Has anyone ever driven a Taxi?

[tinkerbell41]

I am currently looking at 2+ years of unemployment. Been in the trades for 20 yrs, started school for a different career, I need something to carry me through.

I have looked into driving a cab, met with someone this week, and will "train" next week.
For me it looked like the most flexible thing, with school and household responsibilities, and a full school schedule starting in August. I need to make at least 300 a week.

[juajen]

1. I haven't, but my son in law once did. He said he was frightened

all the time. He was robbed once, but not hurt; however in our very mostly calm small city, Lafayette, LA, there seemed to be a lot of robberies of taxi drivers. I don't know where you live, but you should check into the crime statistics.

[tinkerbell41]

5. It's my understanding

That I will be picking up and dropping people at the airport. I live about 3 miles away. I am sure I could still possibly be robbed, but these are "arranged" pick ups. I guess I can go back to waiting tables if I don't like it.

[htuttle]

8. I've known a number of people who've gone back and forth...

...between waiting tables, bartending and cab driving. It's the same basic skill set, just a different environment (and job tasks).

[tinkerbell41]

11. I kinda thought so.

I have waited off and on for 20+ yrs, the thing I loved about it was the characters, the brief interaction with tons of different people. At my age though it is getting harder to get hired, they want "young" why, I'll never know. I have experience and maturity and a Mortgage! (lol)

[NV Whino]

2. Good luck

I hope it works out for you. although you do have something working against you. You speak English.

[tinkerbell41]

3. Thanks.

Yes, I do.

[timo]

4. I did ONCE

We were drunk as shit in Juarez and stole it, drove it to the bridge hoped out and ran back to the states.....NEVER NEVER NEVER will I EVER be that messed up again EVER EVER EVER !!!!!

[tinkerbell41]

6. Ha!

Now that might be the way to go. Steal one and pick people up. No lease fees.

[htuttle]

7. I've spent 23 years in the taxi industry

About 8 of it was driving.

It can be very flexible. It's way better than flipping burgers, way better than retail clerking (for me), and while scary at times in some cities, is always really fun at least part of the time just about everywhere. You really never know who's going to get in your back seat.

As far as how much money your'e going to make -- depends on the deal, and there are usually a lot of different ones. I started in the leased cab business (generally brutal, and money wise the high side was good, low side really bad) and have been at a worker-owned and operated coop for the last 19 years (best place I've ever worked).

on edit:
Oh, and at the coop I work at, in a major university city, half of the drivers aren't actually 'cab drivers', but rather artists, musicians, writers, etc... who just happen to drive a cab. :)

[tinkerbell41]

9. The draw for me

Is meeting people. I love it. Loved doing canvassing because you never knew who you would meet, and how it would end up, some a brief convo sign the sheet and goodbye, others brought me in gave me a tour, told me their life story, fascinating.

Yes, this is a leased cab. I'm a little nervous, but I do have a sense of adventure and I think this plays into it.

[bananas]

10. Speaking of taxis, whatever happened to shadowknows69 ?

I haven't seen him post for a while.
Here's a classic: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2822554

[tinkerbell41]

13. Hey, thanks

Was an interesting read! I'll hunt around for some more posts.

[Egnever]

12. Yup

In Both Chicago and Las Vegas. Both were working for a company that gave a percent of the meter + tips. Both had a policy where you had to meet the average book most of the time. In both cities I found it ridiculously easy to meet the average and that allowed for a lot of flexibility.

The shifts in vegas were 10-12 hours long. The fact that meeting average was so easy to do though meant that out of those 12 hour shifts I spent a lot of it doing other things. For example I had a shift that ran 1 am - 1 pm I would go in get my cab and then drive people home from the clubs for a couple of hourse then it would dry up for 3-4 hours so i would go home and climb back in bed and get back up when business would start to pick back up. I never had trouble meeting book in fact i was high book on many occasions even with 3-4 hours of down time each day.


A lot of cab driving I found was figuring out the times and places where people would be looking for rides. Once you got those nailed it was pretty easy to work when the work ws there and do whatever else you wanted/needed to get done in the slow times.

I really did enjoy it most of the time, every time that back door opens you are off on a new adventure of some sort or another.

Good luck to you!

[tinkerbell41]

14. Thanks

My gig will be around O'Hare. I figure if anything it will give me good stories for the Nursing Home, and Grandkids.

[Egnever]

15. I drove for Park Ridge taxi

just outside of O'Hare :)

THe issue I had in chicago was zoning for the cab companies. You could only pick up people where the liscense was valid. Every time I had to take someone downtown I would have someone scream at me for not picking them up :P

[givemebackmycountry]

16. TAXI!

When I first arrived in Orlando in 2008, I didn't have a ride.
I was in a new office, with new people, as I had just been moved from Kansas City.
I donated my old car before I left KC, with the idea that I would quickly pick something up better down here.
Guess again.
I discovered (at the DMV no less) that a fender bender I had in 1978, had rendered a judgment against me for $750.00.
That was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
I could not renew my drivers license (which expired the month I moved down here) and that meant no new ride.

I rode in the back seat of a cab for almost six months, as the lawyers worked it out.
Yeah, yeah, I know, but do you have any idea how hard it is to rid oneself of a 30 year old obstacle that no one had a record of?

Luckily, I met Tom and Rick who were brothers, and drove cabs.
In deep red Florida, both were liberals and we bonded quickly.
Tom was 60+ and he said he was a ex-lawyer out of Houston, who got disbarred after a deal went down where he was cut out by a little known company called Halliburton.
Rick was the younger of the two and he always had some deal in the works, and driving a cab was simply a placeholder until something else kicked in.

They got me back and forth for months on end.
I always tipped well, and that led to them eventually just turning the meter off, and taking me the 2 miles to my office off the books.
I even got my first bag of weed from one of them and believe me, when you are trapped at home for six months with no ride?
You need some weed.

Sometimes they did very well.
Three or four hundred bones in a day.
Other times, they barely covered their gas and the taxi rental, and some days it wound up costing them money, as they made virtually nothing.
And this is ORLANDO mind you.
Home of the Mouse and you would think that there would be enough tourists to go around.
Guess again.

The day I got my drivers license was the happiest day of my life and a cab took me there to do it.
Tom also drove the cab to the dealers lot so I could pick up my new ride and that was the last time I rode in the back seat.

These guys are still my friends, and I have to say I learned something by watching and talking to them.
I learned this...

I don't want to drive no freaking cab.
Unless I have to.


edited to add I am a dumb ass.
I forgot this, a must read.

http://www.zenmoments.org/the-cab-ride-ill-never-forget/

[tinkerbell41]

17. Ok I just got chills.....

I read the link, and THAT is exactly why I think I would love it! I know it doesn't happen everyday, but I am the type of person who looks for and appreciates those chance encounters.


And yeah, I basically have to. I am at the end of all my Union Benefits, Unemployment, etc..
I sat on the books for 21 mos worked for 6 and am back on the books for an appx 29 month wait.
It is do or die.

[givemebackmycountry]

19. I'm glad you enjoyed that.

I wish you the best of luck.
I wish your cab to be filled with interesting people who tip well.

TRUST YOUR GUT.

If something don't feel right, get the eff out of there.
And please...
Keep us up to date on your exploits TB!

[Thunderstruck]

20. I'd like to second all that right there.

[mitchtv]

18. I drove for Veterans in SF

never got held up. got a few runners tho. I did not like the swing shift. Sunday evenings were very slow, Sometimes I barely made my gate in Sundays