Taxi driver making the switch

5 year taxi driver, tired of working for nothing. No bene's, low pay, terrible boss. I pay $500 a week to the boss for the privelidge of driving this run down peice of junk taxi, for what? Maybe today i pick up a couple decent fares to the airport or train station, or maybe, like most days, i haul around crack addicts and d-bag corp types a few blocks here and there. 12-16 hour shift monday through thursday nets me about 75-100 a day.....friday saturday maybe 150 up to 200 if i hustle and get lucky finding spots where people need rides. Every monday, go into office, drop $500 bucks on the owners desk...$2000 a month.....for what?

Started driving 5 years ago because i got laid off from a really decent job over at the local steel plant. I worked in the file room, cake work, good pay. Pink slip came, no work anymore. Unemployment was very insistent i find something, they set up interviews, 3 interviews in I was offered the job at the cab company and it was suggested i take it and i did.

Long story short, i've had it. New Year's eve is one of our biggest days of the year, but our "awesome" boss forgot to renew his company medallion for 2014 (permit that allows us to pick up fares) So at midnight the parking authority shuts us down....

2 days later he gets the medallion issued and we can go back to work....not happy....that took a lot of money out of my pocket. Walk into office today hoping he has a heart and would reduce our weekly lease payment....nope, another $500 on his desk.

So that was the straw that broke this camels back....

A couple of months ago I considered going into trucking and applied with a few companies, but I held back, thought i should wait until new year, see how things went, didnt want to rush into everything like I did with this job.

Well after dropping my money this morning, I got in my cab, drove over to my apartment, picked up the phone and started calling the companies I applied to.......

I now have 3 companies checking my background. The first one who offers me a gig, I am so out of here.

I have also spent the last few months occasionally browsing this forum, the information on here is great and has helped me a lot, and any advice will be accepted with open hands .

So my boss can take this taxi and shove it, I'm moving on to bigger and better things.

 

sorry about the rant, but it felt good getting it out there.