So, Mr. President was here to mess up traffic in NYC and making it harder for people like myself to earn their living, Midtown east was a big mess on past Wednesday due to street closures. I tried to stay away from east side but every time I managed to get out of that traffic mess on east side, next fare had taken me right back in midst of that mess.

I was cursing down on 7th Avenue in hope to stay away from east side and spotted two men hailing for cab on corner of west 48th street, in front of Lace Gentlemen's Club, they were tourists from U.K "hello! where are we going?" I asked them and could not get their destination due to their accent, I asked them again and all I could understand was 2nd avenue and east 46th street, good enough for me.

If I have to categorized my best fares, tourists are almost always are amongst my best fares.

But these two guys were acting weird, I turned on West 48th street from 7th avenue to go towards east side, they tried to shout at every single girl on that street, throwing sexual remarks towards them, which again was fine with me, ride itself turned out not that bad as 48th street was clear, we made it to 2nd avenue in about 8 minutes.

Upon turning south on 2nd Avenue, I asked them the name of the place they were going to, "Don Veitia" they told me and then asked me "How far are we?",that moment I was stopped at east 47th street stop light in third lane, looking for their given destination, "One block" I replied.

They opened the door and ran away, leaving back door open and green light with coming traffic, Great! isn't? There I used my cab driver's God given skills to block all traffic behind me and turned on to 47th street, I got out to close the back door of my car when I spotted them hiding behind a pillar of One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza.

Now if you have read my previous post, my school of thought is, if they are going to jump the fare at least give them hard time, so in future they think twice before doing the same thing. I decided to give them a chase. I started walking towards the pillar they were hiding behind, and when I came closer they started running and I ran after them. I choose one of them(weaker one) and after about quarter of block managed to grab him and brought him back to my cab and demanded the fare, strange thing was the other coward never showed up again during this whole thing, Instead a gentleman New Yorker, who probably was getting off his work, helped me to take him to my cab, and this idiot kept asking him, what he had to do with all this?

And guess what? my next fare was also from U.K, going to Affinia Manhattan and we had great talk about upcoming cricket series between U.K and Pakistan.

Note: Yes I know I'm lazy, post was meant to be posted way earlier :)

Labels: Assholes, cricket, Manhattan, Taxi Tales

Does anyone else have observed increasing fare jumping incidents? Last year I had three fare jumpers, but this week alone I had four of them, will write briefly later about all of them. Oh God why me? Two of them were class acts and two old fashioned(open the door and run away).

Labels: Assholes, Taxi Business

Worst thing that can happen to a taxi driver on his job (criminal activity is not considered here) is someone vomit in the car, it simply means end of your work shift and cleaning up your car. It mostly happens during night shifts and to make things more worst car washes do not clean inside of your car during night, and driver ends up cleaning that mess up himself. Only once one guy threw up and cleaned up the car for me, it was so nice of him.

But what happened on past weekend has no match, it is undoubtedly a winner. Someone just decided to use back seat of car as their toilet and had a piss in my car, I suspect it was my last job during that night and hence can tell it was a girl picked up from meat packing district and went to columbia university on upper westside. When I go to filling station, I check my backseat to make sure no one has left any thing behind. and What I saw was so gross, backseat was wet and there was pool of piss onto the floor.

Girl why couldn't you just ask me to stop for you, many many times people have asked for the same reason and believe me most cab drivers wont have any problem stopping instead having their backseat turned into toilet.

Labels: Assholes, meat packing district, NYC, Taxi Tales

BBC News - 'Family row' may have sparked Cumbria killing spree

I don't know why people take matters too far, my condolence to the victims's families, may they all rest in peace.

Labels: Assholes, Views on News

If we talk about flawless rules or laws, in my opinion they must be dead ends, what I mean by this, if you steel you will be prosecuted regardless of circumstances, if you break red light you will be fined with additional points on your record etc, and flawed rules or laws are the one with wide open options, unfortunately TLC have many flawed rules, for example TLC rule states driver can refuse a fare if he has concerns about his safety or feels threaten, but it does not explain what conditions can qualify for safety risks and leaves it wide open unto driver's judgment and his intelligence, so basically driver has to profile people based upon their looks, neighborhoods they are heading to, way they dress or talk to driver, to decide if he should or should not take the fare. Based on his intelligence if he refuses the fare he then may has to face service refusal charge in TLC court, which is amongst one of the most serious charge against driver, and his license can be suspended upon proven guilty of the charge. So after some experience many drivers make their "in this situation do this, in that situation do that" kind of their own rules which varies from making sure at beginning of the ride if the subject has fare money to dropping subject in nearest busy street instead of his exact address.

