would like, and Shanghai was swamped with people coming in from the countryside working China's versions of Uber and Lyft.  Different country, old story. 

Same Story in Cancun, Mexico

Two Cancun medallion cabbies were arrested after attacking an SUV filled with American tourists, scattering their luggage on the roadway.   The tourists were unhappy.

Friday I am selling my Yellow Kia

I am now completely out of the people transportation business.  Instead give me rats, cats and dogs.  The car I used to drive taxi a bit, and now Uber, will be sold.  Time to say goodbye to all that. 

Greetings Once Again From Arcata, California: Late But Not Never, The Blog Hog Is Back In The USA, And Of Course I Have Something To Say

This Should Have Originated From Ajijic, Mexico---3 Recent Mexican Cab Rides

The explanation is due to both Google and Yahoo's refusal to recognize the computer I had brought along.  They kept wanting to send me verification codes to my American telephone number.  A number of other insane, inane security obstacles told me I would be waiting until my return to once again communicate with the greater taxi world and community.  But before I briefly describe where I was, I will relate my 3 Mexico cab rides shared with that famous personage of these pages, "she-who-can't-be-named."  Does anyone really know how to operate a cab?  Mostly don't, from my experience.   

We flew in from Oakland, CA to Guadalajara, Mexico (population 1, 385, 629), our ultimate destination Ajijic, Mexico.  Arriving early in the morning, about 4 AM, via Volaris Airlines (I don't recommend the airlines), we took a cab for the 24 mile (38 kilometer) ride to Ajijic.  Cab ride was 550 pesos ($32.00).  The guy was a ten-year veteran, guessing correctly his years in the profession.  Hard to fool me!  He was okay but drove past our turn taking us to the center (el cento).  We had to guide him in but that shouldn't have been necessary, Ajijic American/Canadian well-known "gringo" land.  Dropping us off at the main plaza, I gave him an additional ten dollar bill.  I liked him despite everything.  C plus grade for this ride. 

Our second cab was a few hours later to our Airb&b apartment.  Having our bags, and tired from the trip,  we took what was at most 3/4 of a mile ride.  It was a rip, 70 pesos ($4.00).  The younger driver was terrible but saved our legs.  D plus cab ride. 

Third cab ride was February 1st back to the aeropuerto, this time 600 pesos, and I gave the rookie driver (2 years on the taxi road) a 300 peso tip.  We thought we were getting the experienced Arturo, a cabbie recommended by Bob and Nora, local gringos but instead we got Lalo, his employee, 22 years-old.  Not the best driver of cars, unnecessarily tailgating and not passing when he had the opportunity.  Friendly kid.  At least to he got us to the airport minus delays.  In reality, barely a cabbie.  C minus taxi grade.  Has potential if he doesn't first kill himself and his passengers. 

Arriving an hour late in Oakland, we took the BART to my car parked in North Berkeley at my old friend's Jake's house.  Thanks, Jake!  From there we drove back to the Udupi Palace vegan Indian restaurant.  We had eaten there before we took off for Ajijic.  Very good.  1901 University, Berkeley.  Telephone number 510-843-6600.  Small place.  Very Busy.  Delicious food. 

Why Ajijic? 

More detail on the trip later.  This was her second time around in Ajijic, last March having gone solo minus the "donkey" as I am called.  I am her favorite pack animal.  She loves both sunshine and pickleball, something offered in plenty in Ajijic.  Lake Chapala, Mexico's largest lake, 48 miles long and 10 miles wide, is a wonderful place to sit by and watch a profusion of birds.  Sunsets from the shoreline worth the trip. 

Olympia, Washington Cabbie Found Stabbed at Southcenter Mall Mid-January

Accessing my email, friends had sent me news items documenting this tragedy.  Driver from Redicab was found dead on the street, his cab stolen.  Nickolas Frank Hokema, age 34, had been driving a cab since 2016, enough time to know the "ropes."  His cab has since been found but not the murderer.   First area cabbie murder in a long time. 

