A voice from July 2008

Its not only slow; its very hot in the Florida sun

What is going on now in the taxi business in Tampa is not just having "a bad day." Most drivers are getting somewhere between two to five calls a day. That's it. "Don't worry, it will be better tomorrow." a customer told me. I am worried. Each day is just the same. For example, this morning I came out at Five a.m. and did not get a call until Nine. There has never been a time when a driver during the morning hours would not get a call for over 4 hours.

The new dispatch system is inherently unfair. If you are not close to a call, it will not give you one, nor will it even send you a f*****g bid. Without the bid, I cannot make any money. Paul Hinton says I simply need to park my cab where the calls are going to come out. How in the hell do I do that? The calls could come out from anywhere. I have no psychic abilities, so I guess I am screwed.

Talking to Paul Hinton and Eddie Munster (the computer guy) has proved useless. They don't even know what the algorithms are set at or the parameters of how it will give out a call. Paul just says that one day he will call the main office and find that out. Great! That will do me a lot of good while I STARVE!

The only reason I have not left United Cab to go to Yellow Cab is that I am in the Lighthouse program for the blind school children. After that, I am on my way to a company that will put me to work and provide me with business. I am ready to work and I need to work. With my years of experience, I will be an asset to any company that wants a quality driver, not just someone that can fog a mirror.

Comments

AnonymousOctober 19, 2014 at 1:41 PM
Tim, you are fighting a battle you cannot win. The tampa taxi business had a good long run but it has met it's grave. Yellow is worst off than United. You should consider what you had said in an earlier post.. Move back to Las Vegas! Vegas cabs are alway's moving, the cab drivers only work five days,have benefits and are making $1000 plus weekly. Simply put stay in tampa and be broke and short lived or go to vegas and have money in your pocket and long lived!
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

What happened to Tommy Duncan and Sticks of Fire blog?

The image below is a 2005 TBT article I still have about the Tampa blogger scene. The big boy was Tommy Duncan. He stopped blogging around 2008, and was never seen again. Here is what Creative Loafing said about that era: "The 40-something blogger founded the most-often-cited independent Tampa Bay news blog, Sticks of Fire, in Feb. 2004, and the site, without much financial assistance from advertising, is still going strong today with a stable of more than a dozen regular contributors. In 2005, Duncan was featured in a tbt* story about the young lions of the local Internet. Today, about half of them have fallen by the wayside or (in the case of famous sexy blogger Rachel Moran) moved to New Jersey. Duncan keeps on posting. The local digital scene has grown, but he's not sure it has improved in quality."

Read more about it here! »

Bay and Beach taxi van service

Working hard to secure Tampa airport,cruise and hotel service, it seems now Bay and Beach taxi are now using vans with horse trailers (you can see the trailer behind the van). They can move more people and luggage with those. The picture here was taken at the airport and a ton of people got off. Nancy has modern ideas about customer service , and how to run a fleet. Just saying. I am sitting like a lump this morning when I should be moving. We have lost so much business. Related articles Hanging out in holding Republican National Convention in Tampa

Read more about it here! »

Happy Hillary Halloween

Is there anything scarier than Hillary. Some would say Donald Trump, perhaps. My friend set this up on his porch and I thought it was pretty cool. It's not really a political statement, it's just trying to show humor. Keep in mind, that we do live in an era where people seem to have lost their sense of humor. Anyway, if he done it with Donald Trump I would have still laughed. Happy Halloween!

Read more about it here! »

Ivy Farms pool part of history

I found this article on the Daily Press website. It will mean nothing to anyone but it means a lot to me. This article wad written in 1993 when the possibility of closing Ivy Farms pool was real. I hear in 2010 it was demolished by the city. Just another nail in my coffin. I always wanted to get up there and swim one more lap. That will never happen July 22, 1993|By VIRGINIA BIGGINS Daily Press NEWPORT NEWS — Three decades ago when the Ivy Farms swimming pool was new, people of all ages came early and stayed late to swim, sunbathe and chat with friends. DAILY PRESS: Neighborhood kids campaigned to get their families to become members of the pool, which they saw as the only place to be on a hot summer day. Many joined the Ivy Farms swim team. posted from Bloggeroid Now the pool, one of the oldest in the city, may have to close because its membership has dropped from an all-time high of 300 families in the 1960s to 50 families today. A combination of economics, shifting popu...

