Subject: A couple in their mid 20's hailing for cab at W 60th street and Broadway going south, for those who don't know New York city very well, it is well known landmark in NYC known as Columbus Circle.

Labels: Funny, Manhattan, Taxi Tales

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

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

Yesterday I picked up four ladies from Time Square and they were heading to SOB's on Varick Street. Times Square is becoming more and more hassle for cab drivers as one lane is closed for construction and one lane is almost always blocked with NYPD's vehicles, while we were stuck there, girl sitting on front passenger's seat started interviewing me.

They were visiting from Nashville and it was their first day in New York, she questioned me where am I from? I told her I'm from Pakistan, then she asked "Do they have cabs in Pakistan?" and I replied jokingly " No, we use camels there", but she took is seriously and proceeded to ask "What do they feed camels with?" I started laughing.

But the winning question came afterwards when she again asked me what do people pet in Pakistan and I said Pets, she asked "do you have Buffalos In Pakistan?" with following question "Do they eat buffalos?" and the best question was "do they make ham burger with buffalo's meat?

But they had the best and sexiest accent for sure.

Labels: Taxi Tales

GPS data as collected by TLC should have been beneficiary for the drivers, especially when they are the ones who actually are paying for GPS devices installed into NYC medallion cabs hence they must gain some benefits from this technology.

I was pretty sure or at least I was assuming we the drivers have few benefits with this technology, for example number of times when passenger complained about the fare price, I handed them their receipts and told to call 3-1-1 in order to place a complaint, by doing so I was assuming that GPS should have recorded the pick up time and address, route taken to destination and drop off timing and address and in case of him/her calling to file a complaint, TLC will look into that data.

Once I had an incident, I picked up a guy and girl from E 97th street, it was my first trip on Sunday evening and he told me to go to 116th street and St. Nicholas avenue. I took right onto E 97th street then followed by another right onto third avenue, upon reaching at E 116th street and 3rd avenue intersection he told me to stop there, I stopped the meter he paid by credit card, and ride was over fine, nothing happened. Next day my day partner started calling me about 11 a.m, I was asleep and I sleep like semi dead person kind of way, after many tries he called my home and have someone to wake me up. Finally when I spoke to him, he told me our meter has been locked and I have to call our management in order to unlock the meter, when I called the management I was told that I dropped off one passenger at 116th street and St.Nicholas ave on Sunday evening at 5:28 P.M and when the passenger was taking his stuff out from the trunk I drove off with his luggage inside and with open trunk, first I told her that I have Ford Escape, I really can't drive with my trunk open knowingly then I asked her time and day again, upon realizing incident happened just day before, I recalled the jobs and told her it never did happen and she asked me then why did the passenger call? "I don't know, what I know is I did not go to St. Nicholas Avenue yesterday, did you check my record from the GPS?" I asked her, when she checked the record I was right, our meter got unlocked. What I guess is happened the guy I dropped off on third avenue, after shopping took another cab to his destination, this incident might have happened but with another cab, not with me, but when that passenger pulled up the receipt he pulled the one I gave him earlier that day. This incident increased my faith in GPS and made me less worried of backseat bitting.

But this is not the case, GPS apparently records only pickup time/drop off time and relative addresses only, it means passenger can take you to the court and tell the judge that you have taken him to Manhattan, took two bridges from JFK to drop the passenger in Brooklyn, and you have to prove that it did not happen that way. Good luck fellow drivers.

Labels: Taxi Business, Taxi Tales, TLC

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

Wow spring has already sprung and whole week was blessed with sun, I discovered weather does have effect on attitude, great weather translates to great attitude by drivers and riders alike, I also discovered accusation by TLC has played major role in my earnings this week, I've been doing (playing) survey with almost all of my passengers that if they have ever felt that driver has overcharged them and on end of every ride scored more in tips, even guy from Boston tipped $5 on $7 fare to a Yankees fan, isn't that great? I just told him about what he needs to look for when he is in taxi. This is how I start conversation, may I ask you few questions? when they affirm the request, my course is like
1) Do you live in New York? if yes
2) How often do you take cabs?
3) Does the fare from point A to point B is always similar?

I'm telling you it is fun to do this and later explain it to the passengers about TLC's accusations, until now only one passenger complained he has a receipt which says Nassau-West.

Labels: Taxi Business, Taxi Tales, TLC

I had the longest trip within city limits this Saturday and I'm not quite happy about that trip, because it made me feel like I was cheated on.

