sorry for the delay

Hi everyone! oi, so sorry I haven't been posting a lot on the blog, or I've posted never for a while, what has it been, a few months?

Anyway, things have been good. When I last wrote in the blog I was experimenting with starting my day at JFK Airport. That phase is done now, but I had to give it the time it deserves to see if it would work itself out.

One of my days since I restarted my taxi driving career was so bad I made only 55 dollars for a 12 hour shift. So I guess that was a key day to make me re-analyze all of the day. I know a common taxi blog reader is not looking for all of the money break downs and analyzations, but you must realize that this eventually takes up most of the meaning of our day, each ride we get is our salary, every extra dollar we get is going to us, after we make enough money to pay for the lease and the gas and then get surcharges on the passengers credit transactions and each ride. So it is very important for me to work all of this out.

And so the season now has been going quite well. Some days I've picked up the cab as late as 6:30am and dropped it off as early as 3:30 and still made $180, but the more common expectation is to pick the car up a little late i.e. 6am, and drop it off right at the deadline, and make just over $100 bucks.

So... right... where was I? Oh right, the airports. So I did the math and realized the gas prices, combined with the traffic, and the low tipping international arrivals don't make the trips from the airport worth it. Here's the breakdown:

1. It is 18 miles to the airport from my garage
2. It is another 20+ miles to the passenger's destination
3. the wait time @ JFK Airport is 2 hours+

This equals to 45 dollars gained if I'm lucky, could even be 40 dollars if it's closer than Manhattan. If the passenger chooses to pay by credit card and doesn't tip, I lose another $2.50. The gas used for both directions combined @ 10 miles to the gallon equals $16.64 that I also lose.

So in summary, if I go straight to JFK even on a very good airport day. I'd make only 26 dollars in two hours!!!

So I've figured out a new method, and it has been helping me a lot lately. I try to drive only 100 miles a day, and I figure that if the meter calculates I made 200 dollars gross, than I can usually expect 100 dollars profit. Sometimes the tips are low and the the air conditioning is used so the profit goes down to 84 dollars, but for the most part this strategy works. I give myself this low level to achieve, which keeps me much more positive, which makes my driving style better, keeps me relaxed, and then the money sometimes just falls over itself to find me. There are good days and bad days.

So that's where I'm at right now in the world of taxi. I start each day with a modest goal, and see what happens.