Another Cabby Conversation

Spoke to the taxi driver on the way home last night. Usually they are forthcoming with their rants once poked a little. The conversation, well monologue or interview really, started with the folks in front of the taxi queue not wanting to board his cab. I was graciously offered the opportunity so I took it. The cabby asked what that was about, I replied I had no idea and he began his tirade by explaining some passengers don't take his cab because he doesn't accept credit cards. He said his company, Transcab, didn't insist on all their cabs having such transaction devices. Good, old fashioned cash was king here. He continued to say these devices did not come with the taxi as a base offering to drivers. They had to pay for them. Apparently there's also a charge levied by some taxi companies for the system that allows drivers to accept bookings. That took me by surprise. It's small, a few dollars a month, but it isn't a mandatory item for all drivers. Maybe that's why some drivers hide and wait for bookings to come in instead of picking up street fares - to milk the machine for all it's worth. There are complications too - one can't reject bookings too often otherwise there are penalties or disbarment from this privilege. Taxi drivers also have to pay their companies for each booking they confirm, something like 40 cents for current bookings and $1 for advanced bookings. The driver said that the problem was that this sum was deducted by the big computer system processing the numbers. It sometimes messed up. Double deductions, deductions despite passenger no-shows, incorrect amounts etc. That's why we sometimes see drivers taking notes of their jobs and journeys, to keep records of their earnings to match against what the big computer spits out.

This guy jumped from being with Comfort for 4 years to Transab. After explaining about the misguided deductions, he elaborated that his previous employers were, in my words, arseholes. When confronted with complaints from passengers or other motorists, the company hardly investigated and sided with the plaintiffs. In circumstances that seemed unfair, taxi drivers weren't really allowed to make their case and asked to declare in writing they wouldn't repeat their 'crime' again, to a cocky manager who's 20 years his junior and wet behind the ears. "That's chialat", I said and the driver repeated the phrase. He also revealed that the Big Blue also tracked their vehicles' speeds and that some taxi drivers were fired for speeding. This is independent of any traffic police summons. Yikes. So much for getting away with it when Big Brother is secretly watching.

With the jump to Transcab he's happier. Not too much messing with deductions and there good overall camaraderie between management and drivers. After all, it needs to be a win-win. Taxi companies aren't really the bosses and drivers aren't really private cab owners.

We went to talk about how the gahmen's centralisation of transport services was gonna come bite them in the ass sooner or later. But that's for another time.