I picked up two young ladies in their early twenties prior to this trip, one of them was Hispanic and other one was learning Spanish, at least she knew all the bad words, which I happen to learn while working in Spanish Harlem for three years. One who was in process of learning Spanish was talking in broken Spanish "yo necesito un grande pinga", I guess just for the purpose not to let driver know, what are they talking about,she was saying it in Spanish, but mis-fortunately if you speak Spanish with me, I can get 40% meanings out of it, I dropped them off in front of Webster hall on E11th street and was told to wait for their home boy to come and pay, after about two minutes I told them "Rapido senora", and she started asking my name, "Jose" I told them, she did not believe me and kept insisting my real name upon which I pointed them to my license, I was more interested in getting money and move on in busy night than having conversation with them, which eventually happened.

As soon they got off, I saw a couple standing on sidewalk and looking towards road, I made eye contact with them and they were looking for a cab but like visitors were not hailing it. When I affirmed them with my head notion they got into my cab. The guy was in his early 50's and girl maybe in her 30's, at least she appeared to be in her thirties.

"Ok two stops, one on 14th street and third avenue subway station then we are going uptown" he told me, I started the meter. He started convincing the girl that he can drop her off on her place and she agreed on 13th street.

"Change of plan, first stop is going to be Williamsburg" he told me, I asked where in Williamsburg? N 9th street and Bedford, this time girl answered my question.
Girl was British or she might be Aussie, I love British accent especially when speaker is female, while driving I put my ears on their conversations, which were not very long, as they turned into kissing spree, like world is going to end and they don't have anytime left. I usually get little nervous in these situations as sometimes somehow people think of cab's backseat their private bedroom, and go forth for the act that is suppose to be done in bedroom in privacy. They did not go that far till we arrived at first stop, I still have to hear how a girl moans in British accent in excitement.

"Now we are going all the way up in the Bronx" he told me as girl stepped out of my cab. I live in the Bronx and I have much better Idea about Bronx than any of other outer boroughs. "Where in the Bronx?" I asked him, "Oak street" he told me. Not knowing where it is, I asked him what neighborhood is this street in?. He told me to take Bronx river parkway and he will tell me from there.

I lived in that part of the Bronx for five years, it was shame I had no clue where is Oak street, thinking it may be tiny street, I started driving. Took the BQE to RFK Bridge(A.K.A Triborough Bridge) to Bruckner Expressway into Bronx River Parkway, When I crossed the Bronx Zoo exit, I asked him what exit he wanted to take, he was asleep and did not answer. I turned on interior lights and knocked the partition, eventually he woke up and asked me "where are we?" I told him the location and he told keep on going, when I approached near 233rd street exit, which is the last exit in the Bronx, I asked him again " Do you want to take this exit?", "Next exit, after this exit" he told me. It turned me off and without showing anger I told him that will be Yonkers not Bronx and doubled the meter, failed to understand why would he lie to me about his destination?.I was more angry at myself as I lived in this area and knew Oak street in Yonkers very well, not realizing this for the whole ride made me curse myself.

I took the exit, he was not very far from the highway, On Yonkers Avenue he told me to stop by the bank, so he can get enough money to pay me, I told him he can use his debit card to pay, which he ignored. Before stopping in front of bank, I made sure there is no run away route. He got out, went to ATM machine and I kept looking while standing illegally on Yonkers Avenue in turning lane, Five minutes passed, he kept looking into his valet standing in front of ATM, at this point I thought to call 911, first he lied about his destination, did not have enough cash? to me it sounded perfect fare jumping story. But before I'd made 911 call, he started coming towards me. "I can't find my bank card" he told me, "we have to go to my apartment, to get you money" he finished. This was worst for me, without letting him know that I'm pissed right now I started driving, kept thinking to call 911, I was about 90% sure he would jump the fare.

"I have credit card" he spoke up, biggest relief for me, "you can pay by credit card" I told him, "I don't see how?" he explained. I stopped the meter and told him to follow the instructions on the touch screen. He completed the transaction and paid $10 tips, fare was around $80, Tips were good but I was more happy to secure the fare price.

So in this trip I drove through four out of five boroughs, which made this the longest trip with in city limits for myself.

Labels: Brooklyn, NYC, Queens, Taxi Tales, The Bronx, Yonkers

So tonight top news was Tiger Woods's apology in my cab, everyone, especially ladies were keen to comment on whole thing, I did not know that there were at least 15 women were involved in this whole scandal until one female passenger made me aware of that and added "One of the girl got pregnant and aborted the child without letting Tiger know, that was a million dollar baby right there, if it was me i would have that baby come out and live happily ever after" She said. I never understand why do women go for a married man if he has money? Why is money becoming more valuable than values them self?

