To cover my gas costs and lease for the night, I usually have to make $125. This is my break-even point, and it usually occurs at 10:00 PM, half-way through my shift (although I usually earn $200-$300 in the second half of my shift). Tonight, this occurred at 9:00, and thank god for that....
....because at 10:00, I stopped being a taxi driver and started being a source of free rides around the city. I have no problem with this of course, because it's my friend's birthday party and I really don't care that much about money. The plan was to pick up a few people from their houses and drop them at Outlaws. What actually happened was this: I drive to one end of the city, and then back 3/4 of the way to the other end of the city, and then downtown only to realize that the birthday girl has forgotten her ID. This means another trip to the outside of the city, and then back to Outlaw's, only for the birthday party to realize the obvious....that Outlaw's is a terrible club with terrible people. So, I go back once more to bring them to 302. Total time: 90 minutes. Fare if the meter was running: >$50
So now that that's over with I should probably go back to making money, right? Nope, went to Tim Horton's instead.
Eventually I did get around to doing my job. Sadness ensued. For the second time in as many weeks, I pick up a passenger who informs me that they have recently been diagnosed with Leukemia and have less than 6 months to live. What am I supposed to say to that? I don't know, but I probably should have come up with something better than, 'Well, that's a bummer', a phrase which I've been using a lot lately. I turned the meter off when we made stops, he was a cool guy and talked about wanting to finish law school and being his own boss for his entire life.
Birthday Party Part II: Eventually the party needed to be picked up, and disappointingly the birthday girl was still able to walk and not so drunk as to be passed out in a gutter somewhere (the only possible way to end a successful evening). Instances of driving then occurred. Eventually we came upon a McDonald's and eating soon followed. My lack of earnings for the night caused me to suggest eating in the car instead of stopping and eating there. At this point, I'm ten hours into my shift and my ability to maintain a conversation or appear that I have any interest in life has long gone. So, I apologize for that....but it's not as if I'm a big talker anyway.
With a couple hours left I was able to make some coin to salvage what was otherwise a failure of a shift (in terms of money, it was actually an enjoyable shift). Earlier in the evening, I picked up someone who instantly recognized me. People probably get the same taxi driver often, but when that taxi driver is the classiest, most handsome taxi driver in the city, you take notice. That's not that unusual though, what is unusual is that I picked that person up for a third time later that night. Oddly enough, she's a quiet one so after three trips we never actually had a legitimate conversation.
My night ended on another failure. I'm on the lower east side near the freeway which is usually connected to the lower east side, which is where my customer needed to go. I told him there was construction and that the freeway was blocked. I sincerely believed this to be true, and I felt bad saying we had to take a long detour to his house. However, on the way he noticed the on-ramp was open and therefore the freeway option as well. No more words were exchanged for the rest of the trip. Tip: $0.00
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