Anyone here drive a cab?

[Archae]

I did about 30 years ago.

There's an article here about the "fun stuff" cab drivers go through:

http://www.cracked.com/article_22002_5-bizarre-things-driving-taxi-teaches-you-about-people.html

He didn't mention though how drunks behave, (or they don't behave,) in a taxi.

I helped one woman up to her apartment on the second floor, (she was really plowed,) and she passed out right in her kitchen in front of me.

The cops had to come, see if she's all right, and get the money for me.

And then there was the guy (he was plowed also,) who had a fare of $2.75, gave me a c-note and said "Keep the change."

[stone space]

1. My brother-in-law drove a cab for a while.

He got of the business and sold his cab, after deciding that it was too dangerous.

[tkmorris]

2. I did, years ago

I drove around the Washington DC area. My first stint (I had two more later) was while waiting to enter the US Navy. It made little sense to take any kind of long term employment, and getting my hack license seemed pretty straightforward so I went that route.

I really don't know what I expected but it was much seedier than I thought it would be. The best money to be made is during the weekday daytime shifts. You can have the meter running almost constantly during those times and can usually count on a few airport runs (which pay well). Therefore, the new guys don't GET those shifts. I got late nights, often all night, and some weekend day shifts. At night I picked up all manner of "fringes of society" kind of people. There were a lot more strippers than you'd think, some drug dealers, quite a few bar hoppers needing to get home. The occasional more mundane person working night shifts somewhere. I can readily identify with almost everything in the article you linked. The surprising thing isn't that such things happened, it's the REGULARITY with which they happened. Every night brought at least one new WTF moment, sometimes more.

It's not an occupation that is looked on favorably these days, so I don't often talk about it but I don't regret having done it. You learn an awful lot about what really goes on in a place driving a cab, especially at night.

[KamaAina]

3. Anyone here drive for Lyft or Uber?

Is Uber really as evil as it comes across in the press?

[snooper2]

4. We used to take a cab from downtown back to North Dallas in the day-

We would tell the cabbie an extra $20 upfront if he would let us smoke some dope LOL