Taxi Labor Day, Unemployment Insurance

It is so nice to be in New York City on a "SLOW" day. Except...We don't make any money...Oh sure we do bring home a few dollars but let's face it. It ain't New Ears Eve.

Start the night shift at about 4PM. Head over the bridge and maybe you get a fare at 3rd and 60th. He goes to 73rd and York. Head down and find a nurse coming out of New York Hospital going to Kips Bay. Turn up 1st Ave. and find a visitor coming out of N.Y.U. Medical Center going back to York Ave. at 83rd. Head up to 86th and west, over to Fifth and down. Traffic is not that bad as I come to the low sixties and get past the Plaza.....I'm looking, and there are people out there, walking, but no one's hailing..

I keep heading down. Washington Square???Which way to turn..I'll go left, over to Mercer and down again, past the Angelica and at long last a hail at Prince Street. Three BBQ's heading to Park Slope...Well at least it will be twenty dollars with a decent tip. I hope. Plus Flatbush Ave might yield a fare on the trip back to Mahattan..

And so it goes. Between Thirty and Forty dollars per hour, maybe even more until it slows down around eleven PM. All this, minus the costs of leasing my cab, today $118, and the gas which will cost about $35 unless I'm lucky and get a Jersey City fare and fill the gas tank at Jersey prices.

You know, it seems like an easy job. In fact it is an easy job for me. But, alot of people don't make it past the first shift because they don't know how to drive, have no people skills, and probably don't like New York all that much...You can't mind eating on the run..You have to be able to control your bladder, and be able to deal with tbe lulls and the busy times...and understand that...If the car is empty, I am unemployed. Do all this, and keep at it, and you can make FIFTY THOUSAND a year....Buy a cab and you can make sixty-five....Buy a medallion and over ten years you can make a million. But if the cab is empty I am unemployed.....Unemployed...until the next fare.

I love New York City. I love being a taxi driver and enjoy the action on the streets...Is there stress?? You betcha! Are the passengers all a fun group? Most of them are..... Is traffic a bumber??? Not If you know what's coming and are prepared for the grind....Cops, ticket agents, know it all wantabe lawyers who tell us what we are supposed to do, all add tension to the day.....But in the end the sounds of the City become what I HEAR AND NOT WHAT I AM as I make my way home to my railroad flat in Queens....lock the door, turn on the tube and chill with a beer....domestic....maybe two or three.