Interview with Professional Dominatrix

INTERVIEW OF A TAXI DRIVER

1. What is your job title/position/job description?

I drive a cab.

2. Do you belong to a union?

3. Describe your physical work environment.

The inside of a taxicab; It’s just like a regular car except it has a mileage/money meter.

4. Please describe a typical day (do you travel, hours you work, etc.

It’s pretty much just like that TV show, Taxi. I go in to the garage and show my regular drivers license and my hack license to a guy in a little office, and he tells me which cab to take. I do a bit of paperwork to sign out the cab. Then I check out the cab to make sure that its in good shape and I go to work. I work 12-hour days from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. I usually work 5 days a week.

4. How does your profession affect your ability to live a healthy lifestyle (Exercise, sleep, nutrition?)

This job is horrible for my health. I don’t exercise, I eat donuts and coffee and Big Macs. I should get out of the cab and walk around once in a while, but I don’t. I also smoke a lot. Most cabbies are horribly physically unfit zombies that just eat work and sleep

6. Are there over the counter medications, alternative medications that are typically used in your profession (wt loss, tobacco, steroids, etc.

Tobacco and coffee.

7. What are things that your friends find interesting about your profession (like how often do you shoot your gun if you are a police officer)? /what types of questions do you get asked by the public?

People always say “I bet you meet a lot of crazy characters!” And that’s true, I do! But it’s not fun! About one half of my customers are rude and aggravating, and the other half are okay.

8. How did you get interested in your profession?

© 2006 University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Revised 8/18/2006 0b8f65f0b499ebde95b62597521b44de.doc Page 1 I was a professional gambler, a poker player, when my son was born 8 years ago. I felt like I should get a more stable job, being a father and all. A friend of mine suggested that I try driving a cab.

9. What do you like most about your profession?

The hours. I can work whatever hours I choose. I just go to the garage, show the dispatcher my hack license and take a cab out. This flexibility helps me enormously when it comes to raising my ten year old son.

10. What do you dislike most about your job?

The other cab drivers. When you are in the office, everyone is nice, but once you hit the road its dog eat dog. The other drivers won’t think twice about swooping in and taking a passenger that the dispatcher just called in to me.

11. What is your educational background?

12th Grade.

12. High School 13. Vocational School or College 14. Graduate School or special training

15. How does one obtain a job in your profession?

You just go and apply. You can’t have any felonies. You can’t have 6 points on your license. To get a Hack License you just fill out the application, take an abbreviated physical and they take your fingerprints.

16. What previous positions have you had since you started this profession

I was a professional gambler for 5 years. I played poker. Before that I drove a Pepsi delivery truck.

17. Can you get promoted? If so, to what positions and how?

No. There is no advancement, no benefits, no union and no retirement.

18. What are the perks of your job?

I can make my own hours and I don’t have to call in ahead of time to tell the dispatcher whether I’m working or not. I just show up or I don’t show up.

© 2006 University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Revised 8/18/2006 0b8f65f0b499ebde95b62597521b44de.doc Page 2 19. How do you get paid (contract, per mile, per hour, etc.) How can you make more money?

I pay $75.00 out of pocket to use the cab for 12 hours. I usually use about 35.00 worth of gas. Even if I decide to quit early and only use the cab for three or four hours, I still have to pay up front for 12 hours. So, I have to pay upfront $110.00 out of pocket. I have to make $110.00 on the meter before I collect a dime for myself. Everything over $110.00 is my profit and I get to keep it.

I have managed to build up a clientele, because I hand out personal cards to customers. That way they can call me ahead of time if they want to go to the airport or something like that. This helps me make a little extra money.

20. What is the most stressful part of your job?

Trying to avoid the police. Sometimes it feels like they have a vendetta against cab drivers. All of us cab drivers are paranoid about the police. I got a ticket for driving too slow the other day. It really cuts into your profits and you can’t drive if you have six points on your license.

