Tampa Hack Blog

Just to let people know that this shadow blog that I have been keeping since 2007 is called Tampa Hack. This blog shadows Tampa Taxi shots with other thoughts and concepts not covered on my main blog. There are many people who will be coming in for the 2012 Republican Convention and they may want to read this blog to see what is going on in Tampa Florida.

Taxi Riders Like The New United Cab Dispatch Features

United Cab of Tampa has some new features on our high-tech dispatch system that people are really digging. When people call for a taxi they will receive a text message letting them know the cab number of the unit that is on its way. It even lets them know how far away it is (1.2 miles for example). As the taxi get closer, the customer gets another message telling them to come outside their taxi is turning onto their block. When the driver is on site, it will automatically do the call out for the driver. The customers like this; they like it a lot. In fact, if they have an 'I Phone' they can download a software that post a map of the city on their phone and allows them to follow the progress of the taxi in REAL TIME. Now how cool is that!

Just tonight, for example, on every call in the Hyde Park area I got, the fares were waiting outside as I arrived. They were waving at me. My hope is this will help increase our call count and customer loyalty. In the long run it should have a positive affect on the money we are making.

Now, when customers call Yellow Cab, they will think they have called "dial a prayer." They dial and pray they show up. After all, the customer has no information about if a Yellow Cab is actually on its way or not. This feature will be very effective in building up not only our club and party business, but in increasing our airport business that should feature prominently in taxi drivers portfolio.

United Cab is the only company anyone should call in Tampa. So when those Republicans come to Tampa next year, I hope they all use our service. They will have perfect information about how they will be served.

Don't Leave Your Cell Phone In The Taxi

This photo demonstrates that there is no excuse for losing your cell phone in a public taxi cab. I was out on Clearwater beach recently and they were having a bikini contest at Sheppard's Beach Resort and I thought I would check it out.

I could not believe all the semi-nude women that were walking around, and all of them had cell phones! This young lady in a black string bikini had a unique way of holding on to her phone (note the front of her bikini bottom).

The reason I mention this is that people often lose their phones in the taxi cabs. That creates a problem for the driver because we have to waste time returning the phone and people don't always give us a tip, so, we lose a fare. All cab drivers have this problem with phones. If we do return a phone, please understand that we have just missed a call and take care of us.

Now people, you can see there is no excuse for not having your phone on your person when you exit the taxi cab. Just leave some plastic gloves so we can handle it!

A New Taxi Driver

I pulled up along this new driver today. He was reading a readers digest and waiting for a call. I don't know about this guy. He had some strange ides about working the same hours every day and having a plan, or system, and sticking with it. I don't know about that.

He will learn soon that you can't work this like a business. You have to work the bars at night and sleep in your cab or you have no chance of making money. Larry thinks you can have a better plan.

Anyway, I hope Larry has good luck along the way. He just might last a couple of days or so.

A Good Weekend For Tampa Taxi Drivers

This weekend has been good for United Cab drivers. It does come as sort of a surprise with it being August and such. I know its the first of the month but I think something else is going on. The new dispatch system installed by United Cab seems to be improving our business.

The primary feature is text messaging to the customer. United Cab customers receive a text message after they hang up notifying them that a cab has been asigined, the number of the taxi, and the distance the taxi is currently at. When the taxi is within a mile, the customer will get another text telling them to come outside because the taxis arrival is eminent.

Most of the customers that I talk to really like this feature and say that is the reason they are calling United now instead of Yellow. That is the reason I think our call count is going up, we are giving the service that our customers want.

Tim And Tom's Big Adventure (History Making Baseball Game)

It was not the baseball history I wanted to see but I was glad to just be in the stadium after what happened Saturday. Tom called his customer about the bogus tickets we used Saturday to try and get into the Whitney Bank Club at Tropicana field. His customer is a business man, and had forgot that he had forwarded those tickets to an associate. He felt bad about what happened, and forwarded new tickets for the Sunday game for us. Cool! We were on our way. This game was the Sunday Night Baseball game on ESPN; It was an eight o'clock start and I figured it would end about eleven.

The view from the Whitney Bank Club

We parked in the same lot we had Saturday, and were very happy to find out our $175 tickets were good!  We were in...How Cool Is That! You enter the Whitney Bank Club through a private entrance where the staff begin waiting on you hand and foot. After the elevator ride up to the club, our tickets were scanned again and we found a good table by a window with a great panoramic view of the field.

