Who are the Taxi Drivers?
San Francisco currently has 1,381 Medallion taxicabs.
Taxicab Drivers that I met in San Francisco. I would classify them into several categories, mostly Taxicab Medallion Owners, Foreigners / Immigrants, Ex-Con, and individuals with a Special Interest. I consider myself as In-Transition.
Taxicab Medallion Owners are San Francisco Career Cab drivers for many years. They apply for a Medallion ownership though the City and County of San Francisco. It is similar to a Retirement Benefits from a company. The waiting periods for a Medallion is 15 to 20 years.
Foreigner / Immigrants come to America searching for a future opportunities for their children, sacrifice their past career in their previous country. And hope to gain a better life for their family. Just like many generations of immigrants that came to America, The land of Freedom and Opportunity. Immigrants are hard workers; they are willing to work long hours and 6 days a week. Normal daily shift can be 10 hours, 12 hours or 16 hours.
Ex-Con are use to serve 24 hours a day in a Correctional Institution. Working 10 to 12 hours a day is easy for them.
Individuals with a
Special Interest are unique. They are not working for money; their goals and motives have many different kicks. For Example: Religion,
Lonely, NASCAR Drivers, Love, Prestige and personal satisfaction. And
many more.
My observations from driving a Taxi for 3 year. There are not many African Americans or Mexican Cab drivers. And was curious of why is the reason. Then I ask a few Black and Mexican Cab drivers. The responses I get from the African American drivers vs. Mexican drivers are different in their perspective.
1. Taxicab Medallion Owners are San Francisco Career Cab drivers for many years. They are dependable, experience, safe drivers. and knows the geographic with the bay area.
2. The Foreigners works very hard during their shift, they don’t take breaks or stop for meals.
3. Ex-Cons are usually on probations, they try to keep themselves busy by working long hours, plus they earn cash money daily, and some of them use the cash to support their addictions.
4. Special Interest groups’ drivers are working for satisfying their egotistic goals.
5. Religion- They pick up fares and to preaches their believes. during the duration of the trip. Pass out leafless and telling stories on faith.
6. Lonely- people that are retired, single, tired from watching HD Discovery channel on TV.
They enjoy meeting people, talking to customers, telling their life stories, and looking for some excitement while driving a cab.
7. NASCAR Drivers- Some people just likes to drive. During rush hours. When they get a fare to a destination. They try to get there with the quickest time,
racing from one red light to the next, taking a pre-planned route with fewer traffic lights, City traffic intersections light signals takes around 30 seconds to 45 seconds to change from RED to GREEN. They like STOP SIGNS. Only takes 3 to 15 seconds to go though the intersection. The customer usually wants to get to their destination quickly, and the driver enjoys the good compliments from their fares.
8. Love- They drive a cab to find a date, companionship, or a sexual relationship. Weekend and Convention Events is a good chance to find it. In San Francisco, People that going out partying don’t like to drink and drive. They use Taxicabs for
transportations, conveniences and economical. Do not have to find a parking space.
9. Prestige- Emotional satisfactions. Basically an excellent talker and a story teller, Example A= if you ask the driver what is the time? He will tell you how to build a clock. Example B= How do you like drivong a Taxi? I enjoy the TAXI TV show so much; I cannot wait until the next epic TV show to come on, the quickest way to see it for myself is to get into a Taxicab.
