-Archives- Shift Shots: 12/24/11

J.F.K. Airport, Queens
-5:41am

This is proof of something most taxi passengers never know about. The holding lot, Taxicabs don't just come to them at the airport. Just as any airport in the world, there are holding areas where cabs are supposed to line up get in order and then get a ticket to get to the specified terminal. J.F.K. is most often a nightmare, but more often, a daymare. You see, during the day it is not uncommon to wait up to 4 hours for your next ride, a ride that could be 50 bucks, most likely, but could also be 10 bucks with a ticket for the short line when you come back, and then when you come back another hour or two there to get the next ride. It's brutal sometimes.

Funny how I just found out about the exif data on my flickr account. I can look up each picture I took, and it will tell me when the picture was taken.. That sounds fantastic, but then I matched up the data with the clock in picture two, and the data seemed to be 1 hour and 5 minutes off, so I adjusted the numbers accordingly. However this means that my last post wasn't a picture taken at 6:45am, it was really taken at 5:41am, no wonder it was so dark. I'll go and change that caption now.


5:43am

But anyway, needless to say the span of time here is 4 hours and ten minutes. Meaning I'd made only $45 in 5 hours time. I had a remaining 4 hours to make $85 just to pay for the car and its gas, and then hopefully some money for myself for my 12 hours of work.

No this was not a brilliant strategy, but these last few years starting with 2011 marked the beginning of some poor decision making on my part in cab driving: 5 days a week, 12 hours a day, with a strict returning time just before all the demand for taxicabs was on the street, I just continued to make less and less money each day. Add to this the approaching recession and it was just really really sad. I learned the hard way that quality is best over quantity. Best to pick the best days to work and the best times to work. I've got this now.


-8:23am


-8:44am


-9:50am


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