Vancouver Cab Driver(s) - TAKE THAT!!!
During Vancouver’s most extreme rainy season, some people here call it winter, I do not walk over to my Shrink’s office - I take cabs. It is a little luxury I take the liberty of indulging in.
I’m well aware of the series ‘Vancouver’s Cab Crisis CTV News Investigates‘. BUT I have not watched, read or listened to any of their coverage, because a pretty good while before I saw it previewed as an upcoming News Investigation [other than it just being a space filler mentioned from time to time] I had already started an investigation of my own. It wasn’t that I ever had the intention of making any kind of relevant story out of it, I was just curious because I have always been a bit of a bus snob and it has only gotten worse with the city COVERED in construction for the 2010 Olympics, and thus I noticed the decline of anything even remotely resembling service rather quickly.
I started to notice it around Christmas so no one would even listen to me because it was Christmas and all I’d get was, ‘it is Christmas there are never any cabs’ and I would be like NO this is different you can feel it in the air something is wrong out there. I probably didn’t defend my claims exactly like that but I KNEW I WAS RIGHT!
Taking a cab is supposed to be somewhat relaxing and out of nowhere not only could I not find a cab and was almost late for therapy numerous times and had to wait up to thirty-five minutes outside a popular hotel for a cab home, I noticed that once I was in the cab the drivers suddenly started to act as if they had no idea how to drive around the city. To a resident it became crystal clear that due to everyone who lives in Metro-Vancouver knowing full well that what is known as the Cambie Bridge is OFF LIMITS - until if we are lucky 2010 and don’t forget that it is thanks to YOUR grandchildrens’ tax dollars - and that drivers were facilitating a mad conspiracy to screw us all.
So ok I will give you that getting in a cab and having to give EXACT street by street directions is not that bad, is not too much to ask, and obviously I had been taking it a tad for granted that everyone here is just so damn nice. Sure. Since last December I have seen more cabs drive right past my MAN HANDS WAVING than I have actually flagged since 1996 it makes me sick and I fear for us all in 2010 if cab drivers are treating us residents this poorly.
I started to ask the ones who didn’t dick me around and actually make ME explain WHY they shouldn’t take Cambie questions about what was going on in the city. For a while I was happy buying that due to the entire province needing workers that they were just short; but what wasn’t working for me was the excessive out of the way trips drivers were taking to get places, and I was letting them know. Sometimes I forget to give my route because I’m distracted or busy arguing with them about where the traffic is when I KNOW DAMN WELL THEY KNOW!!!! [Ps. I used to work directly with courier call centers FOR YEARS.] I would just give up and say go which ever way is fastest which means they take Cambie and before I realize and can do anything about it I’m already pretty much swearing at them.
The anger I had begun to feel just getting in a cab came to a peak of sorts when on the way home from my Shrink’s office recently with Adam in the cab, and on our dime the driver stopped his car, rolled down his window and started YELLING at people who had managed to flag a cab down town from the suburb of Langley - he YELLED don’t pay him he is out of his zone!!!!!! And the driver went into an elaborate speech about how the suburb cab companies were stealing their business. REALLY? Are they?
Sorry but I’d still pay the guy whether he is out of zone, area, whatever you want to call it cause guess what ass face HE STOPPED! This is when I thought hmmm maybe I should post on this.
Yesterday it hit the fan like a bird getting stuck in a jet engine there were feathers EVERYWHERE!
I get in, we argue over traffic and it is raining and I am EXTREMELY grumpy and ready for my session. I missed the street I should have asked him to turn down and it was too late. I began making comments, “I can’t believe you actually took Cambie in the rain”, “this ride costs me twelve dollars every Friday you’d better hope for no traffic”.
DEAD STOP. GRID LOCK!
By this time my anger is boiling, fiery red blood is about to spew all over him and burn him a new asshole. I consider calling Adam and just venting very loudly over how mad I am. But I was in a rage so I decided FUCK THIS I’m getting out. The meter was at $9.75 and we were not even half way across.
“I’m giving you a twenty right now, give me a ten I’m getting out.”
He of course doesn’t seem to like this but I insist knowing I have to get out before his car reaches a certain point or I stand more than a chance of dooring a cyclist, to say the very least.