Greetings From Arcata, CA: New Year's Eve Taxi Hodgepodge---Does Seattle Yellow Cab (Puget Sound Dispatch) Owe All the Drivers A Pile of Money? This And Other Grinning Ghosts From The Year That Was

 I Tell You Folks!

Yes, everyone, I find arrogance very annoying, and the arrogance displayed by PSD is too much to take, plainly thinking they can do anything they want minus accountability or consequence of any kind.  Their Holiday Pizza party angered me, perhaps that is what woke me up to another violation that went on year after year.  Each week, on our itemized receipts verifying we paid our weekly dispatch fees, we were charged $10.00 for advertising that never occurred.  Per driver, that comes to $520.00 per year.  

When the BYG Co-op (Seattle Yellow Cab) was going strong, they had at least 500 lease drivers and probably a lot more than that, serving a fleet of more or less 550 cabs.  Multiply $520.00 times 500 and the total is $260.000. for one full 52 week year.  Let's calculate one ten-year period and we find the total is 2,600,000 dollars.  That's right, millions of dollars are probably owed to everyone who has driven a Seattle Yellow Cab.  My very quick estimate is that we are collectively due over five million dollars, and that very well could be a conservative estimation.  

For years on end, on many levels, Seattle Yellow Cab did, and still does whatever the hell they want, knowing the City and County are either unwilling, or simply not having the legal authority to intervene. Wouldn't it be a shocker if past and present drivers request PSD pay up all those unused advertising funds?  

The current PSD owner is well known to have made untold millions in a roughly 30 year long period of operating 36 or more cabs.  I know he could afford to pay the money though it might mean selling off some of his properties, maybe even PSD itself.  Now wouldn't that be nice, a belated Christmas gift that keeps giving throughout the year?  If anyone doesn't think that these unused fees won't be an issue in 2024, you would be wrong.  This is what happens when you jam cheap pizza down the driver's throats.  That wasn't nice.  No, not at all.   Perhaps it is time for PSD to experience some financial indigestion.  

Minimum New Fare From Sea-Tac

On December 18th, 2023 (coincidently my 70th birthday), a new minimum fare policy for cabs operating out of Sea-Tac started, a now official minimum rate of $20.00 for all cab fares originating from the airport.  This new rule has some history, trying to halt an outrage that hurt drivers for too many years.  

What was happening is that much too often, after waiting one or two hours for a fare, a cabbie would get a fare to a local Sea-tac hotel, and since the Port of Seattle has a surcharge of $6.00 per each Sec-Tac originated fare, the cab ride would be a total loss to the driver.  Unfair it was, and this new rule attempts to assuage that injustice.  The new rule also allows the driver to charge the passenger an additional one dollar, reducing the surcharge to five dollars overall.   

Whether it makes the passenger happy is another question. What is obvious is that the Port of Seattle will not give up that $6.00.  It wants that money regardless of who it impacts.  Like an angry, growling dog gripping your pants leg, Sea-Tac will not let go, gritting its teeth, snarling. 

Yellow Cab 296 and His Bad Taxi Luck

My friend, the owner/operator of YC 296, has probably seen his last days as a cabbie.  A lifelong driver, he once owned seven independent cabs serving the airport.  I am not sure how many years he has been driving but it greatly surpasses my 35 plus years. On October 9th, he was hit from behind on North 145th while waiting to make a left hand turn.  The offending driver, minus license and insurance, hit my friend's 2011 Ford Crown Victoria at a speed between 40-50 mph.  All that Detroit steel saved him.  Otherwise, a very different story.  The driver was issued two citations by WSP. 

Thankfully, Washington State insurance rules have gotten him some money back in compensation.  Without it, he wouldn't have been able to pay his rent.  More money is coming but it could be nine months or more before it does.  So, like many former cabbies, he has turned to Uber.  Overall, it is a better deal for him, as I have been saying in these pages for months, the Uber overhead nothing when compared to taxi.  

This was his second bad accident in three years.  Two winters ago, a driver lost control of her car, went airborne and struck his cab that was on the opposite side of the roadway.  He was fortunate to survive that accident but his car was totaled.  Such is the fraught life of a cab driver.  