Me watching the game

We feasted on prime rib, jerk chicken breast, vegetables (we eat healthy), scallops and much more. They even had Chicago style hot dogs which we ate during the game while we washed all of this down with boatloads of beer...All of this is free if you have a tickets. I can't tell you how wonderful the food was, and how many trips we took to the carving station. We were indeed in hog heaven. We were not, however, prepared for what we were about to see during the game.

The starting pitchers Josh Becket and Jeff Neiman pitched eight lights out innings and left the game with the score tied at 0-0. Tampa had their chances with many long shots that almost went out for home runs. Boston had left 14 men on base at the end of nine innings. By rights, they could have easily won this game. It was by watching this, that I saw how good a defensive team the Rays are. They don't miss a beat. Sam Fauld ran down many long shots with terrific speed, and Johnny Damon got two hits and plays at a high level for a 37 years old dude; Even Longoria got a nice hit to break his streak (he is coming back from injury). Neither team gave an inch and the game went extra innings. It seemed that nobody was going to score. The Red Sox loaded the bases twice, but hit into double plays both times. The Rays could not get a man passed second base the whole night.

Tom on our private balcony

The highlights of the evening were when a Boston fan ran out into the outfield and was chased by security who tackled him and beat his ass, and when Joe Madden got ejected from the game (defending a player that was attacked by a chowder head player who broke a bat).. We finally left about 1:00 a.m. and went home. I found out in the morning that Boston finally won after 16 innings. This was the longest game in Ray's franchise history. Most of the people were gone before it ended. Of course, many people have to go to jobs on Monday morning and who would have expected this game to go on for almost six hours. What was strange was watching Alex Cobb getting in some pitching practice in the bull pin after midnight. A very strange experience.

One thing I noticed was that the majority of the crowd were Tampa Bay Ray fans. Years ago in a Boston series, that would not be the case. I am glad to see the trend is turning. Friends of mine know my opinion on this. If you are going to live in the Tampa Bay area, support our teams. If not, go back too where you came from. Its as simple as that.

I am going to miss this place as I head back to the 'cheap seats' were taxi driver should be at anyway. A hot dog still taste good there. However, if you can swing it, the experience you will have at the Whitney Bank Club is well worth. it. Just having privacy was worth it for me.

Tim And Tom's Big Adventure (Born Yesterday)

There is nothing like getting free tickets to a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game. These are not just tickets, but Boston Redsox vsTampa Bay Rays tickets. In fact, they are too the Whitney Bank Club high price seating. This is where the fat cats and the bigwigs go to watch a game. These $175 tickets include free buffet style food and free booze. There is prime rib, shrimp, lasagna, and everything you could dream of. The wait staff serves your every need, and we Tom and I had tickets.

My best taxi driver friend Tom Castros took a high-roller to the airport this morning and they businessman said he had the tickets, but his plans had changed and he wanted to just give Tom the tickets for the $25 fare. Tom took them in a heartbeat and called me on my cellphone. I said "hell ya! Lets go!" The game was set for a 4:15 start and we were both hungry. Free drink and food...I'm all over it! We would soon be surrounded by beautiful women and the rich and powerful in the Tampa Bay area. Wait till they get a hold of us.

Since we are cab drivers, we know how to get within two blocks from the stadium without ever encountering traffic. I am not exaggerating on this. Most people are on the interstate and it is gridlock. We know a parking lot that charges only $10 to park, and you are in the shadow of Tropicania field. How cool is that? We walked right up to the stadium and got someone to take are picture. We were on our way and breaking all the rules We felt like Thelma and Louise. This was going to be awesome.

Tim and Tom outside Topicania Field

We walked up to the gate with our expensive, high baller tickets and proudly gave them to the ticket people. The lady scanned my ticket with a light and said, "I'm sorry sir; something is wrong with your ticket" I could not believe that. She did point out that we needed to go to gate 6 and perhaps everything would be all right. Tom and I headed over there. We could not believe that had happened and felt we would be fine over at gate six. Wrong. Now this was something out of a "Curb Your Enthusiasm" episode.

Sir...There is a problem

Security said that the tickets had been 'forwarded' yesterday to another party. In short, these tickets were no good. There was nothing we could do. Its bad enough to get beat out of a fare, but to go through all this and get your hopes up so high is just cruel. David Shields was pitching and I really wanted to see how good he would be against this powerful Boston batting lineup.

It was very hot and we just wanted to get to some kind of air condition. We had no water because we were going to get that in the club suite. When we went back to the parking lot, the guy asked us why we were leaving so early. We told him that we had been ripped off and he was good enough to give us a refund of the $10 parking fee. At least something went right.

