Wednesday, March 21, 2012

CAREER CHOICES

Cab driving is like prostitution, it's addictive and I can't get away from it. Ever since I entered my cab driving career quarter of a century ago....           

"Mad Cabbie, you drove a cab for TWENTY FIVE YEARS!!!? What a fucken looser!"

Please don't interrupt me! Like I said, for all these years of driving I probably quit three times and I always get sucked back to it. When I return I feel like I am in heaven, I don't know why I went to college, I should have jumped and started hacking as soon as I got my driver's license.

I miss the streets, the people I interact with, the shady ass passengers and the quite dark nights. You have to be a cab driver to really understand this, the shit that I am doing is the best gig in the world man. Imagine this, you go out at night bull-shit with people, drive them around, bull-shit some more and get paid for it! When the sun attempts to show up in the morning, your ass is gone home, you let the suckers deal with the rest of the rat race. Then you wake up when ever you wake up and do the same shit all over again. Sometimes I fell like a bum with a car who makes money somehow!

I am not trying to romanticize being a cab driver, I am really not, but for a single guy like myself who maintains a simple life, it's a perfect fit. The only drawback is it's hard to get some quality chics no matter what kind of bread you pulling in as a cab driver. When women hear the word "cab driver" they run for the hills! You see, we cab drivers, our career is just on step higher than the garbage-men. Shit, this garbageman I know does better than I do in the women department, and this is a guy with a missing left thumb!

I do have a gig that doesn't pay but I consider it real and worthwhile, I don't forget the homeless!

Mad Cabbie.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome back, man! Glad you missed being a cabbie because I missed reading your crazy ass stories.

Anonymous said...

You dc cab drivers have it so sweet. If you had to pay $107 a day + gas of course, would you feel the same way ?

Anonymous said...

To the Tomato Can driver above, you suburban boys are woefully ignorant about what we deal with.

Only recently have you acquired the crinminal with whom we have been dealing for years.

You are not working for 1989 cab rates.

You do not have legions of hack inspectors writing you thousands of dollars in nit-pciky summonses while they ignore unicenced drivers and ignore you suburban boys as you take our customers away from us leaving us with NO means to pay these excessive fees and fines.

You do not pay an extra fifty bananas a year for a hacking face so that your regulators (or should I call them OVERregulators?) can go on 'retreats' at lavish resorts and order room service on your nickel.

You do not deal with legions of Police Occifers who think that they are hack inspectors--a role that they assume because they are afraid of REAL criminals.

You do not have excessive fines that are up to eight times what other jurisdictions charge for similar infractions.

You do not deal with thousand dollar fines for a tyre that is a few PSI below its rated.

You are not your jurisdictions Automatic Teller Machine. Your police do not pull you over and write you three hundred dollars in summonses because your poor-mouth crying jurisdiction tells them to do so because you can always find something wrong with a cab.

So, Mr. Red Flopp, I hope that you know a good lawyer. You need to contact him after you find the guy who told you that we City drivers have it so sweet. You need to sue that guy who told you all that--he told you a LIE.

Anonymous said...

you have it sweet. Low rent fees, No no shows/ last minute cancellations etc., more business , mostly cash paying customers, ( big difference) theres always money to make in the city, dc cops vs.... no brainer. Im in md not va. Most of us want to legaly drive in the city but the doors are closed. We dont want to take your business but when you are literaly brought into the city and you are flagged down for a ride back to silver spring or bethesda.....were hacks first and foremost and when you have to come up with that $107 , you take your chances. And being born in DC and raised in PG , I have a problem with anyone who is not even from this country trying to tell me i cant.

Anonymous said...

Drive a call cab in the City and you get voucher/account/contract customers.

Accept credit cards and everyone wants to use it to pay you. Those guys who will not take cards are losing customers to those who do. Why do you think Barwood, Redd Flopp and DC Yellow is killing Diamond in NW? Almost all of those guys take the ol' tarjeta a credito, while most of Diamond's drivers still will not. You can order a cab online from those three, but not Diamond. I take the cards, and let me tell you how many want to pay with them once they see my terminal. Let me tell you how many times I have had five cabs in front of me at a red light downtown. A customer will walk up to each one, say something, move to the next one, until he gets to me. His question? 'Can you take a card?'. I answer 'yes', he gets in and asks to be taken to National Airport. The demand for the card is there and people are finding other means of transportation that take cards.

DC cops pick on legitimate drivers. They leave the unlicenced drivers and you suburban boys alone. You and the illegals should be getting your vehicles IMPOUNDED. After a few of you face Lee over that one, you'll be gald to deadhead back to MontCOMMIEry County.

No NSPs????? Under what rock have you been hiding? Call cabs in the City get MORE NSPs than you suburban boys. Customers LOVE to wait until the driver actually gets to them to call and cancel. I do not know how many times I have called a customer for a driver to get the story about how they allegedly called to cancel (they did not) or how they meant to call and cancel. And DOUBLE CALLS? When we had five radio services in this City I was aware of more than one occasion where five cabs showed up at an address.

While we do not pay a C-note for a hoopty, Y-E-T, that day is coming. The only thing that we have better than you is lower rents. Ease of ownership used to be another, but right now, unless you already had a DCTC, you can not own. DC residents and corporation are excepted; they can still own, but the corporations are not going to put on the street more cabs than they can rent. As for the individuals, about twenty per cent claim to live here, but half really do. The Tax people will be coming after that half who really do not live here, as they do not pay income tax. At some point, they will not be able to renew hack faces or car registrations.