Fairbanks Cabbies Richard Robinson
PROLOGUE
The following material sets the tone for the content of this manuscript and, hopefully, provides an insight into the day-to-day lives of cab drivers and dispatchers, without whom the town would have a difficult time functioning, in the largest most northern city in the United States. The stories depicted by the drivers and dispatchers herein are factual and, though at times are very graphic, they provide the reader with an insight into material which could be told nowhere else on earth. My thanks to the many drivers and dispatchers who took the time to relate their stories.
A typical day-driver's day shift begins early in the morning and lasts for twelve hours out on the streets of Fairbanks. The driver then gases the cab up and turns it over to their relief driver to begin their twelve-hour evening shift. The streets become very icy and dangerous in the winter, compounded by the limited daylight hours. In mid-December the temperature drops down to 60 degrees below zero and the sun doesn't even rise in the morning until about 10:00 AM, then sets again at around 2:00 PM and it is dark by 3:00 PM. Car exhaust and home heating units combine with the cold to create a condition that is known as ice fog, making driving conditions even more hazardous by limiting visibility. Many of the drivers purchase three or four forty-pound sand bags and place them in the trunks of rear-wheel-drive vehicles to provide better traction on the streets. In addition, the state attempts to dispense small, pebble-sized gravel from over-sized dump trucks on the slickest of intersections throughout town, but they can't always get the gravel spread before the rush hours in the morning and evening. Yes, there is a rush hour in Fairbanks, Alaska, population roughly 40,000 within the city limits, and maneuvering the streets takes practice and skill. Many of the cabs are converted State Trooper vehicles with high-performance engines and are capable of accelerating quickly out of tight situations or getting through a yellow light with time to spare.
The drivers pay a daily lease, which varies between $50.00 and $65.00, at the end of the twelve-hour shift, plus he or she purchases gas for the vehicle after driving 120 to 220 miles a day during their shift. The driver of the vehicle on the next shift wants the gas tank filled up and this is usually done within fifteen minutes of shift change, as the next driver to step into the vehicle wants his or her vehicle by the start of their shift. Some drivers become very irate if they don't get their car on time, as they feel they are being deprived of fares if their relief is late getting in, and they want the car clean inside and out when it is handed over to them. The drivers don't even start making money until they have made their lease and gas, so most want to get their full twelve hours in. On good days or nights, drivers will take home $100.00 to $200.00, depending on what is going on in town event-wise, or if they hook up with a fare who wants to charter them for a number of hours. On bad shifts, the drivers might only take home a few bucks or have to dig into their pockets to come up with what they are short on the lease. This is when the cab owner gets the most complaining and flack from the drivers because they feel he put too many cars out on the road, depriving them of what they would have potentially made. And it is true; at times there are far too many cabs within the company on the road at one time, but the business is hard to predict. Some days you can't have enough cabs on the road to cover the business. It is hard to tell when the general population will need cabs. There are other cab companies out on the street competing for a slice of the pie. Occasionally, when the competition gets too tough, cab fare wars ensue. The flag drop, which is manually activated when a passenger gets into the cab, varies from company to company. The dispatchers keep daily logs of all the trips the entire fleet of cabs make and separate the logs into a twenty-four-hour period. Their shifts generally run for eight hours, with the morning shift starting at 7:00 AM and ending at 3:00 PM and the next dispatcher taking over and continuing until 11:00 PM, then the infamous graveyard shift dispatcher takes over until 7:00 AM. This cycle runs seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, with most dispatchers getting a relief every five days. The stress from dealing with callers and of attempting to keep the board with the cab number buttons straight as the drivers pass from zone to zone to pick up and drop off passengers takes an exhausting toll on the dispatchers. They find it difficult to get anything to eat or get the time to eliminate body waste, as the phone is either ringing or the drivers are calling in, vying for airtime, to let the dispatcher know that they are clear or in another zone. Drivers stop in the dispatch office from time to time throughout the day, sometimes bringing the dispatcher a cup of coffee or something to eat and to check the dispatched taxi board to see which cabs are where in or around the city. The dispatcher moves the small, quarter-sized magnetic buttons about the board. As the cabs move with passengers, they are considered "green." When they collect their fare and discharge a passenger, they are "red," or now unoccupied, and report this by activating their mike with their thumb and stating so.
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