Although I never have refused any person till date, but unfortunately I had to boot three people out of my cab last year. And yes I have made my own rule for that situation which is " No matter what I'll never service a person, who is abusive towards me, period." You are a street thug or president of united states, if you break my rule you will end up thrown out of my cab, no negotiations in this case.
So I had first incident of this year where unfortunately I had to tell the guy "get the fuck out" tonight. It was suppose to be a very short ride, I dropped one gentleman at LIRR Station and as expected in busy Saturday night spotted this indian guy hailing for cab on the spot.

After my fare got out of cab, he jumped into front passenger seat and three others occupied back seat of my cab, two back seaters were black male and one black female.
They were heading to Pasha, which is located on W 46th street between 11th and 12th Avenue, as I started heading towards their given destination, they started talking to each others. They were all doing their residency somewhere in New Jersey, they are future doctors, and were in town for party. One of their friend was stuck in Penn. Station at Newark and was not able to catch his train to join them. So far so good, I took W 33rd Street from 7th Avenue towards 10th avenue, upon approaching on 10th avenue we found ourselves in heavy traffic, so guy in front told me to turn on 34th street, from 34th street he wanted to go up 11th avenue and I told him this will take us to Lincoln tunnel and back onto 10th avenue again we better take 12th avenue as you are heading to W 46th street between 12th and 11th avenues, and street is east bound. But unfortunately we find ourselves in heavy traffic on 12th avenue again, I was trying to cut traffic in taxi driver's way, when he told me to take right on 40th street, I took right and after that he again wanted to turn left on 11th avenue, which was impossible as 11th avenue is one way street at that intersection, whole traffic mess around all streets was due to Lincoln tunnel's traffic and now we were sitting in midst of that traffic, cutting off other vehicles when I made it to 10th avenue, he told me to turn left again. At this point I asked him in pleasant way was he a cab driver? he replied in negative and then I asked him is he New Yorker? he replied in negative again, after that I told him he didn't have to tell me on every turn I know my route in this town, it was a notion to remind him that he can tell me once how he wanted to go and I'll take that route.



"I know where you coming from" he told me and continued " by telling me you know your route" he completed his first sentence and kept on "this is how you fucking make money by taking people into traffic, I know it" I looked towards him if he is joking? but he had I-am-the-boss-you-fucking-scumbag expressions on his face, which translated into hate. I pulled over and told him" چوتیے (Choot e yeh) it is too hard for your brain to think how a cab driver makes his money, you better get out of my cab right now" he paid and got out and three back seaters were looking strangely as they even did not know what have happened between front seaters. I drove off and knew it is almost impossible for them to hail another cab at this location and that was enough for him in rain.

But the question remains, what should driver do if passenger gets abusive or disrespectful towards him? most will say just finish your job and forget, but in all above situations when passenger got abusive or disrespectful towards me, I felt distracted, my head boils and I can't pay attention on driving which make me more vulnerable toward having an accident, I don't know what other drivers say but this is what I do and after booting them out of my cab a cigarette break is must to get over anger.

Labels: Assholes, Taxi Tales

Last Friday I went to all five boroughs, I did eight trips to Brooklyn, three to queens and when I got frustrated enough by not getting any trips within Manhattan limits in busy Friday night I got fare going to Staten Island after long time, upon returning from Staten Island, finally I picked up this young guy in front of Pianos on Ludlow street going to upper west side.

he told me to go to West 68th street and Broadway, it was around 3:30 in the morning and after getting out of east village traffic, trip was smooth and quick to the destination with nice fare on the meter.

I asked the guy where did he wanted to stop after turning on Broadway from West 66th street, "are we at 68th and Broadway?" he asked me, I pulled up in front of AMC theater between west 68th and west 69th streets and told him that we are at the destination.

"Ok, listen I got to go to the building to bring you the money" he told me, I had done this in the past and would have done this again, as taxi driver one has to run into this kind of situation sometimes. But problem was there is no residential building in this block, which raised a red flag and I told him he can pay by credit card.

"What happened is my friend took my jacket and my violet was in it" he said, and I asked him that he did know this situation from the beginning which he denied by saying he realized it upon arriving at the destination. Keeping myself calm I asked him "Where do you live?" and his answer frustrated me more, "I live in Chelsea" and continued saying "I came here to see my friend and she will pay for the ride" OKAY.