Read more about it here! »

UBER TRUTH: poor and minorities left stranded

Traditional laws and regulations require transportation companies to serve the entire community regardless of pick up location, whether you pay with cash vs. a credit card, ownership of a “smart phone”, ADA requirements or other socioeconomic conditions. In fact, the underlying reason for regulations is to ensure EVERYONE receives service. Uber requires customers to own a smartphone and a credit card. Others “need not apply”. Remember, Uber only wants to serve who they want, and not be required to serve an entire community. They want a highly regulated taxi environment, but an entirely unregulated environment when it comes to “their business”. According to the PEW Research and widely reported on major news outlets: Only 56% of American adults own a smart phone; If you are 65 years or older, that number drops to 18%; Only 38% of those making less than $38,000 a year own a smart phone; And only 36% of those people with a high sc...

Read more about it here! »

Tampa Taxi Shots and the future

Tim Fasano publisher of Tampa Taxi Shots I started this blog last year because I was bored. My original Tampa Taxi Shots was gone. I still had many of the images and the stories were still in my head. However, my ten year old laptop took a shit. Since then, I have been going to the library, but mostly loading with an android phone. That is a piss poor way of doing it. But its all I got. Today was the first time since 2007 that I did not owe United Cab money. I paid off the balance today, and actually got money back!!! At this pace, I should be able to buy a new laptop soon and be able to do some serious writing from the comfort of my home, instead of trying to write in a crowded computer lab with the guy in the green shirt (the same shirt he has had on for weeks) sitting across from you and chewing his tongue, while making funny noises. The traffic on this site is growing and I know if I put myself 100% into it, I can make it big. July 4th is a good benchmark, and time to ...

Read more about it here! »

A new car

I took delivery of a new taxi cab with only 70,000 miles. Its a former police car, and only three years old. It is the newest cab I've ever had in nineteen years of driving. I have been in some real junk before. My understanding is the company is going to all late model vehicles. That would cut down on maintenance cost. Just another sign things are looking up. This was taken from the front seat when I got in for the first time. I am cab number 474. If you are down on vacation, don't call Lyft. Call Tim Fasano in his new, clean cab. The trend in the industry is to get away from clunkers. I ran into Rob Searcy and he asked me how I liked it. I shook his hand and thanked him. I need to get Joe to clean it every Friday. Joe does a good job. posted from Bloggeroid

Read more about it here! »

2017 a year of Redemption and Reconstruction

Tampa Bay on New Years day sunrise 2017 Have you ever felt defeated? Have you ever felt like you're life has stalled out? Have you ever felt like giving up? I have. The last ten years of the taxi business have just about done me in. It has been miserable with a bad economy that was near a depression and it took everything I could do to just survive. I made no money. In short, I suffered badly. (I will not mention Tampa taxi politics. The companies did what they had to do to survive. Their actions were not often in my best interest.) My only hope was that the economy would get better. It began to. And as it did, Uber came along. That was the death kneel. Talk about timing. For ten years my life has been in purgatory and I almost died. The stress and the bad food left me with chronic heart failure. My weight had climbed to 295lbs (I am 5'8"). My blood pressure was 210/150. By rights, I should not be alive. The doctor sent me to the emergency room. He later t...

Read more about it here! »

Monday morning

Business has been slow. I'm not going to beat around the bush. I need shoes and shoe strings. I am broke and struggling. I am tired, frustrated, and dealing with real anger issues. I need time off, money, and rest. I can find none of this. My entire situation sucks. I want to blame someone. What compounds all of this are drivers willing to work around the clock for scant money (that forces me to do the same). I am exhausted and wish I could get a break. I do think one is coming up. United Cab is doing all they can do but the economy has greatly increased their expenses. I do hope to have a happier post at the end if the day.

Read more about it here! »

A long trip out of the airport

I was the first one sitting on the deck at Tampa International Airport when Mack, the starter, called me down to pick up my fare. There is a lot of anticipation when you are rolling down. You have no idea where the fare is going and is the time spent waiting going to justify a short fare, which drivers hate. I know people have to get places but most of the time when they are going long, they find another way. When they are going short, they apologize by saying "they told me its real close." Thanks for rubbing it in guy. This fare today was not analogizing for nothing. He had to get south of Sarasota and he had cash in hand! Lets go. I'm your man. It seems he works for an auto dealership out of Ohio and needed to pick up a truck and drive it back to the Buckeye State. The estimate Mack gave him was $180. He did not bat an eye (its only short fares that complain). All I had to do was figure the fastest way to get there. That's when it hit me....I would have to cross ...

Read more about it here! »

Tampa Taxi Shots

Search This Blog