Basically, I rolled in doing a 300 dollar day. The details of this will be posted later this morning. For now, I has a sleep. A nice, long, glorious sleep since I know all my morning traffic of people going to work and what not will not be there Saturday morning. A lot of myths got dispelled today, and not just because it was Friday. Questions were asked of the most important people in this process... the customers.
OK... so it's later.
And, as you can tell from the preceding paragraph, I pretty much wore myself out by the time I got home. I can honestly say after yesterday, that if you follow your nose, and don't worry about the money, you'll make the money. My first two days, I tried too many "formulas." Yesterday was simpler: take a trip, book back in using the zone I dropped my trip off in and start driving back to my side of town and take whatever the trip computer gives me. And, if I make it back, start bidding to get back out of my side of town if I'm otherwise out of work.
And so it went. I logged in at 5 in the morning and had a couple of trips out and about. I started on my side of town and wound up in south central Houston working my way back to the Medical Center. I decided to actually turn down a trip from that area because of the traffic confusion with the light rail traffic. Medical Center is interesting and a lot like the airports. I'll never mind taking people there, but I'll let the downtown hustlers grab people from there. By then, I'd reached 9 o'clock and I decided to head to the yard to pay my lease.
I logged out, paid my lease, got gas and headed over to Taping For The Blind to finish recording this week's Sports Illustrated show. I've also been tagged to read the Houston Rodeo audio description promotional again. Apparently, for someone who's not a Texas native, I sound like a pretty natural shit kicker. I've actually scored an award for that.
After Taping, I decided to test the first myth... namely, that it's somehow "dead" for cabbies between 10am and 2pm. I logged in behind the Taping building, waited 15 minutes and then started driving back to my side of town. Well... I made it to about Hillcroft when I got flagged down by a young lady trying to get back home. She related a horror story to me of waiting for a cab for at least 45 minutes and about the guy who took her from home to work this morning.
Apparently, his meter was running and clicking off "chips," as I like to call them. Basically, other than the first $2.50 and any tips you receive, every 11th of a mile or 34 seconds of wait time clicks off in increments of 17 cents. He then stopped his meter and told her it was broken, and charged her 20 bucks for what is normally a 10 dollar ride for her. I took her home and it was 9 and a half, and I told her I'd only charge her 9. I ended up making the 10.
Object lesson learned: usually, if you pare DOWN your meter to an even dollar amount at the end of the ride, it's genuinely appreciated by your cab rider. I have never pared down and not gotten the amount back in at least a dollar's tip. So, in essence, I've never really undercharged for a ride.
Now, I've also put this together with my understanding of how people feel when the meter clicks of wait time chips. I had another fare shortly thereafter in a VERY crowded shopping center, and the only parking space I could pick her up in was surrounded by SUVs the size of Vesuvius... I shit you not. These were H2 Hummer sized or better. Technically, I'm supposed to pick up and drop off at the curbside, but traffic was flying around that area like crazy. It was safer to use a parking space. I put her in the cab, and she'd already been waiting for nearly a half hour. I apologized for the wait and I said, "Ma'am, because of the way we're parked, I'm not going to start the meter until we're properly on our way. I'm not going to charge you 17 cents every 34 seconds so I can back out of this mess safely... and to keep things safe, I'm going to be doing this slowly." She thanked me for being safe, and we backed slowly... giving way to 3 in a hurry meatheads who just had to have their Starbucks at lunch.
Twits.
In any case, I waited until the nose of my car was pointed at traffic before I hit the HIRED button on my meter - legally shaky since I'm supposed to have the meter running from the very MICROSECOND I have a butt in the seat and my car is in motion of any kind.
Crunk. Giving a customer their money's worth
However, the extra consideration turned into a three dollar tip. For me, being nice to someone is worth a 6 dollar an hour raise. The trip, including being notified, picking up and dropping off, was less than a half hour.
This led to another 15 minute wait after I drove another 10 minutes toward my side of town, and then I bid on another job. About halfway to Sugarland/Stafford, there was a gentleman and his granddaughter who'd already waited a half hour to get picked up to visit a relative at 610 and Ella. Who in their right mind works this area and doesn't take this trip, I don't know. I understood when I got there. That part of I-610 at that time of day was crazy full of traffic. Strangely, as a SF Bay Area native, I was used to it. I got them there... and that was a 42 dollar job. Then, the next 45 minutes were kind of light. A pick up at a grocery store to home. I voucher trip to a church. Then, a really heartbreaking story. The trip itself was somewhat uneventful and rather easy, but the story behind this is something to behold. I'm reconstructing this from what the rider told me and I'm putting it in chronological order for ease of reading... and head-shaking.
This gentleman, dependent on a wheelchair and in need of dialysis, was at a dialysis center on the northwest/centralish part of town. Nice guy, by the way. I emphasize that for a reason. He had arranged for Metro Lift, the part of the local transit authority that gives rides to the disabled, to pick him up at 2:30 in the afternoon. Yellow Cab of Houston also operates a back-up fleet of cabs with drivers who receive specific additional training and they drive specific routes to go get Metro Lift customers as well as the drivers with the larger vans who drive for the City.
Note of interest, by the time I got dispatched to him, it was 3:40pm.