Puget Sound Dispatch lost the School Run Accounts

Until recently, transporting children to and from school was an account mainstay, something very dependable both in the mid-morning and in the late afternoons.  The vast majority of the trips were very good, ranging from $20-100.00 and and sometimes more.  Often, lucky drivers would sign up for an entire school season of round-trips, guaranteeing good money from only two fares.  Why did they disappear?   

I was told that the local school districts were now requiring one million dollars in insurance coverage to transport students, making it unaffordable.  Why the school districts made this decision is unknown to me.  I don't remember hearing of any serious accidents involving school runs.  What was their motive then?  

Perhaps I will never know but I wonder about PSD's advocacy for the owner/operators and how much effort they made to save these school accounts.  Also, another account negative is a very diminished HopeLink relationship, with fewer fares and lower rates.  

This is the reason why I keep saying that more transparency concerning PSD is highly necessary.  PSD's relationship with the driver's is opaque.  No one knows what they are doing, neither financially or questions regarding their operational efficiency.   A powerless workforce is unfortunately pliable, unwittingly providing a permission that must be taken away.  I tell the drivers this.  Do they listen, do they understand?  I am doubtful, is all I can say.

Is Farwest Planning Once Again on being A Major Taxi Player in Seattle and King County?

I have heard that this is true, that Farwest Taxi is planning on expanding its dispatch (currently terrible); and growing its fleet with all those flat-rate vehicles slated to become metered taxis.  One very big potential positive to this is that it could provide a viable option to Yellow Cab, providing owner/operators new negotiating power.  If Farwest offers the drivers some real incentive to change colors, offering lower dispatch fees and help with transition costs, it could be sayonara for Puget Sound Dispatch.  I am purposely writing this as a warning to Yellow, encouraging them to wake up before it is too late.  I am not vindictive.  I'd rather that Yellow survive despite my obvious criticism. 

Robo-Trucking Coming to your Interstate? 

In Texas, there have been two successful years of testing using safety drivers.   They don't exceed posted speed limits.  It could change the trucking industry forever.  Will it, is the obvious question mark.  Or after some terrible accident, will it go down in flames? 

More on that 10 Percent Rule

To elaborate a trifle more upon the City and County's attempt to protect cabbies from greedy associations, nothing appears to be written about limiting or eliminating set dispatch fees; instead it seems to provide permission for associations to charge an additional 10% of every dispatched fare while simultaneously charging set fees.  Huh?  Currently, Puget Sound Dispatch is charging owner/operators $195.00 per week.   Maybe somewhere in that huge 105 page ordinance it eliminates that ability but I doubt it.  

I've been told that this 10 percent provision was inserted on the behest of those troublesome do-gooders, Teamsters 117, a group of well-meaning but non-taxi experienced folks.  And this could be the entire issue with the new ordinance: it was created by people who have never driven a taxicab.  I have said more than once in these pages over the past 12 years that the biggest PROBLEM plaguing both the local and national taxi industry is that it is regulated and directed by non-industry personnel. 

If I was the Seattle City Council's President, or if I led FAS (they oversee Seattle taxi licensing), this ordinance would be a very different looking document, for very obvious reasons.  I know taxi reality inside and out.  There is nothing I don't know about how it runs and how everyone involves functions.  Not ONE person currently regulating or writing rules can say this.  Not a solitary one.  Until this changes, the industry will hop along on one leg.  

Another example of this is the woman who leads the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, Bhairavi Desai, again someone who has never driven a cab.  No member of her family has ever driven a cab.  What is her background?  She received a BA from Rutgers University in Women's Studies and, in the past, worked with women's rights groups.  No previous association with the taxi industry but somehow she is leading 15,000 NYC cabbies.  A do-gooder, yes, no argument there.  But someone like me, who knows the industry firsthand, no, not at all.  Theorists are the last anything the taxi industry needs. 