"Can you call your friend to come and pay, I will wait here" I told him and he replied that she was not picking up the phone and he promised me to come back with the money. To be on secure side I told him to leave something behind and bring me money upon which he said he did not have anything and I reminded him about his phone. "I can't leave my phone" he told me and continued "can you write me down your address and I'll mail you checque for $200" yeah right, "Sir, I don't need $200, all I need is metered fare which is $19 and some change" I told him. "I think you pretty much don't have any other option" he told me and I reminded him all the options I had given him and warned him about hidden option of taking him to the police. "You can't take me to the police" he said, at this point I called 911, told them the situation and my location.

Now all above conversation took place in very calm way without getting angry, just like conversation between friends. After 911 call things started working out, his friend picked up the phone and miraculously remembered the address which was 155 west 68th street, and more amazingly I got call from the police with in two minutes after the 911 call asking my location as I had moved to the given address from prior location that I gave to 911 operator, they told me to stay there and don't move.

Officers came and asked me about what happened then asked his side of story and told him same thing that he knew all of this before hailing the cab, almost two more minutes had passed when officers after waiting for the friend, asked him about the friend.

"What is your friend's name and apartment?" officers asked him.
"Puja and apartment 40 something (I don't remember exact number)" he told them, he even spelled the name for them, to me sounded like Indian name.
One of the officer went inside and came back with a white girl in her pajamas and bear footed, who was asking officer why would driver call you guys up for? Now I was waiting her to pay and she is standing by the curb and finally complained that it was too cold, officer told her to get inside of the cab and told me to hurry up she is bear footed. WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO WITH THIS? I'm fucking waiting for getting paid and had lost almost 20 minutes in this shit, meter was stopped 20 minutes ago. She got into the car and asked "what do I do with this?" holding credit card in her hand, I looked at officer told him meter was stopped and can not be reversed, she might have to pay with cash for this ride.

"I can pay you $10 or by credit card, hurry up decide" she bitched, I was calm during this whole process but started loosing it now with her attitude. Officer asked me if I can take the credit card, I put the last payment in refusal and started the meter on flat rate so she can use her credit card. She paid, got out of the cab and said "I don't understand why he called the police for?, hey driver, you know you are stupid" I lost it now and called her fucking bitch , before situation get worst, officer instructed me to move my car, which I did but frowned with anger.

But day had not finished yet, while I was stopped at light, I saw one black guy, who got refused by two other cabs, on green I pulled over to him and he asked me if I can take him to the Bronx, Only borough I haven't been during night and I told him yes, he was coming from gentle-men's club, nothing gentle happens in there though. On his destination he selected cash and did not wanted receipt, waiting for him to pay I looked at him and he asked me how did he do do this?, holding a credit card in his hand and I told him that he selected cash from there and has to be cash now, "I'm sorry I have only $13.00" he told me, fare was was $17 and some change. I told him to give me $13.00 and told him It was not my day.

Labels: Assholes, dishonest, NYC, Taxi Business

I first read about Wasim Khalid Cheema here then followed up the news on Daily News. Apparently Cheema made $40,000 extra than he deserved by tricking the meter, which is also biggest fraud in TLC history.






For those who don't know a taxi meter in NYC has four different modes and rates, rate 1 is regular which is used in five boroughs of NYC, rate 2 starts the meter from $15.00 instead of $2.50 regular and used only for Newark Liberty Airport, rate 3 is flat rate negotiated between driver and the rider and usually is used when you are going out of state, upstate New York or Suffolk county in Long Island, rate 4 is called "double the meter" and used for Nassau and Westchester Counties, rate 4 get in effect after crossing the city limit and meter start charging double price.

What this crook was doing is to use rate 4 instead of rate 1, with in the five boroughs. Which means if your regular fare is $5.00, you will end up paying him $10.00 fare. What surprised me is he got reported after six months of doing this act, no body ever complained? But thank to the passenger who actually took the right step to complaint to TLC, and making this industry get rid of him.

He gave bad name to all other hard working cabbies out there, but punch was thrice hard for me and cabbies like me out there, as his name suggests he is Muslim,Pakistani origin and a cab driver, and I happen to have all these titles too.Bad news always spread faster than good news, also bad news stuck in mind for long period than good news do.

You can follow up comments section on Daily news to see kind of impact his action get for other cabbies.

