Taxi tales
| • | Cabbies Say ... |
| • | Cabbie Culture |
By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
 |
| Cab driver David Rosa waits for customers at Aloha Tower. He said the life of a cabbie doesn't work for everybody, but it's right for him.
Andrew Shimabuku • The Honolulu Advertiser |
The poor schmuck had no idea what he was in for.
"He thought he was going to rob me," says Rosa, a 53-year-old former merchant mariner who spends his one day off each week lifting weights and punching a heavy bag. "But I was able to fend him off. The hunter became the hunted. I beat him up."
Rosa never did get the fare he was owed — but, he says, grinning widely at the memory, "I got a lot of satisfaction from beating the guy up."
It isn't every day that Rosa gets to punch out a customer — in fact the incident was the one and only time in his 10 years as a cabbie that he's had to — but certainly every day Rosa and the thousands of other folks who drive taxicabs in Honolulu encounter things that might shock the general commuter population.
"Oh yeah, all kinds of things," Rosa says. "People argue and fight in the back seat. There are big-money transactions and contracts being signed. Some people want to have sex in the back seat.
"I charge them an extra fare of $200 to $300 if they want to do that," he says, not laughing.
Though the sheer volume of cars on the road and in residential garages would seem to suggest otherwise, Honolulu is indeed a taxi town. With more than 3,000 people driving taxis in any given week, Hawai'i is one of a small number of cities (along with New York, Washington, D.C., Miami, Atlanta, New Orleans, Las Vegas and Boston) that have at least three cabbies for every 1,000 people.
Working long hours for modest pay and no benefits, these cabbies often see a side to people that isn't always flattering.
As veteran driver Si Le, 45, says, "People look one way on the outside, but their personalities are different when they step inside a cab."
The rearview mirror
It's 2 a.m. at the cab stand by Mark's Building in downtown Honolulu and Ete Eremia, 57, is waiting for one of his regulars to call. Nearby, two other cabbies are trading 'ukulele licks, their laughter echoing down the almost-deserted street.
Eremia has been working the area for more than 10 years but says every shift brings with it a different set of unique experiences.
A few years ago, Eremia found himself in the middle of a clichÚ when a woman he was driving to Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children went into labor.
"I went straight to the emergency room, but she had the baby right there in the cab all by herself," he says.
Eremia works a typical cabbie schedule — 10 hours a day, six days a week. Wages vary for cabbies based on location, clientele and tips, but Eremia said he typically makes $100 to $150 a night, which covers the $390 a week he pays to lease his 1996 Mercury Grand Marquis from the fleet owner and the $40 it takes to fill up his tank every day.
Operating on such a tight budget, Eremia is picky about his payment. After getting burned by a customer who paid a $300 fare with a bad check, Eremia enforces a strict cash-only policy. But even then, collecting isn't always easy.
Once, a guy paid a fare with a church promotional flier that looked like a $20 bill. Others have passed on laser-printed counterfeits.
"Women are nasty," he says. "Sometimes you know they have smaller bills, but they'll give you a $100 bill thinking that if you can't break it you'll just let them go."
And, of course, some people just run.
Eremia says every cab driver has to account for the occasional person who gets close to a destination, then jumps out and runs without paying.
"Sometimes you can tell by the way they look or act," he says. "But not always."
Once, Eremia drove a couple of well-dressed, respectable looking men from Waikiki to a downtown parking lot where they had parked their Land Rover, no cheap set of wheels.
"We got there and they said they had to get the money from the car," Eremia says. "But as soon as they got there, they locked the doors and — pee-yeew — they drove away."
Eremia says he's witnessed all manner of vice from his rearview mirror.
"There's sex all the time," he says. "I have druggies who try to shoot up in the back seat, or they stick rock in their cigarette.
"Druggies are no good," he says, pragmatically. "You get to their destination and they don't want to get out."
Eremia says he's even been party to a few snooping expeditions.
"Some women will catch a cab to spy on their husbands," he says. "One young girl was dating a married man, and she wanted to wait outside his house and watch him. It was a $50 fare, but she said that was all right. She wanted to see him with his family."
A tough living
When he first started driving a cab 13 years ago, John Nguyen thought he could put in a regular eight-hour day. Silly him.
Nguyen, 42, says he now works 16 to 17 hours a day, seven days a week to support his wife (who can't work because of serious medical condition) and their 10-year-old son.
Nguyen's monthly expenses include $560 in car payments, $520 to the cab company, and $365 for insurance. Throw in $30 a day for gas and a few hundred more every few months for repairs and it's obvious why Nguyen works such brutal hours, and why he looks like the living dead in the middle of the afternoon as he waits for his next customer at Aloha Tower.
"Sometimes I sleep in the car," he says. Things are so tight that Nguyen says it's difficult to account for unexpected expenses, and infuriating when those expenses are unnecessary.
Take the time Nguyen drove five guys from Waikiki to School Street. Not only did they run away without paying, they kicked in one of his doors, costing Nguyen about $1,000 in repairs.
Like other cabbies, Nguyen says, he doesn't bother calling the police when he's ripped off because time spent doing filing a report means less time recouping the loss.