On the ride home Tom's friend called and said that he has a special who gave him tickets to Sunday's night baseball game between the RedSox and the Rays and he could not go. He wanted to know if we wanted to use the tickets. We told him yes. He then said they were not just tickets - they were to the Whitney Bank Club and they were $175 which included free food and booze. Great! I can't wait for tomorrow night.

Obamavilles And The Starch Diet For Poor Taxi Drivers

A Shanty Town Under Obama's Rule

Am I the only one that is tired of working everyday for 10 hours with no time off and needing to work weekends to make money? All you can do during the week is pay the lease, and buy some pasta for yourself...who can afford meat?

Many of Tampa's Taxi drivers are functionally homeless. They have personal clothes and grooming items stored in the trunks of their taxi cabs or they live day to day out of a motel. Many just have nowhere to live and they gather at the pavilion in the holding area at the airport (where the taxi cab drivers wait during the day) and spread out their sleeping bags and sleep. When the floor gets to hard for them, they sleep in the back seat of the taxi.

This is reminiscent of the Depression era when people would sleep in 'Hooversvilles' or shanty towns. Those people had no jobs. So why are these men willing to work 120 hours a week to live like this? I have no idea. You can do nothing in this country and be homeless.

I am getting fat, however. Why is that? I thought you were poor? I am but when you are poor in America you gain weight. The poor people in America are the fattest in the world. Did you know that? Poor people can only buy potato's, pasta, rice and beans..the starch diet. That will make you fat. I long for meat and fresh vegetables. Tonight, I will use kidney beans in my pasta for some variety. I do have some black pepper.

Mike, you are right. I did rant the other day. I just don't how the owners of these taxi companies can be millionaires while the drivers have nothing and live like worms during the Depression while living in 'Obamavilles.'  That is if the police don't run you off in the middle of the night trying to create the illusion that there are no homeless people in the Tampa Bay area. I guess it is the economy stupid. Does Obama get your vote again? Is there anyway out of this jam in the near future?

Not Much Going On In The Tampa Taxi Business - Except Corruption

74 miles in 12 hours

Taxi drivers need to drive over 100 miles a day to have a chance of making money. Lately, I am lucky to get 50-70 miles. I have never heard of that before. When you are only getting about 5-7 calls in a twelve hour period, you don't have much chance of making a living. The HCPTC had a meeting the other day about the state of the economy...Big deal. Stop letting the companies put on so many Goddamn drivers, and let some very poor people make a living. That would be the best thing you could do.

We don't have the money to give mortgages to people with no collateral loans like Michael J. Mosses (Owner of start up cab company who made his money off of ALF's like what Govenor Scott did) when he gave a $83,000 mortgage to Keven White as a mortgage (White was arrested by the FBI on corruption charges for receiving bribes from tow companies..I predict White will roll over big time to avoid prison).

What I hope is that the hobo drivers that think they have a job, need to go get a $7 an hour gig and they will be better off. They can then move out of their motel rooms and homeless shelters or stop sleeping in the back seat of the cabs.

Why does everyone want to be in the transportation business in Tampa? Why not open some other business and stop sucking the blood out of immigrants from third world countries. It sucks now, I now have nothing to lose.

"Life Is A Highway" Tammy's Birthday Party

Life is a highway and Tammy has enjoyed her tenure in the Tampa Bay area as a veteran taxi driver. She had her 50th birthday party at Hillsborough River State Park and it was quite an event. There was a DJ, a sit down dinner, door prizes, and lots of her friends from over the years to add to the festivities. The A/C was not working well in the pavilion she had rented, other then that, it was a good evening. I thought I had the 'guess how many pennies in the jar' contest won but someone else was dead on. I still think it was rigged..LOL. When the party was over, we went over to the campsites and settled in for an all night party with a keg and more contest. Its too bad that I was the only taxi driver that showed up. I have always believed most cab drivers have no social life; I think I am right.

The Dance Floor

Tammy with the DJ at the party

If you missed the party, then you missed "Tammy Trivia" and all the door prizes and some wonderful southern cooking. I liked the event and was glad she invited me. I brought my tent and sleeping bag and set up home on the River Edge campsite. It was a little warm, but the bugs were ok and it was not too bad.

A photo of Tammy and Jack that was on display

Its hard to get cab drivers to take a day off. They should try it more often; they just might like it. See the campfire party below.