If you have read my blog long enough I will seem pretty biased towards indians but that isnt the case. indians always manage to offend me in one way or other but I do ignore small offences but some of them are so much into poking that I cant help it. I still keep quite but overall they lower the respect for indians.
2 days ago I dropped somebody and was planning to move and look for another passenger. before moving my car I always look into the side mirror and back mirros so I dont accidently run over any body. I noticed an indian guy. I didnt want to take him becoz seeing a familiar face lead them to ask so many nonsence questions and poking stuff so its better to avoid. but I could see in my back mirror that he was limping. I have one simple rule. never ignore some body with any kind of disability or older peoples coz not many other cab drivers are willing to take them. when some older peoples or disable person is getting in my car I always put the gear into parking and tell them "take your time, no rush" coz I can understand and dont want them to be uncomfortable and try to hurry just because mr cabbie will say something harsh.
so I took that indian guy. he came to my window asked me how much to hoboken I told him 45 plus tolls. he thought for a while and said ok.
the asked "why you guys charge so much?"
Me: "becoz we cant pick some body in jersey"
him."will you make it 50 even?"
me "no I cant"
I usually charge 50 plus toll so its 58 I get tip on top of that so its always 65 and some change. he was asking to knock another 3 buck while it had already 12 knocked off.
him,"where you from?"
me. "pakistan"
him, "oh you see they fixed the match?"
now seriously? its always they bring something up some pakistani guy had done something embarrasing and they want you to talk abt it. I have a better response if u poke much n thats wtf. I wana drive you and get my money thats simple so stop offending me.
me, "no i dont follow cricket" while very quitely
him."oh you dont watch cricket"
then we were quite until I was in tunnel he started talking about just cricket and normal stuff and about india and this and that. then he bombed another question.
him."are these drone attacks affecting normal pakistani peoples?"
me,"just as much as indian forces attack on kashmir's peoples."
he went quite for a moment and then started saying thing against borders and politicians and armies and I was forced to listen while hoping the journey end soon.
he said my motto is to just make money and live happily, well thats what I was doing before you asked me about match fixing and american drone attacks. I dont blame you for what your country or someone in power from your nation did. so why do I have to answer your stupid questions?
well finally his destination arrived. he said ok stop here and walked out, I asked him are you coming back? he said oh yes I am going to bank to take out some money. came back with 3 twenty dollar bills and said give me 10 dollar please. I had already told him I cant but seems he was a cheap indian afterall so I told myself dont be a cheap youself with an indian cheap and gave him 10. if any good indian reading this my apologise.
http://www.taxihacks.com/
2 comments:
50 for Hoboken, deep in Hoboken? was it coming from brooklyn or upper east side? I have mixed feelings, I know everything changes depending on the demand for rides at the time, if you're in prime time like 7pm or 4pm, maybe you don't want to go to jersey, or say there is a huge accident in the tunnel, you want to charge for all the time in traffic. i'd say 30 from downtown, be willng to knock it down to 25 if there is no traffic and there are absolutely no fares at say sunday morning at 7am, we're desperate then. if it's coming from above 50th street and we're going farther like jersey city, then 45 seems right, with or without tolls depending on what you feel you can get away with.
to each his own, we are each are own business professional. Have you seen the fare prices in the out of town fare book? you might want to charge accordingly, but I guess I have limited info in the post, perhaps it was very busy at the time and there was a lot of traffic, maybe it was a big hassle.
I also think that indians can sometimes be a little more rude, my perception is that the business professional Indians have a little tendency to put the lower class in their place, while the white businessman or woman can sometimes be the opposite and sympathize with the lower class, but than again I am a white guy, so that is coming from a bias perspective. though as you may have read I have a bias much more so with Russians, particularly Russian women, they are the worst, ugh, but hey stereotypes were meant to be broken.
good luck friend, I'm happy your blog eventually loaded today :-)
ppls tell you hoboken but its really jersey city. coz hoboken book price is 32 or 38 while jersey city is 44. they ignore the fact is that book is not an office price list but just a guide to give driver an idea how much to charge. tlc rule says price must be negotiated and agreed upon at the start of the fair so its actually good for us i charge more and other less will create a healthy envorinment which actually benefits the ppls.
i will write another post to explain how I became strict with pricing.
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