We exchange the money; I look right at him and say “I REFUSE TO SIT HERE IN TRAFFIC!”, get out, slam the door, hop over the separator to the walk path, quickly becoming thankful the rain had stopped and instantly phone Adam and burst forth like a tempest my story of VICTORY and empowerment over a cab driver and hoofed it the rest of the way JUST making it on time.
I ended my conversation with Adam by saying the ONLY way things are going to change in this city in regards to cabs is if people start jumping out of them. See if any cab driver dicks me around after THAT. I have the balls.
March 1st, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Way to go! A cab jumping revolution!
March 1st, 2008 at 10:10 pm
if you can spew fiery red blood and burn new assholes i think that you are a dinosaur. or maybe just belong on monster island.
i also hate getting in and immediately having to size up the cabbie cause there are so many bad ones. this isnt the black market. they are not selling drugs. they are providing a public service. what would happen if you got hit by a car walking downtown down the street and suddenly you wake up with an IV in your arm on your way to surrey memorial? that is unnacceptable, but these cabbies can do whatever they want, drive by you, refuse your destination, or try to double your fare? i hate that the good guys get tagged by this. one time i got in and discovered that i coached the guys son in spring hockey. that was rad. would have been better if he let me ride for free. i mean, we only did win first place….
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:06 am
I’ve ditched cabbies on several occasions for reckless driving. Some don’t even wear a seat belts. I especially love the ones that are heavy on the gas and the brakes. (That racks the meter faster) If I wanted the wind knocked out of me repeatedly, I’d go to the PNE. Everytime I leave downtown in a taxi, as soon as I get in I tell them to take Georgia Street Viaduct and I can see the dollar signs fade from their eyes. Haha suckers!
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:55 am
Step 2: Don’t pay him.
What an a-hole. I once got in a cab after a flight back from the East Coast. Granted, only five or six hours, but that’s five or six hours in a tight space with bad air and bad food and I just got off an EFFING plane.
Anyway, I get in a cab and tell him where I live, which is just over the Arthur Lang bridge, so it’s not far. It’s about a $12 ride. He then proceeds to BITCH that he waited an hour in the cab line-up and was pissed off that I was only going $10-$12 worth of a fare.
I effing lost it on him. Like WTF? I told him that I could get out right there and take my stuff and he can go around again and wait another hour for a bigger fare if he wants to moan about it. I told him that I just got off a goddam PLANE and I was TIRED and I just wanted to get HOME and that if he was going to be an a-hole about the fact that I live so close to the airport, then I could get out right there and get into another cab.
He shut the eff up and drove me home. I didn’t tip him.
March 2nd, 2008 at 5:11 pm
the only “cabs” we have that can be hailed here are minibus taxis…so you’ll ride with 13-16 others. car taxis are telephoned for and take a while to arrive. you’ll also pay through your butt. (hundreds).
trains are cheap but dangerous. buses are cheaper and dangerous. the only safe way to get around here is by car. having said that, all drivers of aforementioned don’t care about my rage, yours or anybodys. they hardly even notice, let alone care. so in our case getting mad is pointless. all it does is stress us out. they still haven’t noticed
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Well done!
March 3rd, 2008 at 6:24 am
BRAVO! I loved reading this first thing in the morning! I’m so mad at my a-hole bus driver and this made me feel better.
March 3rd, 2008 at 4:39 pm
@jennie the city may have to really they may!
@spokette yeah i’ve done that lots too, i’ve never done it in the middle of a gridlocked bridge.
@iris it has gotten so bad that is about the only way to handle it is either get out or don’t tip. i considered not paying where i was i COULD have just hopped out but i just couldn’t do it.
@capegirl i LOVE your eye opening comments!!! after i read it, adam had already read it, i looked at him and said that sure puts it into a ‘real life’ perspective doesn’t it?
@maja thanks dudette it felt GREAT!
@tiana thank you, don’t read today’s post in the morning
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Yer balls, they be MASSIVE!!!
March 12th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Oh gawd ya, did you happen to read the story I wrote about the cabbie that caused us to rear-end him? ON PURPOSE! I have recently had a few more bad cabbie tales, that I am saving up for another rant on them.
Cheers to you darling.
July 20th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Cabbies in this town are total scammers. A friend visiting took a cab from my place (west end) to the bus station and the feckers charged him $25 dollars. This isn’t even a $15 drip. Those bastards must have driven him around downtown a few times to jack up the charge.
I don’t trust a single one of them.