People, I tell you, this is a mistake, putting the taxi industry in the hands of amateurs.  Would you hire me to run a hospital?  No.  To run United Airlines?  No.  To head General Motors?  No.  But why not?  I've worked in hospitals, flown around the world in jets, and in my lifetime, the majority of my cars have been Chevrolets?   Doesn't that qualify me?  No, it doesn't, as I obviously do not have the in-depth experience and skills required.  Same with the people holding influence over the USA taxi industry.  They do not hold the required knowledge.  It is that basic. 

New Taxi Rules December 2023: Does This 10 % Rule Make Any Sense? & Is This The True Inside Story Concerning Puget Sound Dispatch (Seattle Yellow Cab) Operations?

Hello Cab Fans

Yes, welcome to the wacky world of taxicab regulation in Seattle and King County, where comedy isn't confined to television or stage but instead to an honest attempt by regulators to save the industry from itself.  Good luck with that, the major taxi players buffoons and charlatans running amok, intoxicated by their own rhetoric.  But the good people at the City of Seattle and King County continue to trudge forward, hoping beyond hope that commonsense will prevail.  Again, good luck, Mister Duck.  Quack, quack!  

I ofter you this quote taken from Section 40. C of the new ordinance passed last week by the outgoing (at least most of them) City of Seattle City Council.  How this makes any sense when the cabbies are paying a set dispatch fee instead of piecemeal revenue extracted from meter readings, is something I can't tell you.  You must read this for yourself and come to whatever judgement you may.  Whatever you do, do not read this drunk or stoned because your brain will soon be whirling round and round, and if you stand up, you will fall down to the ground!  What you are reading are lines 1333-1336 of a huge document.  God or the. Devil help us all!

"With the exception of any fees that are authorized in Section 41 of this ordinance, a transitional regional dispatch agency or a regional dispatch agency may only make a deduction on trips dispatched by the agency, and the maximum allowable amount of such deduction should be ten percent of the fare paid by the passenger."

Well, wasn't that fun?  Robot Speak, no longer in the 21st Century but proceeding hundreds of years in the future, Society and Culture run by computer generated speech.  Is any of this going to succeed, to work?  As a gambler might do, toss the dice and see what comes up. Las Vegas, here we come!

At the PSD Holiday Pizza Party,

management did not speak to me.  Again, this all may or may not be true but here is what I have been told.  The Puget Sound General Manager has received a gigantic raise. He might be making as much as $130.000 annually.  Staff are made to work 12 hour days, seven days a week, on salary that doesn't come close to the aforementioned figure.  And if you can''t stand it any more, doing the work of three or four people, quitting in frustration, your unemployment application will be fought "tooth and nail!"  Is this all idle rumor?  I wish someone would tell me.  

"The Cabman's Wife" & What Did Seattle Yellow Cab Drivers Receive From Puget Sound Dispatch This Christmas Season?

Cab Drivers Marry and Have Wives? A Quote from the BBC History Magazine, November 2023 Issue, Taken from the article "Broadcast Views: Radio Times at 100" by David Hendy

"Complaints about a steady dumbing down were, though, exaggerated. Radio Times has always sought a mass-market appeal, with editorial teams of the 1920s and 30s encouraged to personify their target customer as "the cabman's wife."  Staff were told that this fictional every woman would buy Radio Times--but, as long as the writing avoided "being highbrow", she might read the rest of the magazine." 

I love this quote for many reasons other than being very funny.  I like it that United Kingdom cabbies and their wives (and families) in the first half of the 20th C exemplified the typical working-class British laborer.  No Shakespeare for them, only Punch and the sporting news.  Most don't know that I almost started driving cab when I moved back to Seattle in 1982.  Unemployment was 12 percent and I scrambled to find work.  I ended working a bunch of hospital psychiatric shifts and driving Metro buses but if my wife hadn't vetoed my cab driving after hearing about the 12 hour shifts, we would have been set.  

As I have mentioned, within months of my cab beginnings in September 1987, veteran cabbies had nicknamed me "the vacuum cleaner" for my innate ability to scoop up the fares.  As for "lowbrow" taxi  spouses, my now ex-wife spoke fluent French, studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris, and got her French  Language BA from the University of Washington.  In addition, as a young teenager, she studied ballet in France with Maria Tallchief, one of dance history's most famous dancers. Anyone know the name George Balanchine? 

