Cab Drivers In Hell

My regular cab driver is on vacation until next week. I pay the guy all at once so that I don’t have to worry about having money later to pay him. Therapy is important so I give him the co-pays. Well, since Cabby Negative has been on an unscheduled vacation I’ve been forced to deal with even worse drivers than he is. Once I get into their cab I’m more than thrilled to tell them I don’t have a dollar so I can listen to them go off about how I want something for free. The first 3 rides I managed to not have any issues but the ride to therapy today was not without it’s problems.

Ya know, there’s a fiery hot place that waits for cab drivers that can’t deal with the inconvenience of being shorted a one dollar co-pay. Such cab drivers, when told about this tremendous loss go into lamentations about being cheated and about how they’re tired of “us people on Medicaid trying to get something for free.” Then the angry little driver, once he realizes you refuse to argue back will call his supervisor and refuse to ever pick you up again. When the supervisor tells the same story I did about having a regular driver and how that driver gets paid said angry driver will hang up and throw his phone so hard it cracks the screen. Then not only is the pissy driver out a dollar he’s also out a cute little red cell phone.

My thoughts on this are as follows – such drivers are in need of permanent residence in a place of dry heat where the locals are up all night screaming in torturous pain. Please driver, get over it. My insurance paid you $15 to take me 9.1 miles. The fact that you didn’t get your dollar co-pay is no reason to shout or break things. Forget the fact that other times in the past when you picked me up I had the copay. Forget that, lets focus on this one dollar and how you acted. Lets focus on the fact that you blasted your radio, turned the air off, rolled the windows down and drove really close to water sprinklers. Forget the fact that every passenger after me will sit on a wet seat because you lost out on a dollar.

So what does a dollar get you these days? Not much. I can tell you it doesn’t get you a new phone. It can however buy you a one way ticket to hell. Please, please go there with a quickness.

Thank you to the three drivers that didn’t lose it over one buck. I felt bad getting in without a co-pay, the last thing my ego needed was a temper tantrum from a man in need of a very hot vacation. Once he went into the whole “you’re trying to get something for free” and the whole “that’s a nice MP3 player” thing I realized that my issues with independence and pride, paying my own way, etc could easily spill out of my mouth in very colourful words. It was the wrong day and wrong time for him to go off on me and talk about how I have an MP3 player but not a dollar and how “people on Medicaid” do this, that and the other. Wrong day, wrong time and certainly a very sensitive topic with me. I pay damnit, I pay. I’ll have to write more about the attitude of some who want to talk about how poor people have luxury items but can’t pay their bills. I’m a bit too angry about it to even go into it right now. It is also not advisable to go off like that with me in the car. The only place I have issues with claustrophobia is in a car. I have to know I can get out and that the driver is safe. The driver isn’t going to hit me or drive off the road in a fit of rage. The fact that he felt cheated in life (cause one dollar doesn’t make a person go off like that) but the fact that he felt life cheated him could have really gotten ugly. Don’t put me in a car, start throwing things, push the pride and ego buttons and expect me to be okay with it.

I hope this costs you more than a dollar. I hope it costs you your job cause you can’t treat people like that.  Your supervisor has been called. Even if you forget that you can’t treat people like this at least remember  hell is waiting for you. Your room has been reserved.

Cabby Negative will be back next week, thank goodness.

Cab Drivers In Hell – Wednesday, August 27, 2008-5:35PM EST