Paradise Driver: 11/05/06

Sunday, November 05, 2006

I STARTED LATE

AND NEVER SLOWED DOWN

I was running about 15 minutes late when I logged on. Immediately sent to The Kea Lani for a run that had been waiting for nearly 50 minutes. Of course, they were gone. Then dispatched back to The Grand, one guy for OGG.

One of the things I do mentally, when starting my shift, is to account for all cabs on duty. One by one I figured out that all cabs were either enroute to OGG or were returning.

I completed my OGG loop and was immediately sent back to The Grand for some people going to Sansei. Couldn't find them and snagged a pu-pu to the Kea Lani.

I gritted my teeth as another cab checked into Wailea and was given another OGG trip. I was premature in my reaction. I was assigned a second OGG as soon as I cleared the Kea Lani.

WAIT
it gets better

As soon as I check in at the Kihei Town line, TMR tells me to wiki-wiki to the Maui Coast Hotel. Two people going to Front Street in Lahaina.

I was back in Kihei by 10:00pm with almost $200 on the meter, in less than 3 hours.

Sat for the next 2 hours.

Turns out that the other three night drivers had called off sick. One of the two "day" drivers faded about 10:00pm and the other hung in until 11:30pm.

From then until 2:00am, it was just TMR and myself to "make hay".

I pulled another 7 fares between Midnight and 2:00am, and continued the "roll" through my solo hours with an additional 6 trips.

My final run on the prior shift was the beginning of a very busy day for the company. I knew there were 7 OGGs scheduled between 5:45am and 6:30am. When the morning dispatcher/driver saw "those indians coming over the hill" he started calling out the "cavalry". Every "day" driver was called in early and they all ran a marathon of round-robins from Wailea to OGG. Night shift continued the loops until everyone departing on the various "red-eyes" were at the airport.

Metered $1.55 for each of the 216 miles I added to the odometer.

At one point ONE-NINE's computer told me that I was getting 20.7 MPG (11.3 LTRS/100km). Thats spectacular!

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This morning's moon. Taken about 5:15am while waiting for my final run of the night.