March 27, 2009 – A Gentleman’s Agreement

            A few days ago I found myself having to race back into Cortez after dropping off my last fare.  Drivers are giving calls in the order that they dropped off their passenger and returned to Cortez.  Upon arrival back into town you are put back into the call rotation.

            In this case, another driver and myself had dropped off a large group of passengers downtown.  I arrived first and dropped my passengers off.  The other driver, Andrzej, had dropped off his passengers a few minutes later.  As I am approaching Cortez in anticipation of letting the dispatcher know that I will again be available for calls I see Andrzej suddenly dart past me on the freeway.  As drivers, we have an informal agreement, a gentleman’s agreement if you will, that we will respect each other’s position in traffic when returning from a call.  Normally I just let it slide but this time I sped up and passed him.  As I looked at my speedometer I noticed that I was going 85mph.  I said the hell with it and let him pass.  If he wants it that bad, so be it.

            Well, today Catherine called me in her normal passive aggressive manner to ask me about the incident.  It turns out that a fellow motorist had called in to complain.  I denied if of course.  It’s really odd how Catherine’s mind works. 

            Whatever it is, if it can’t be unequivocally proven she feels that she has to give you (in the case that you are being accused) the benefit of the doubt.  Conversely, if you can’t prove without a doubt that her mechanic is stealing gas out of your taxi for example - she will side with him.  Even if your taxi goes in with a full tank and comes out with a third of a tank and Stanley (the mechanic) is the only one who had driven it.  I don’t see how that might happen while getting the brake pads replaced.  This has led to a bit of frustration for Catherine as well.  Many of the drivers have neglected bringing the cars to shop for break service because they are tired of having their gas stolen.  One night I looked at my brakes and they were glowing red.  They still had a few rides in them.

            Also, I heard an odd piece of wisdom out of Kirk, or Sling Blade as we call him.

"Kirk"

            Marty: What are you doing Kirk?

            Kirk: We can do it, Catherine says so.

            Marty: We’re all waiting outside the hotel for calls Kirk.  We have a gentleman’s agreement.

            Kirk: There’s no gentlemen in the cab racket.

            For once, he may be right with this one.

October 27, 2008 - The Inverse Economic Relationship Of The Cab Company

           Cortez cab is unique in a number of ways, which if you have been reading is quite apparent at this point.  One of the more notable ones is the economics of the business.  With most companies, the more profit that they make, the more the employees are benefited – raises, bonuses, added benefits.  So as things prosper for the employer, these benefits trickle down to their employees.  Not at Cortez Cab though.

            Since we are contracted out by the company (as independent contractors) we are the main source of revenue for the company.  Whatever Catherine is able to profit above and beyond her overhead (maintenance on the vehicles, her office workers meager wages, etc.) she gets to keep.  The drivers pay a weekly least of $310, which will soon increase to $360.  

            So when Catherine makes more lease money, consequently there are more drivers, and less available fares per driver.  However, inversely, when there are less cab drivers working, there is more available fares per capita for the drivers working, and there is less lease money going to Catherine.  An important note though is that when there are less vehicles on the road there is less maintenance required for her vehicles as well, so her overall costs are lower.

            Lately the trend is heading towards more cabs unfortunately, and less money for the drivers, some of whom are working 70 – 80 hour workweeks, sometimes for weeks on end.  Catherine's not sweating it though.  Not in her air-conditioned mansion in Pt. Loma.

"Catherine's Home"

September 7, 2008 – Mostafa

             Today Mostafa, another one of our Iraqi drivers, had a funny interaction with Catherine on the radio.  This was shortly after one of his fellow drivers called him out on the radio for stealing a ride.

            Driver C: Hey Mostafa, you just took my ride.  I was sent here for the people who you just  picked up.

            Mostafa: No, they didn’t call.

            Driver C: Yeah, they did.  And I was the one that they sent, not you.

            Mostafa: No, they’re different.

