Lack-of-Fun with Cabs
Jan. 6th, 2010 08:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dogriverI'm not a fan of huge multi-tweet rants on Twitter, so I thought I'd
blog my rant here and make it easy to skip past it if people so wish.
Yesterday I woke up with a splitting headache. I decided that I would
not go to work, so I canceled my Handi-Transit trips for the day. You
have to give them half an hour's notice to avoid being penalized. But
very quickly after that, the headache cleared, so I decided the only
ethical thing to do was to go to work after all. I thought I would
reward myself with the luxury of taking cabs instead of Handi-Transit.
It would cost me about $40, but hey, it would be nice getting taken
directly there and getting picked up immediately after work.
The trip to work was just fine, no major incidents. I got there
in plenty of time, all was well.
I booked my return trip online at www.duffystaxi.com, because I like
ordering and booking things online. The procedure went smoothly enough,
I filled out the addresses of my pickup and drop-off, and in the "driver
instructions" field I noted that I was blind. I requested a 3:50 pickup.
Because I'd been in something of a hurry that morning, I had neglected
to bring my cellphone. I stood between the two sets of doors until about
4:30 waiting, when it finally occurred to me that I had a nice phone
right upstairs on my desk that was just waiting for me to use it. So I
did, and I called the cab company. The gentleman with whom I spoke told
me that my cab had in fact been there on time, but the driver had failed
to look at the driver instructions telling him I'm blind, and had
therefore marked me as a no-show when I didn't come out on my own. He
told me that I should note my blindness in the name field if I'm going
to book online. So my big crime here was the ridiculous, wild, and
totally off-base assumption that drivers looked in the driver
instructions field for driver instructions. Silly me.
So I had them send out a second cab, and that did work out well, except
that by now we were into the thickest part of rush hour and I
consequently had to pay more for the trip. Thankfully I had a little
extra cash on me, so this wasn't a problem. But my nice, convenient,
quick ride home, which should have gotten me home at around ten after
four, wound up getting me home at twenty after five.
And that was my day yesterday.
blog my rant here and make it easy to skip past it if people so wish.
Yesterday I woke up with a splitting headache. I decided that I would
not go to work, so I canceled my Handi-Transit trips for the day. You
have to give them half an hour's notice to avoid being penalized. But
very quickly after that, the headache cleared, so I decided the only
ethical thing to do was to go to work after all. I thought I would
reward myself with the luxury of taking cabs instead of Handi-Transit.
It would cost me about $40, but hey, it would be nice getting taken
directly there and getting picked up immediately after work.
The trip to work was just fine, no major incidents. I got there
in plenty of time, all was well.
I booked my return trip online at www.duffystaxi.com, because I like
ordering and booking things online. The procedure went smoothly enough,
I filled out the addresses of my pickup and drop-off, and in the "driver
instructions" field I noted that I was blind. I requested a 3:50 pickup.
Because I'd been in something of a hurry that morning, I had neglected
to bring my cellphone. I stood between the two sets of doors until about
4:30 waiting, when it finally occurred to me that I had a nice phone
right upstairs on my desk that was just waiting for me to use it. So I
did, and I called the cab company. The gentleman with whom I spoke told
me that my cab had in fact been there on time, but the driver had failed
to look at the driver instructions telling him I'm blind, and had
therefore marked me as a no-show when I didn't come out on my own. He
told me that I should note my blindness in the name field if I'm going
to book online. So my big crime here was the ridiculous, wild, and
totally off-base assumption that drivers looked in the driver
instructions field for driver instructions. Silly me.
So I had them send out a second cab, and that did work out well, except
that by now we were into the thickest part of rush hour and I
consequently had to pay more for the trip. Thankfully I had a little
extra cash on me, so this wasn't a problem. But my nice, convenient,
quick ride home, which should have gotten me home at around ten after
four, wound up getting me home at twenty after five.
And that was my day yesterday.