And that famous (or infamous) personage of these pages, "she-who-can't-be-named", has an official IQ of 150, studied in the UK and graduated from that prestigious private university, Rochester, in New York State.  She entered college at age 16.  As I always say, my IQ is minus 150, or is it minus 300?  Sorry, I can't calculate that low!

Today, at least in London, England, UK, those famous "Black Car" cabbies are part of an exclusive professional class, making 6 figure earnings and living a very comfortable middle-class life, thank you very much.  If I was a London cabbie, I would have long ago petitioned whatever local UK colleges to make the gaining of "the knowledge" into a Bachelor of Arts or Sciences degree in Urban Transportation, making cabbies further eligible for Graduate studies.  I wonder what their wives do read?   I bet it's the Financial Times and not the Daily Mirror or The Sun tabloids. 

By the way, if there is a better magazine than BBC History, I don't know about it.  I subscribe to a number of both print and online magazines and newspapers but its only BBC History that I read cover to cover.  If I keep reading it, someday maybe, just maybe my IQ will finally rise into the plus range.  God, ya never know!  And oh, back in San Francisco, 1979-82, I was a magazine editor, poetry it was.  I like magazines. 

                                                                      My brain is simple

                                                                      As large as a teenager's pimple

                                                                      Dylan Thomas I am not

                                                                      Not interested in that kind of

                                                                      Lyrical rot!

Cheap Pizza

Sorry everyone but I remember the Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts that Yellow Cab (the BYG co-op) used to provide for everyone.  Thanksgiving was always at a local restaurant, Christmas at the lot.  Today though, at PSD's Holiday party, the drivers were provided the worst of cheap pizza, Domino's.   I estimate they spent between $100-150.00 for the pizza.  I have also estimated that the current Yellow fleet paid PSD roughly three million dollars in dispatch fees this year.  And to show their appreciation for everyone's hard work, they got pizza.  Not even good pizza.  Do they know the definition of immorality?  

Somewhat laughable, speaking to a driver later, he said "at least it didn't come from 7-11."  Gallows humor is what that is.  Instead of hanging the drivers, they get to gag on stale pizza.  Saves the cost of buying the rope, building the platform, paying the hangman, etc. 

Drug Run

On the morning of what is now my 70th birthday, I dreamt I was back in a damn cab servicing a RT drug run.  I'm in these folks apartment when I am told, as usual, some kind of delay.  They pay me the exact meter, $8.00.  Then a five dollar tip. That was nice.  Must have known it was my birthday.  How wonderful it wasn't, being back in the cab, sleeping or not!

My Letter To The Seattle Municipal Court & Not A Pretty PSD Picture & Nine Not A Good Number For Cruise Robotaxis & Uber Sued In Brooklyn, New York Over Alleged 2018 Rape

Dear Municipal Court,

If volition has anything to do with this, I am innocent.  Never for a moment did I know I was in violation.  What warning sign?  I saw no sign though I was looking.  I also thought that on Sundays you could use 3rd Avenue, even for a block but no, Seattle Customer Service tells me.  Instead, for at least the past two years. no cars whatsoever at any time allowed on 3rd Avenue before Virginia.  Is that true?  There are signs on 3rd saying otherwise.

What is true, what is not, what is up, what is down?  Though I know the City of Seattle rules state that a driver is given one warning, and one warning only covering all the intersection/bus lane cameras throughout the city, I ask, how is that fair and just, let alone logical?  I know the court only enforces laws, not writing them but how does the current formulation of these bus lane rules make any sense?  To me they do not.  This is not the first time I have felt victimized by this ordinance.  Hopefully it is my last.

Thank you.

________________________________________________________________

On my return from my wonderful trip, I found a notice waiting for me from the City of Seattle, stating I had, for shame, drove in a bus lane  at 3rd & James in an successful attempt to avoid post-Seahawk game traffic.  This is my written (typed) response to the judge who will review my mitigation request.  The Court's reality is that it has no interest in seeing you in person, delaying the inevitable.  Once the citation is issued, you are "dead meat" unless you were not the individual behind the wheel.  Then you are not liable.  Otherwise, the best you can usually hope for is a reduction in the $75.00 fine.  