            Mostafa happened to be closer to the call and just decided to pick up the people who were waiting.  This happens all the time, and us honest drivers (all 4 of us) don’t much like it.  We’ve tried to talk to the offenders personally, and went through the office to no avail.  There’s no punishment handed down for this sort of thing.  Not by the office at least.  That didn’t prevent Franco from getting his nose broken though.  An informal punishment.

            This quickly escalated between Mostafa and the fellow drivers to the point where Catherine decided to intervene.  Not for the sake of the driver whom had his ride stolen though, but for the sake of keeping the radio quiet.  Catherine is under the impression that if customers in the cabs hear any bickering between the drivers that they will be outraged and refuse to ride with the company, or call the city, which is what scares Catherine most.  She thinks that these supposedly disenfranchised passengers are going to come to city council meetings and complain about the service.  Unfathomable, simply unfathomable…

            Catherine: Cab 18 (Mostafa)

            Mostafa: Cab 18 go ahead.

            Catherine: Landline the office. (Call the office)

            Mostafa: No thanks.

            Catherine: Landline the office.

            Mostafa: No, I’m not doing that.  Maybe later I will

            Catherine: (Not realizing that she still had her finger keying the mic) Boy, he’s got a mouth on him.

            This is just another example of Catherine’s lack of control over the employees.  Truthfully the employees run the show.  They could probably run the company better too.  Hell, they might even incorporate technology… Perhaps they would even use a computer?  Catherine probably has a series of stone tablets that she carves notes onto.

August 24, 2008 – More About Catherine’s Credit Card Swindle

            So there has been growing discontent amongst the drivers on the topic of credit cards.  Or perhaps more specifically the forcing of drivers to take credit cards.  Catherine put out the word that this is something that we must comply with as it is something that is regulated and necessitated by the City of Cortez.  A few days ago one of our drivers talked with one of the higher-ups within the city government and asked point blank whether or not the city required taxi drivers to accept credit cards.  An answer was received – an unequivocal NO.  Catherine had told a lie.

            Shortly afterwards the driver went to the office and asked Catherine whether or not we are required to take credit cards.  Catherine told him “sometimes we need to take the iniative and step up and do things before the city requires us to do so.”  Apparently Catherine had forgotten that only a week or so prior she had explicitly stated that taking credits was a citywide requirement.

            And recently I heard something that really angered me.  Supposedly Catherine has a mission down in Mexico that she contributes too.  The fact that she operates a mission, or that it is in Mexico,  is not the issue.  What is an issue is that she obviously has a surplus of money, enough so that she is able to donate to nonessential causes such as this but refuses to outfit her company with clean, safe, dependable vehicles.  That should be priority number one.  All too often myself and other drivers have had to lose a days pay because our cab has broken down.

            I’ve already caught Catherine in a number of mistruths.  For example requiring that we pick up EVERYONE.  Everyone?  How about someone that wants to start a fight, doesn’t have money, doesn’t know where they are going, someone who just shit their pants.  No, we most certainly do not.

July 20, 2008 – The Taxi Blog Uncovered

            A few days ago Catherine, the company owner, found a fellow drivers blog.  It was pretty tame, especially compared to what I have to write about the company, which is all true I might add.

            Nothing was brought up to the author, but it was clear who was writing it, and what it was about.  Catherine was able to put the pieces together after the blog’s writer went on a rant about how terrible of a roommate that he had (which was also true).  All of the pieces suddenly fit together.  The roommate happened to be a fellow driver with the company and it wasn’t too hard to connect the dots – even for “Catherine.”  After all Randy is quite the standout, although not in the way that most people would use the term.  More in terms of descending than ascending. 

            When Catherine found out she had a little pow-wow with the rest of the obese, bible toting loons and had a “prayer meeting” where they openly sobbed for the blog’s creator.  She prayed for the driver.  I have no idea what they were actually praying for - I can only imagine…  Perhaps something garnished, if not entirely comprised of sugar.  A pastry perhaps.