By the time I got to him, a Metro Lift backup cab was there to pick up a different patient, and he was headed along his route instead of where this gentleman was going, so I was still committed to the trip. However, he was a little pushed out of shape and confused. At first, he was waiting for a white van from the City. They don't show up. Then one of my cab driving brethren shows up with a Metro Lift route and says, basically, that he's not going his way. Finally, I get there and I have a little of my own confusion going on.
However, I make a few heartfelt apologies - dude had obviously been through some shit - and we got him in the back of my sedan and his wheelchair properly folded into the trunk. And, we were on our way. On a trip like this, we have a person who works with the Metro Lift subsidy program who has already deduced the maximum fare based on this customer's intended destination - home. His home was off of Interstate 45 south near Hobby Airport. I started off at 4pm and got him home at 5.
I actually got him there under budget at 47 bucks. The trip calculator people said the maximum fare was $48.50. So, here's the math of the whole deal. A Metro Lift driver, who makes 14 bucks an hour and doesn't lease a vehicle, couldn't pick this guy up. Then, a Metro Lift cab driver wasn't able to take him because his destination wasn't on his route. The cabbie pays a reduced lease, and makes 22 bucks an hour for his time spent on his route; and he's expected to stay on it, so there's no fault there. So, as a result, the City of Houston ends up paying me nearly 50 bucks to take this gentleman home. But the saddest part of this isn't the economics of it.
Not eight blocks from where this guy lives is a place called "The Kidney Center of South Houston." I asked my fare, "Wow, a kidney center. Do they do dialysis there?"
"Only if you're rich," he answered.
To put it mildly, I was outraged by the whole thing. It took this poor guy however long to get to the dialysis center on the northwest side of town using MetroLift, plus the time on the dialysis machine, then the 2 and a half hours that I know of to get home because of the snafus in the transit system. I'm thinking to myself... couldn't the money that gets used to transport this guy be given to the "rich people's" dialysis center 8 blocks away from him?
Then, I got a wild hair up my butt to push further south, towards some old stomping grounds of mine. Again, about 15 minutes goes by... I stop into a little roadside mom and pop store on the side of state highway 3, grab some peanuts and a Sprite Zero and I'm not on the road another 5 minutes before the trip pops up.
Space Center Houston. I ran the Ham on Rye VR theatre at the Putt Putt on NASA Road 1 for nearly three years and I'd always been near the Space Center. Never went to it, though. Now was my chance.
It's another 25 minutes away and the folks who ordered the cab have been waiting, and will wait, an inordinately long amount of time.
I get there, and luckily they happen to be out of towners who've been using cabs to get everywhere in Houston. They're happy to see me and I get their destination... the Houstonian, off of I-610 near my part of town. I've never heard of it, but I know it's going to be Again, I tell them that I'm not going to start the meter until we're on the road-proper. I want to make sure I've properly exited the Space Center, which is now closed and may have any number of weird ways of directing me out. I don't charge people for my confusion. Also, I find out that the Houstonian... a place I've never been before, is actually off of NORTH Post Oak, and not just Post Oak... we actually have several Post Oaks in Houston, and knowing which one you're going to is a damn good idea.
We get there... and "opulent" doesn't describe it. The Houstonian isn't just a hotel, it's also a spa and resort. Good grief, it's gorgeous... nestled in trees and having valet and bellman service at every single building are just a few of the amenities. I didn't stick around to find out about the rest. After the fare and tip, it was 75 bucks. Between my two 40+ fares and all the small ones I had that day, I'd already made close to 300 bucks. Finally, just a few minutes later, I got what I decided was my last fare of the night.
A yupster calls me to take him to a destination indicated by some Yahoo map directions. I still verify it with my Key Map book just to be sure. He asks me if I can stop by a gas station to let him buy some beer and I said, "Fine, as long as none of the containers get cracked open while this vehicle is in motion. That's a big fine for me." He assures me it's for the party he's going to. I say "cool," and think to myself, "a fare and some wait time," and we start the trip. Shortly after he buys his beer, he gets a call and the plans have changed. I get an address I'm not terribly familiar with, but close to his original destination. However, since the Key Map isn't clear about where this block is - an address on Highway 59 (or specifically, the "Southwest Freeway, as it's called for addresses on the feeder roads next to the highway-proper) - I have to guestimate the exit. Also, I don't know which side of the highway the odd or even numbers are on.
Right on cue, I overshoot the exit and find I'm on the wrong side of the freeway. I tell my fare that I'm stopping the meter at 14 dollars because that's what it would have been if I'd stuck the landing right, so to speak. We double back and find a spot to check addresses and find the other side of the freeway and the spot... the Lupe Tortilla on the other feeder road. The meter actually read 20 dollars and a few cents, and as his way of thanking me, my fare gave me a 20 and told me not to sweat it when I started making change for him.
It was at that point I sensed the karma of the night starting to shift. People were taking more chances on the road, driving crazier and hugging each other's bumpers a little too closely. I'd made my 300 and that was enough. Technically, according to all the rumors, there were still another 6 and a half "hot hours" of the night left, but I really didn't care.
I called it a night at 8:15, took my dinner at Red Robin and crawled into bed at 10, allowing myself to sleep in today. Tonight, Saturday, I'm going to play close to the vest and somewhat by ear. I've already clobbered some bills and I may set a money limit for myself to balance burning gas, making money and working too late into a night where people might start getting dopey again.
All for now...
G
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