Taxi!!??

[Craig.]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070408/ap_ ... _taxi_move
thats a long drive.

[PsychoDiablo]

wow

[murjax]

Oh my gosh. Imagine you're a taxi driver and you get hailed and then suddenly you get told to drive to California or something.  ;D There is probably a limit to as how far they can go outside the city. It looks like there was some kind of deal made with the company for this.  :)

[Craig.]

There are rules as to long distance trips. All fares must be agreed to before starting out. But I dont think the distance is  restricted thing.

[dcunning30]

I was listening to a talk radio show last week and the host mentioned he saw a taxi driver run over himself.

The taxi driver had stopped and in his excitement over something I don't remember, the driver got out of the cab without first putting the cab into park, so the cab began rolling back and the open door knocked him down and the front tire rolled over him.  Then the driver got up and chased after the cab and used his hand to press on the brake before the cab ran into a building across the street.  Then the driver got into the cab and drove off.  The radio host speculated that that driver was going to be really sore the next day.

[Saitek]

Equivalent would be doing Lands End to John O'Groats three times.  :-/

[beaky]

I did a couple of brief stints as a night-shift radio-dispatched taxi driver... used to dream of a fare like that. One of the drivers who worked with me supposedly had once picked up a fare to Boston (from NJ) once... about $500, more than most of us earned in a week sometimes.  I don't think it was some nice couple, though- very likely someone who couldn't afford to be spotted at a plane, train or bus terminal.
You meet some interesting people working the night shift...  the demi-monde...  ;D

I have two lucrative fares that stand out in my memory: a retired and fairly smashed electrician who used to change the outdoor floodlight bulbs on the Empire State Building (Guttenberg, NJ to Queens, NYC- about $60 plus a decent tip), and an extremely drunk Irishman whose fare was something like $10, but refused to take change of a $100 bill. Yes, it was real- I learned very quickly how to spot a bogus bill- and he didn't call the office the next day, all hung over and demanding his money, so I guess he wasn't too drunk to realize what he'd given me (I did ask him three times if he knew it was a hundred, and if he was sure... ).

But most nights were pretty lean- I don't recommend it. Those two were the only "bar pickups" I didn't want to throw out of my cab... bar pickups are the worst. Remember that next time any of you calls a cab after a night of drinking... imagine what it's like for the poor driver.
 The only reason I wound up driving a cab was because they paid cash the first night, and I was hard-up.  ;D

[bok269]

at least its a hybrid!

I love NYC taxis.