My letter, repeated as written, is a bit cheeky because I am beyond caring, knowing this kind of enforcement is a joke.  I've gotten a few of these, and each time there wasn't a bus within a mile of me.  Obviously then I wasn't impeding anyone.  All this is merely more stupidity generated by Dumbbell Seattle, an inherent idiocy now Seattle's official credo and motto.  If that isn't true, then what is it, "Intelligence Upon Demand?"

I just read in last Sunday's edition of the Seattle Times Pacific NW Magazine that the current Mayor wants to put a streetcar line down the middle of 1st Avenue.  Talk about impeding traffic!  Can we please issue "His Dishonor" a ticket?  For what violation, you ask?  Why for being a complete _______!   I'll let your imagination soar, allowing you to fill in the blank.  Don't worry, you won't hurt Bruce's feelings.  He's a millionaire, sitting high above commonplace chaff.  Why should he care?  Now that's a good question. 

Puget Sound Dispatch Rumors and Allegations 

It seems like there is internal turmoil at PSD (Seattle Yellow Cab).  Before I put anything in print, I will try to get Amin Shifow (PSD's GM) and Lema's (Now the sole owner?) daughter Marta to tell me what is true or not.  I'll see what they will verify or not.  I keep requesting from the City and County regulators that they "please, please, please!" regulate associations just as they regulate drivers.  I have always gotten the response that there is nothing they can do to control association behavior.  Do I believe that?  I do not. 

GM Cruise in a Spin

It was just announced that nine top Cruise executives have been sacked, along with 900 Cruise employees  laid off by General Motors, Cruise's parent company.  It appears that the aftermath of the October 2nd, 2023 San Francisco accident continues to reverberate throughout the company.  Cruise is facing a potential fine of 1.5 million dollars due to its lack of initial transparency, having concealed a video of the incident.   It angered both State and Federal regulators.  This all appears to be a classic example of a company getting "too big for its britches," thinking they are above rules of law and common decency.  

What is glaringly obvious is that the technology involved is still developing, and for Cruise to say that wasn't true, was a lie, or a best, a half-truth.  Using another idiom, Cruise got caught "with their pants down," truly an embarrassing position.  How Cruise's problems affects Waymo and other similar companies remains to be seen.  I am sure they are paying close attention to the regulatory and media fallout currently pummeling Cruise.  Ultimately this will be a positive going forward, ensuring safety not profit their first enduring focus.  Not a bad outcome from an avoidable tragedy. 

The Sorry Subject Plaguing Uber

Sexual assault and Uber is nothing new to these pages.  I have reported much about this terrible reality  connected to Uber: too often their male drivers sexually assault their female passengers.  In the years of 2017 and 2018, there were 6000 sexual assaults allegedly committed by Uber drivers.  In the years embracing 2019 and 2020, there were 4000 reported sexual assaults.  Regular readers might remember that in Santa Clara County, California, Uber was actively requesting that any woman who had been sexually assaulted first contact, not the police but Uber.  Same in Seattle.  Don't call the police.  Call Uber, your friend and protector.  That Uber helped pass a 2022 Washington State Law removing fingerprinting requirements as part of its background checking protocol should worry every woman entering an Uber minus an escort or gun.  Does Uber truly care about your safely?  Doubtful is the obvious answer. 

The Brooklyn woman who claims she was raped in 2018 by her Uber driver duly reported the assault to the NYPD.  A rape kit was used, and yes, they found conclusively that her claim was true.  That it took five years to gain Uber's attention says everything about their priorities.  If anyone doubts that, Uber lawyers fought to remove the term "sexual assault" from a collective 100 victim lawsuit currently active in California courts.  Uber's priority has been, and remains, making money regardless of consequences.  Destroy the American Cab industry?  That's good and fine.  First lower your rates, then later, after your customers are hooked, gouge them for every possible penny?  Perfectly okay.  Welcome to the Uber Industrial Complex!  Never forget.  They love you!