Work was fine as it should be on Friday night, I had good luck tonight and was able to get few extra bucks in tips than what I usually get in tips, there were few fares who paid 100% tips, but later on that night I went in guilt mode. Around 10:00 P.M., I dropped one fare in Park slope, Brooklyn, On my way back while I was stopped at red light off the Manhattan Bridge, I spotted one fare on north bound Crystie street, this is the spot, where no other cab would come. On green light I drove to the lady, who was may be in her 60's. She had some luggage across the street and wanted me to make u-turn and pick up the luggage and drop her off to the Fung Wah bus stop, which is only one block away from there. I told her I can't make a U-turn, "I can wait here until you bring your luggage to this side of the street, or hale another cab on other side of the street." I told her.
"No empty cab is coming to other side of the street" she said, "and luggage is heavy for me" she completed her sentence. I was not ready to take a chance as that is hot spot for the police, I apologized to her and kept on my way north, later on I felt guilty of not doing that for her, I should have taken the chance.

Around 11:15 I got another fare going to little west 12th street, in Meat Packing District, I took 9th street to cross the town, turned on Greenwich street from Christopher street.Most cab drivers know Greenwich street and Washington Street in meat packing district can really turn into nightmare with excessive Stop signs if they fail to pay attention, which by the way act as taxi traps for cab drivers.
As as stopped at stop sign on Bethune street, I started talking to the passenger if she wanted to go around Washington street and come back on little west 12th street or she wanted to get off on 9th avenue, upon crossing the Bethune street I noticed police car rushing from Bethune street onto Greenwich street behind me,with flashers on, my first thought was " he might be looking for way", I moved to right side of the street, police car came behind me, which assured me I got pulled over.
"Your license and rate card" officer told me as he approached my car, I gave him my license and rate card and asked "what did I do wrong, Officer?"
"you were on the phone and did not stop properly" he answered me.
"I was talking to the passenger officer and I did stop there more than 30 seconds while talking to the passenger" I told him.
Then he said, yeah you were stopped but when you came into motion there was one pedestrian on cross walk which you ignored.
End of the story, he took my license came back after one minute and did not issued any tickets, good enough.
So yeah my night went great, Thank God.

Labels: meat packing district, NYC, NYPD, Taxi Tales, Ticket, Tiger Woods

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

Cab drivers, sometimes, do a guide's work, I also love doing this. Many tourists asked me, if it is safe to go out in certain neighborhood at night, and my answer is always New York City is safest city in the nation, as surveys suggest for many years now.

I picked up a fare, from JFK airport going to Chelsea. She sat in front passenger seat and we had nice chat during our way to chelsea. She was from Germany, visiting her friend here in New York City for the first time.When I took LIE from Grand Central Parkway, she saw red brick buildings and said oh these red brick buildings are dangerous, I asked her what makes her think that?, "I saw it in movies" she replied. I told her, this is not the case as I myself lived in one of these red brick building for five years, and that they are affordable housing for many New Yorkers, and these buildings are every where in NYC.

I dropped her off, she asked for my number for future travel in NYC, I told there are many Cabs available all the time, she can just hail anyone, as I always tell passengers upon asking my number.

Later that night, I was talking to my friend and told him how media can manipulate people's thinking and told him the story, he said " didn't you tell her, you have seen spiderman swinging around Empire State Building in movies"

Labels: NYC, Projects, Taxi Tales

Ever since our meter is upgraded to add $0.50, additional surcharge for bailing out MTA, I'm getting this weird error, which says Con upon trying to load a fare, I think it is abbreviation of Connection. Workaround is, wait for few seconds, when Con disappears, try putting meter in hire again.
But today, I picked up a passenger, tried four good blocks to put meter on hire, but each time this stupid error message kept coming up, I told the passenger about the situation, offered him to either get another cab, or go on flat rate, which he usually pays to the destination, he prefer hiring cab behind me, I rebooted the system, every thing was good again.
It was very slow week, as i expected, I took almost two days off, for the Eid plus every one seems on vacations anyway for the thanksgiving weekend.
Nothing special happened tonight, except a stupid guy I picked up, he read my name and tried to have conversation in Arabic, I did not pay attention, then he called me in English, I replied and he was like "I was talking to you in Arabic, why don't you reply?" I said, I don't speak Arabic, "then why is your name Muhammad?" because I'm a muslim. I did not want conversation to go beyond this point, but he kept asking, where I'm from and I told him, Bronx,"I mean ethnicity" he asked again, just to end the conversation i told him central asia, he kept going on stupidity and said "wait, wait your name is Muhammad and you are from central asia?" I just wanted to bang his head at this point, but stayed calm and replied, "there are more than 15 muslim majority countries in central asia, why is it impossible?" he kept me busy with these kind of silly questions until I dropped him off, he was Egyptian as he claimed, I wonder why doesn't he know Arabs are only 15% of muslim population. Pakistan and India togather have more muslim population than of all Arab countries together.