            Me, well, I think that after reading a few of my posts Catherine will be able to connect the dots here as well.  I’m not worried about that though, she can kiss my ass.  You hear that Catherine?  You can kiss my ass.

You remember Randy right?

http://corruptionincortez.blogspot.com/2012/01/july-9-2008-randy.html

Some of you may remember "Ted Martin's" blog as well - "The SoCal Cabbie"

April 1, 2008 – Our Shitty Old Cars

             My car is in the shop today.  No surprise there.  In the meantime I have a loaner to drive.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that I have something do drive but I’m amazed that some of these things are still on the road.   This one’s a baby, relatively speaking that is…  Only 128,480 miles, although I wouldn’t be surprised if the odometer had already rolled over.  Hell, I can’t really complain, they don’t have me driving that shitty old station wagon anymore.  You know, the Griswaldmobile.

            As bad as these cars are it’s fun to talk to the other drivers about what they had to drive in the past.  Makes these things look like Caddilacs.  Doors falling off, wheels falling off, you name it.  Maybe I don’t have it so bad.  Driver safety doesn’t really seem to be an issue however.  Just look at the tires, the steel is poking through.  Our boss thinks that used tires are a good investment.  She buys tires that only have like 10,000 miles left on them, so typically they are good for like two months tops.  Of course she has to pay a shop to put them on and balance them each time.  She doesn’t pay much though, and it shows.  Usually when I pick up my car from the shop it is littered with wood screws, duct tape, and mismatched spray paint.  I'm surprised it isn't on fire.

Pretty sure when you get a new set of tires you get an alignment.  Although the tires really aren’t new so maybe Catherine thinks that alignments aren’t needed.  I bet if Jesus told her that the cars needed an alignment she would have a change of heart.  I’m surprised she doesn’t try to bless our cars.  Well, not that I know of.  Not much surprises me here anymore…

            I like the cigarette burns in my seat and the rusty gear shift.  Nice touch.  I really wish that she wasn’t such a pain in the ass about washing the car.  Will people not notice that it is a piece of shit if it just went through a car wash?  I should roll the windows down when I bring it through the wash.  I’ll notice something – my wallet being lighter.  Not that it’s too heavy after working here.  Guess it’s been 8 months or so now.  The other day Catherine told me that the car needed to be detailed.  Fuck that.  I could think of a hundred better things to spend $50 dollars on.  None of them involve Jesus. 

February 17, 2008 – Creepy Dennis

           Pretty quiet night tonight.  Every night we get a lull in business between 11:30 p.m. and 1 a.m. so the drivers gather around and chat and line up our cabs for potential customers.  Some of us are more personable than others, and then there’s drivers like Dennis…  A few minutes ago a couple came up to Dennis and asked for a ride.

Customers: Hi

Dennis: (Says nothing)

Customers: Are you available? (This is an honest question, there are several cabs lined up in the area, and it’s possible that Dennis is just taking a break.)

Dennis: No, I’m just here for my fucking health.

Customers: Excuse me?

Dennis: I said I’m just here for my fucking health.

Customers:  Ok…  Nevermind then.

The customers ended up taking Dennis later that night - I can only imagine how awkward that was…  Some of our customers refuse to ride with Dennis for some reason or another.  Most likely because he’s a prick. 

Frank Menderson is one of them.  He’s a character himself but that’s another story.  My best guess is that Dennis tried to fondle Frankie at some point.  Dennis is a creepy old man who has been driving cab for like 15 years who is seen by other drivers frequenting transvestite bars outside of work.  He’s in his 60’s, and looks like your typical sex offender.  Quite like Kirk actually.  Something off of Broadway I believe, I think it’s called “Chee Chee.”  I have no idea what goes on in there and honestly I don’t care to.  Hey whatever, to each his own.

If nothing else it looks like total shithole – don’t think anyone is going to debate me on that one… Just another wack-job that Catherine keeps around because he works a shift that no one else wants to work.