Using One of Those Newfangled Car Apps When Your Dad’s a Cabbie

Melissa Chandler’s essay for the Bold Italic, “My Dad’s a Cabbie But Sometimes I Use Lyft” is both lovely and has lots of great cabbie stories (win-win):

My dad has a few regulars who have his cell phone number, most of them elderly passengers who require extra aid. Among them are two women in their eighties, friends and roommates who live on 35th Avenue. When they call for a ride, one of them, without fail, will greet him with, “Hello, it’s the two little old ladies on 35th Avenue!” and he, without fail, will say, “You two aren’t that old!” and he can hear them giggling in the background. This exchange has been going on for five years.

I try to pinpoint why hearing about these ladies makes me happy. It’s nice of my dad, but it’s more than that. It speaks to a sense of community that is maybe in danger of being lost with the arrival of services like Uber and Lyft. I’m not sure that many people in their seventies and eighties are going to order transportation over apps. And if they stick with cab drivers, will any of the reliable ones still be around for them to call? My dad is increasingly worried these days. He says he’s not earning what he used to make. Not by far. Sometimes not even enough to justify his commute.

There’s also lots of good, measured insight into the whole car-hiring ecosystem (spoiler: cabbies are getting far less work). Melissa talks about how Lyft, at the end of the day, is cheaper and more reliable so when she has somewhere to be and limited funds, she puts aside her nostalgia and her loyalty to her dad and uses one of the dreaded apps.

He admits that the city cab companies should have had their act together long before Uber and Lyft came in to provide a quality of service they weren’t offering. He says the cab companies are increasingly hiring inexperienced drivers, and they’re also not consistent in enforcing certain policies, such as those regarding cab no-shows. That’s also a major reason why I’m tempted to go with Lyft when I need a ride. When they say they’re on their way, they actually are, and you can watch their arrival right on your phone. Most often, though, I call the company my dad works for and just cross my fingers that a driver will show up.

Photo: jeffpearce

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