Labels: NYC, 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

Picked up a fare, near West 100th street and Broadway, young Hispanic couple. They were going to 187th street and wadsworth avenue, in Washington heights.

Right after guy finished telling me the destination, girl started arguing with him "I can't believe this, that was just ridiculous", at this point I got interested in the conversation, in the beginning, guy was just trying to clear his position that he was not aware of it, and that why would he will do this if she was around?

It turned out, it was his birthday, he planned to celebrate that special day with her. Unfortunately he asked his friends a good place to celebrate and they refer Ba Da Bing, which happens to be a strip club, Ta Da.

Now you get the picture, girl was accusing him doing that on purpose and considered direspect to her, guy was apologetic, that he did not know Ba Da Bing is a strip club,if he would "why would i go in there, with you?" this was his argument.

He kept asking her, why wouldn't she let it go, it was a mistake and he was sorry for that on his part. But girl was not in mood to let go of it, kept crying and blaming him, ignoring that he apologized for his part.

Then guy lost it, and started cursing her out, which started new argument of him being absuive to her all the times.

Enjoying that Spanish, English and Spanglish argument, i took West 178th street exit from Henry Hudson Pkwy. At this point guy started talking to me, "you see, this is the problem with girls" he told me and kept on saying he is looking forward for "Men friends", at least they don't hurt your feelings on your birthday. At this point he asked me if i can be his friend, and kept asking my number till we arrived at the destination, so we can start a relationship. It was a fun ride.

Labels: Funny, NYC, Taxi Tales

You don't start good, most probably you will not finish good, this is what experienced drivers will tell you. For a good start, driver must be in the city early and must stay in city, at least during rush hours.

Today, it started bad for me. First while I was trying to enter into Manhattan, traffic was not moving at all, it took me half an hour to cross third avenue bridge.

Luckily I got fare early, near E 116th street and Second avenue going to Penn. Station, I hate it, it takes for ever going cross town during evening rush hours.
After that, I got little momentum, and was able to spot fares quickly. Around 6:45 PM, I got another fare going to Penn. Station,passengers were waiting for cabs and no cab was around, as it happens during that time. I drove to front of taxi stand, thinking while I drop off my fare, other cabs can come and pick up fare behind me, leaving some space for them, taxi dispatcher directed passenger to cabs behind me, after I finished with my fare, and ready for hire again,dispatcher kept sending passenger to cabs behind me. To make dispatcher aware that I'm ready for hire, I honked, as soon as I honked, there was a hasidic jewish guy, who was going to cab behind me, instead he ended up in my cab, "I'm going to bensonhurst, take Brooklyn battery tunnel" he told me, and I was like, FUCK, thinking my day is ruined.

While I was in battery tunnel, strange thing happened, instead of Brooklyn battery tunnel's toll, computer popped up Holland tunnel's toll, out of habit I just pressed OK on beep, and noticed $9.50 on my meter instead of $6.07, I kept driving with out telling to the passenger, he was busy advising young fellow, "you must be responsible because you are married now". Young fellow said "I'm just 21", "doesn't matter" hasidic man replied, "you are married, you must not act like other kids".

When we reached at the destination, I asked, "are you paying cash or by credit card?" he answered by credit card, at this point I told him about the tolls mistake, and said you can go ahead with payment, I will give back the difference in cash. He asked me how much toll he was suppose to pay, "$4.57" I said, "and how much did computer charged?" he asked again, "$8.00 by mistake" I replied, "Ok, i'll pay you the full amount, and whatever the difference is, you can keep it as a tip" he told me.

that is so generous of you, getting me out of Manhattan during rush hours to the end of planet, ($8.00-$4.57)- 5%, no one have ever paid me that much tip. Off course i did not say later to him.

After dropping him off, I decided to go to JFK airport, which turned out to be mistake, as it took me good two hours to get job from the airport going to Williams burg, She paid me good tip. With short haul ticket I decided to take another chance on JFK airport, which turned out to be best decision I made during shift, got a fare from Kennedy to upper east side, they even tipped me more.

it was already 12:15, and city looked like ghost town, still was lucky enough to get few more fares, and did end my shift better than thought.

conclusion: experienced drivers are not right always ;)

Labels: NYC, Taxi Tales