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At the end of each workweek, this is how my brain feels. Too much coffee/tea/cola. Way too many cigarettes. Neck muscles tied into knots. A mild headache.Tonight my biggest problem, personnally, was brief moments of short-term memory loss. Could not remember where streets were located when fielding phone calls. Responding to a call and, halfway there, briefly forgetting where I was headed.
Normally I can remember the exact line-up in both the Wailea and Kihei queues without referring to my notes. Tonight I had to keep checking the hardcopy before making a dispatch.
Being a driver/dispatcher means having to pay attention to four things simultaneously.
- The road
- Your passengers
- The radio
- The phone
That is a hell of a lot to keep track of. Then pile on remembering where each pending call/reservation is and the order/time they need to be allotted. Since it is dark, I can't write them down. Pulling over for each call would be impractical, since the current passengers didn't buy an "A" ticket amusement ride. They want, and have the right to expect, expedious service.
When 2:00am rolls around and the bars close and the other drivers go home, the pressure eases. Drastically!!
It was a fantastic night for all of us. The two day driver holdovers left between 9:00pm and 9:30pm. The two casual shift drivers were gone by 12-midnite and one night driver was off sick. That left three of us. The entire shift was active and I had just the right number of cabs available all shift.This marked the third night that was very profittable. The total take on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights was within $8.00 of each other. Thats rare.
While the summer tourist season hasn't started yet, the ratio of FITs (Financially Independent Traveler) to "group" occupancy, in the hotels, is shifting rapidly. All tourist related businesses, including cabs, are reaping the benefits.
MOST FUN RUN
Picked this frolicing foursome up at the Grand Champions and took them to the "Triangle" about 11:00pm. They were the holdovers from a wedding group earlier in the week. The are from somewhere in southern California. I asked multiple times and got multiple answers. On the return run, at bar close, they were expectedly intoxicated. But the type of intoxication that is fun to be around. Jovial, upbeat and still cognizant of their surroundings. Never once obnoxious or needlessly profane.
Roy, who rode "shotgun" with me on the way back, had learned the local term "brah" ("bro" with an island touch) and kept trying to interject it into every sentence. He's going to need a lot of practice before it becomes natural but it was funny listening to his full-hearted attempts. While I had no bad runs the entire shift, these folks were definately the brightest moment of the night.
TIKI
Found out what the trouble was at Tiki, a couple of nights back. Two guys had a fight inside the bar. As is SOP, all involved parties were ejected from the bar. One out the front door (party "A") and the other out the back (party "B"). Party "A" hit the ground in front of a police officer who was standing there. He started complaining to the cop. Then party "B", who had run around the building, jumped on party "A" from the rear and put him in a choke hold. The cop tried unsuccessfully to pull them apart and then said "fuck it" and nailed party "B" with a TASER. Since both "A" & "B" were interlocked, "A" was stunned, too.
The fight was instantly over and an ambulance responded as a precautionary move.
Got the facts on this straight from the horses mouth, who got it from the cat's meow, who got it from the hounds tooth. So I know it is accurate.
THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM
Barring any onforeseen circumstances, BBQ dinner at Dave and Judy's on Monday night.
Oh, I have some really neat surfing shots for tomorrow's post.
Later.....
Wil
=8^))
"Let's all be careful out there!"