In eight years I’ve never been robbed or assaulted, but it is still a concern. I stay out of the bad neighborhoods and the drug areas to avoid this problem but I guess it could still happen.

21. What emotional problems are common in people in your profession?

I see a lot of hyper argumentative nervous types that are always worried about their next ride.

22. What type of physical activity is required in your position?

23. What things happen that really make you angry?

Drunk women are insane and abusive. They take out all their problems with their boyfriends on me and get nasty. Its unbelievable. They call me all sorts of horrible names and then they throw up all over my cab. Every one of them. They can’t handle their booze. Then I gotta go back to the garage and clean out my cab and it still stinks.

24. What other professions do your work with, and how do they affect you (make your job easier or harder)?

© 2006 University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Revised 8/18/2006 0b8f65f0b499ebde95b62597521b44de.doc Page 3 I don’t really work with any other professions. My job is getting harder because the hotels all have their own minibuses and give free rides. Private limos and car services are killing the taxi business. And illegal jitneys drivers (gypsy cabs) are taking a big cut out of my business too.

25. What “health risk behaviors are common in your profession? (Tobacco, alcohol, specific drugs, sex, stress, marital or family discord, etc.)

I drink beer to relax when I come home and I smoke too much. I’m pretty worn out after a twelve hour shift, but I’m not married so it doesn’t affect anyone.

26. How does your vocation affect the personal life of you or people you know?

It doesn’t.

27. What activities and/or hobbies do people in your profession like to do?

Hobbies? None. I have no time. Well sometimes I go to the racetrack. Does that count as a hobby?

28. Are there any items of clothing or props that someone portraying a person in your profession would use consistently? (Hats, keys, stuff you’d keep in your pockets or bags, day planners, work boots, particular costume or types of clothing…)

There’s no dress code. You can wear whatever you want. It hurts business if you are smelly and unkempt because a customer might refuse to get into the cab. I keep a gym bag with me that contains a map, a cell phone, sunglasses, a bottle of water, pens, aspirin and a place to put my receipts.

29. If a person in your position were to get fired, what would they most likely have done to justify the termination and what would the steps involve? Do lay offs happen in your occupation?

Layoffs do not happen in the taxi business. You could get fired if you were in a major accident and it was your fault. You could lose your hack license if you physically assaulted a customer or said racist or sexist things to them.

If you get 6 points on your license, you have to go to traffic school to get two points knocked off before you can drive again.

30. Please define any jargon or lingo specific to your profession.

Mark it dead – a no show. A customer who isn’t there when you go to pick them up.

31. Anecdotes:

A lady in a wheelchair wearing a big fur coat was giving me a hard time once. She hailed my cab and then when I stopped and got out to help her, to fold up her chair and put it in the trunk, she changed her mind about needing a ride. It was no big deal but she was pretty rude about it. So I sat back down in my drivers seat and she slammed the passenger door shut. The only thing is she shut the door on her fur coat and I didn’t see it so when I drove off, her and her wheelchair came along with me. She didn’t get hurt.

There’s a customer named Charlie who tips $200.00 on a $30.00 cab ride. I’ve had him twice in 8 years. He calls for a ride when he’s had too much to drink. He always leans over from the back seat and drapes his arm over your shoulder and tells you his life story.

There’s another guy, a crazy rich lawyer named Rick who has some kind of obsessive compulsive disorder. He always calls for a cab at night, and then he stands there at the door and stares for ten minutes when you pull up. He creates this whole big ordeal about getting into the cab. He looks inside the cab for five minutes, then stares at me for five minutes. He won’t touch the door handle of the cab so I’ve gotta get out and open the door for him then its another few minutes before he sits down. Then he decides that he needs to go a 24 hour drug store or fast food place in the furthest possible suburb he can think of just to get a candy bar or one bag of fries. I’m not going to pick this guy up any more. I’m tired of his antics.

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