The Cab Stand

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time.

I was going to call this snippet Manufacturer’s Suggested Standard Time. But since the powers that be in the United States, deeming no issues more pressing, have decreed that we now spend seven months each year on Daylight Time, I decided that the title you now see was more appropriate. Daylight Time/Standard Time/All Things Governmental is a separate rant, however.

Here in Cleveland, and specifically in Cleveland’s western suburbs, we are witnessing a growing propensity toward viewing punctuality as a suggestion or an option.   The cab company with which I am affiliated receives several hundred scheduled orders each day, and the appointment times are set by the customers.   It’s become a coin flip as to whether or not a given customer will be prepared to meet the time THEY set. 

When, exactly, did being late, especially for a time that YOU set, become acceptable?  Would someone explain this new standard to me, please?

Because in my world, being late is high on the list of Ways To Be Rude To Your Fellow Man.   Presuming that one can, in fact, tell time, being late is saying to the person on the other end of your appointment “My Time matters. Yours Doesn’t.”

I get up each morning at 2:30 a.m. so that I can roll my cab out of the garage at 4 a.m., ready to meet folks who want to get to work, get to the airport, or get home.   Folks going to work and folks going home are generally ready at, and in many cases before, their scheduled pick-up time.   People going to the airport are, more often than not, late. Sometimes a minute or two late, sometimes five minutes, or eight.  Sometimes even longer.  But late is late.  Late is rude.  And late is theft.

When you’re late for a business appointment ( and mundane as they may seem, taxicabs are a business ) you are flat out robbing another person of their time…   time that could, and often would, be spent productively and profitably.   When you’re late for your cab, you’re robbing the driver of his income-earning time and you’re robbing the cab company of the driver’s services.  You’re robbing folks with appointments scheduled after yours of a reasonable opportunity for their cab to be on time.

Fuck you.  That’s not your right and it’s not your privilege.

Pack the night before.

Get a fancy Mr. Coffee with a timer.

Set your alarm fifteen minutes early.  Or thirty.  Or ask Mom to give you a wake-up call.

Whatever it takes for you to be on time, please do it.

———-

I’ve sat in my cab, parked in various driveways, and watched as late folks:

- re-arranged potted plants;

- took out the garbage;

- held family conferences;

- hugged and kissed goodbye for the thirty-eleventh time;

- chased a cat;

- dressed before an undraped window;

- unpacked ( yeah );

- moved cars about in the driveway and on the street;

- ironed;

- pooped ( yes sir…  your front door was open and so was the door to your downstairs bath…  in perfect alignment with my cab );

- searched for I.D.;

- searched for tickets/boarding passes;

- and ate breakfast,

among other things that I did not especially want to see.   I’m not paid to deal with this nonsense.  

If you do this to me once, you won’t see me or my cab again, because I won’t take your order a second time.  And there’s a good chance that on some freezing pre-dawn morning in January, you’ll have scheduled a cab…  and I’ll be the only cab available.   You won’t see me.   I don’t care if you miss your flight.   You had your chance with me, and you know damned well I do good work.  So you think your time is more important than mine?  It’s not.  You’re just a self-entitled twit, living on Manufacturer’s Suggested Daylight Time.  Fuck you.

I’ll be busy driving someone who’s punctual to the airport…   in a nice, clean, comfortable cab…

…a cab that was there to meet them on time.

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at 3:18 pm and is filed under Does This Really Have to be Difficult?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.