One time a person defecated in Nguyen's back seat. Obvious unpleasantness aside, Nguyen lost a day and a half of income cleaning and airing out the car.
The closest he ever came to quitting the taxi business was a few years ago, when a ride from Waikiki to Wai'anae took a decidedly dangerous turn.
"We got there and the guy reached back like he was going to pay me," Nguyen recalls. "But then he pulled out a knife and held it like this."
Nguyen presses an imaginary blade to his stomach. "I couldn't move." The robber took the $45 Nguyen had made that day and left. But the incident rattled Nguyen so badly that the cabbie had to seriously consider starting over in a new line of work.
"I just wanted to give up after that," Nguyen says. "I stayed home for a week."
'You Have the freedom'
Rosa, the crook-whupping cabbie, said the life of a cab driver doesn't work for everybody, but it's right for him.
"You cannot get rich driving a taxi, but it pays the bills and if you manage your finances, you can do well," he says. "It works for me because I believe in simple living."
Rosa takes a professional approach to his work. His clothes are clean and pressed, his car is immaculate and he greets his customers warmly.
And while he might be willing (for a fee) to turn a blind eye to a little backseat hanky-panky, Rosa doesn't allow drugs in his cab, and he refuses to shuttle clients to prostitutes and bath houses — a profitable side business for some cabbies.
Rosa used to use his own car for work, but now leases from a fleet owner because it's more convenient. It takes about two days to cover the $350 a week rent on the vehicle (including insurance, rooftop taxi light, and meter). The rest of the week's proceeds are his.
While the pay is modest, Rosa says, being his own boss is good compensation.
"You have the freedom," he says. "When you want to stay home, you stay home. When you're having a bad day, you can call it a day, go home, get drunk, and then come back the next day. There's always another day."
Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2461.
• • •
We asked cabbies for their takes on a few taxi-related subjects. Here's what they had to say about:
Hailing: Wave your arm over your head but stay on the sidewalk. Be sure you're in an area where a taxi can safely and legally pull over to pick you up. Some drivers are wary about picking up people off the street. The surest way to get a cab is to call a company and arrange a pickup.
Milking the meter: "People don't understand that we might like them, but we don't want them to stick around," says cabbie David Rosa. "It's better for us if we pick them up and drop them off fast. Ship and ship out." That's because every new customer starts out with a set starting fare (around $2.25), with additional fare added in small increments according to time and mileage. The more customers, the more the starting fares. Cabbies say that if business is steady, it can be more profitable to have multiple customers instead of a few taking longer rides.
Tippers: Most cabbies understand that tipping is not standard practice for some Europeans and Asians, but it is expected for locals and Mainlanders. Rosa said teenagers tend to be good tippers "because they're happy-go-lucky with their money." People who work at restaurants, bars, nightclubs and other places where tips are given also tend to tip well. Cabbie Ete Eremia said the worst tippers are people from Kahala. "That's why they have money," he said.
Dealing with drunks: Si Le, a driver for 15 years, said the best way to handle unruly drunks is simply to chill. "I just let them cool down for 10 or 15 minutes," he says. "I don't fight with anybody. I just let them calm down on their own, and things are usually OK afterward. Sometimes I get a good tip, too."
• • •
Taxis and taxi drivers have left an indelible mark on our popular culture. Here are a few important dates in taxi culture:
1928 — George Gershwin includes four taxi horns in his composition "American in Paris" to represent the influence of the machine age.
1954 — Above, sitting in a taxi, Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) rejects his brother Charley's advice to "be a cheese-eater," breaking all of our hearts with the immortal lines: "You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am." ("On the Waterfront")
1970 — Singer Joni Mitchell hears a screen door slam, "And a big yellow taxi took away my old man." The live version of "Big Yellow Taxi" also drove Mitchell into the Top 40 four years later.
1972 — Sue tells Harry to take her to Sixteen Parkside Lane, and it's a heck of a ride in singer Harry Chapin's "Taxi." Taking tips and getting stoned, indeed.
1976 — Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) really, really wants to know: "Are you talkin' to me?" ("Taxi Driver")
1978 — A great decade for cabbies draws to a close with the debut of "Taxi" on NBC. The series introduces America to the likes of Louie DePalma, pictured above right, (Danny DeVito), Alex Reiger (Judd Hirsch), Elaine Nardo (Marilu Henner), Rev. Jim (Christopher Lloyd), Tony Banta (Tony Danza) and Latka Gravas, pictured above left, (Andy Kaufman). Can you say, "Tenk you beddy much?"
1989 — Rocker Lenny Kravitz has a problem with "Mr. Cab Driver" who won't stop because "He don't like dreads, he thinks we're all crooks."
1991 — The film "Night on Earth" looks inside five cabs in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome and Helsinki during one eventful night. Stars Winona Rider in a nice, pre-Vicodin performance.
2004 — Hired killer Vincent (Tom Cruise), above left, forces a cabbie (Jamie Foxx), above right, to drive him from hit to hit in "Collateral," which opens in theaters Friday.
