The Dangers of Driving a Cab

Cab drivers have interesting stories to tell. Chesapeake isn’t a big taxi city. Most of our business was for government-sponsored medical transportation for which the company had contracted. The busiest times were during rush hour when people were getting to and from work. It was during those times that you wanted fares to go as quickly as possible so you could get as many in while it was busy. However, the medical transportation customers tended to have medical issues that made them have to take their time.

As a Christian, I wanted to have compassion for people in need. At the same time, I needed to provide for my family. It was a constant struggle between the two, even though we didn’t have a whole lot of choice in the matter. Most of the time you just sat in the cab waiting to be called on the CB radio for a fare.

There were certain spots or stands where you waited. The main stand was the parking lot of the shopping center where the bank was that had been robbed when Courtney and I were in it. If you were the first one to have gotten to the particular stand where a fare came up nearby, you got the fare. There was a lot of waiting time at the stands where I often watched the entertaining phenomenon of smaller, territorial birds chasing and badgering the larger birds that dared to enter their space.

Although you didn’t have much choice on fares, you got to know where and when the regular runs would happen. If you wanted to avoid a particular fare you knew was going to be nasty, you didn’t go to that stand at that time or you just stayed silent when the call came. It became a game between the drivers. Sometimes the call would come early and you got caught answering it. Then the other drivers would dog you.

By far the worst Chesapeake customers were a certain non-medical transport fare who called from time to time. They were three rather rotund people who didn’t seem to know about personal hygiene. When you heard the address to go to, your heart sunk and you knew the joking was coming from the other drivers. 

Since there were three of them, one had to sit in the front seat, which was waaaay too close. They would go to the store nearby and while one of them went in, you waited with the other two in the back. The smell was the kind of sour stink that made you only breathe through your mouth or you might throw up. For my sake and the customers that followed, I kept a bottle of Febreze in the car for when I got caught with them to try to torch the smell when they got out.

Driving a cab has potential dangers. In those days it was all cash. I had to keep a wad of smaller bills for change but as the day wore on, the bills became ever larger. I would peel them off and hide them in a spot under my seat so that when I gave change, it wouldn’t seem like I had a lot to steal.

One day I was waiting in the shopping center parking lot where that bank was and out of nowhere, a guy jumped into the back. He was a younger man, dressed kind of scruffy. There was some construction going on in the area but it was raining that day. He asked to be taken to a hotel not too far away across the freeway which is where they put up construction workers they brought in for projects. I assumed he was one of them.

So he had started out by taking me by surprise when he first jumped in. Then something about the way he was acting made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I had some kind of intuitive sense that this was going to be a robbery, including possible violence. Of course, he was behind me so I couldn’t see when it would come.

I had a fearful burning sensation and starting silently praying like crazy, asking God to please help me, please help me. We made it to the hotel and he told me to go around the back. I thought, “Oh, this isn’t good”. When we got round the back he asked if I had change for $100 bill. The fare was very small so that was a sure sign to me that he was trying to get me to pull out my stash. I thought it would be wise to tell him that I couldn’t change it.

He came up with some smaller bills that wasn’t quite enough but I told him that would be fine and he got out! So whether I was just being paranoid or something stopped him from doing it, a situation that had all the earmarks of robbery turned out safely enough. Either way, I thanked God profusely.