Labels: Assholes, dishonest, Religion, Taxi Business, Taxi Scam

Usually people think fare jumpers are likely to be males, past year I had three fare jumpers, all of them were white females, kind of passengers that really doesn't raise any red flags.One of my friend who works day shift also had one fare jumper, which was again white female, so based on these personal experiences, I can say white females in their 20's are most like to run away with out paying.

Tonight, around 2:30 A.M. I dropped off one fare at Juliet Supper club in Chelsea, W21st street between west street and 10th avenue to be specific.As expected, I got another fare, a female in her late 20's or early 30's, from the spot.

"14th between 5th and 6th" she said as soon she entered into my cab.
Thinking of a short ride I asked her "14th between 5th and 6th?" which I do as routine to make sure the destination, she replied yes.

After maybe 5 minutes while I was stopped at red light on 6th avenue and 14th street, I asked her "where do you want to stop, miss?". This is where the trouble begins
"where the fuck am I?" she asked me nicely and raised first red flag.
"we are at 6th avenue and 14th street, miss, you said 14th between 5th and 6th, yeah?" I reminded her politely.
"You fucking open your ears, I said between 9th and 10th, I'm a new yorker you can't do this with me" she answered this time more politely.
Thinking in my mind, I made left on 14th from 9th, crossed three more avenues, was she busy masturbating at that point?.
"Miss, if you will swear once more, you are out of this cab" I warned her.
"Yeah ,I'm getting off and not fucking paying you" she showed her cards.

I locked my cab doors at this point, she tried to open the doors, did not work. I have Ford Escape with L shape partition, what she did next was not expected by me, she jumped in front seat to unlock the doors, from the knob on front door, It did not work either as I have pressed my side knob to lock position.

"Ok you can call the cops,I'm not paying you" she gave me another option.
"How about if I drive you to the precinct, its not far from here, miss?" I made the offer.

This point she relaxed a bit, and said if I drop her off between 9th and 10th, she will pay me. I drove her to the destination, she paid and said "I'm huge tipper, you have lost your tip".
Thank you miss, do you want your 10 cents back? I asked her as fare was $7.90.
No, you can keep it, and she was calm like nothing have happened between us moments ago.

I do admit,i make mistakes sometimes, like 18th/80th kind of mistakes,in situations like this I prefer to ask street numbers like one eight/eight zero, problem in this particular case was not that i drove her to wrong address but problem was she was not ready to listen, even it was her own mistake.
What other cabbies do in situations like that?

Labels: Assholes, Chelsea, Juliet Supper club, Taxi Tales

I started working an hour late this evening and ended early, only this statement, tells that I haven't made any money.

It was raining in the evening, my back hurt for past two days, I just wanted to take a day off.but about 6:00 PM decided to go for work. Today was busiest traveling day around the nation, every highway was jammed pack with traffic.

As soon I entered into Manhattan, at E 119th street and second avenue I spotted a fare, hailing for cab, he was a construction worker, still in his work clothing.

As soon he entered he said "take me to casino", GOD traffic was so bad into the Bronx, especially Major Deegan expressway was bumper to bumper, and this fare wanted to go all the way to Yonkers, Empire City Casino to be specific.

I did not want to take him, but had no option, I asked do you want to go on flat rate?, he knew the double the meter rule and insisted to go on meter.In ideal conditions this fare would have cost him about $30.00, but as traffic was bad, it took me fucking hour and half to the destination.

"Quanto amigo?" the guy who was Mexican asked me, it was $62.80 on the meter. "WHAT, where you picked me up from?" he asked me, and I replied from the city. "No amigo, it is $30.00 always, I come here almost every two weeks" Ignoring the fucked up traffic, he said. I don't know, what I know is you have to pay me the metered fare. At this point he again said he will pay only $30.00.

I locked my doors, get away 5-6 blocks from Casino while calling 911, he said "do whatever you want to do, I'm not scared of police" but after 10 minutes agreed to pay $63.00, before police's arrival, wasted my 15-20 minutes in rush hour.

When I took fare price from him, he asked me to drop him in front of casino again, and I told him " your fare is finished" either you have to walk or get another cab, and he replied I'm in the cab, lets go, I was pissed off at this point, and told him " no I wont, because I'm not suppose to make pickups outside five boroughs, and Yonkers is not a NYC borough.
He got out, noted down my medallion number, upon which I decided to honor him as first asshole of this blog.
6SX7JT5JQ9YP

Labels: Assholes, Taxi Tales