cab drivers, info

[lorcar]

Hope milleniumcab or some other does not get annoyed by my post.

Do you think that cab drivers in NY know how to drive? do you think they drive smoothly? or rather do you find their style quite "jerkily" (hope this is the right english word, i had to look on the dictionary)?
every ride i have is a sort of Hope-i-am-not-gonna-puke-this-time.

Also, a friend of mine once told me that once a couple of cabdrivers told him that it's common practice among NYdriver to be drunk. I don't know that, but sometime happened to smell alchool in the cab.

And - final point- the tip.
Every stranger reading a touristic guide is told that Waiters are not paid, so YOU DO HAVE to give the tip, and YOU DO HAVE TO LEAVE at least a certain amount.
What I don't understand is how cab driver are paid. Do they have a salary?
They don't give you the change, and they DO WANT some dollars on top of it. Last night the guy who brought me home took his usual 60 cents of change, and i was about to leave him a dollar more. But when he gave me the change he had already taken an extra dollar. I got furious, and i said i was to take his identification number since he had been smoking in the car. Then he gave me back the extra dollar (that obviously at this point did not become his tip!). This was not the first time that i had been discussing with some PRETENDING to receive a dollar more.

[Punzie]

Lorcar, please choose:
(A) These are real questions for which you don't have answers. You want real answers.
(B) These are rhetorical questions and you want some feedback.
(C) This is a rant, and come to think of it, you don't care if you get feedback.

If the answer is (A), this thread stays on Q&A.
If the answer is (B), this thread gets moved to Anything Goes.
If the answer is (C), the thread gets moved to the Trash Bin and you get a slap on the wrist. (Just don't do it again.)

[lorcar]

Lorcar, please choose:
(A) These are real questions for which you don't have answers. You want real answers.
(B) These are rhetorical questions and you want some feedback.
(C) This is a rant, and come to think of it, you don't care if you get feedback.

If the answer is (A), this thread stays on Q&A.
If the answer is (B), this thread gets moved to Anything Goes.
If the answer is (C), the thread gets moved to the Trash Bin and you get a slap on the wrist. (Just don't do it again.)

i dont understand why you think i am a troll or rant.

I asked explicitely how much a cab driver earns on average, i have no clue, and also if you think they have to pretend their tip.
Yes, i would like to have some feedback

[Schadenfrau]

I'm not exactly sure what they earn, but what's the problem with tipping cab drivers? Unless the trip you're talking about cost under $10, you're being mad cheap.

[Punzie]

i dont understand why you think i am a troll or rant.
I didn't pre-judge you. There was so much ranting that I wondered if you wanted your questions answered, or if you wanted to get things out of your system. You just gave me the answer.

[ReTarrDeD]

lol...
If you think the cab driver taking a dollar is crazy, then you aint gonna like the city very much.
There are alot of restaurants and stores in the city, not just manhattan but also queens and brooklyn as well, adds a mandatory 15%-20% gratuitude to your check. I don't know what would happen if you don't pay the added gratuitude to your check.
Waiters DO get paid on a salary per hour, but its just common courtesy to tip them whether or not the service was good.

[Ninjahedge]

The salary of both suck.

It is customary that you give the cab driver a medium tip, and it was not right for him to take one without asking.

And Raph, ease up. I don't think he was trolling, he was just frustrated (he even apologized up front if it would insult MC or any others!)

BTW, the rumor of drunken driving in NYC is BS. Yes some people do this, but it is not common or remotely customary.

[lorcar]

thanks for replying

the point is this. IF it is a courtesy, it cannot be imposed or required. I understand that it is costumary, but sometimes they exaggerate with their claims.

RETARRDED, you wonder what would happen??
When i came here some years ago, i didnt know about this "mafia" (and sorry again if this word offends some, but i cant find a better definition, it's really an extortion) so in the first restaurants we used to tip as much we thought it was ok, because in my country the tip is a courtesy, a gift, a present, a gratuity call it as you want (and you also don't see all these ridiculous scenes of all the people at the table trying to make the right calculations and splits! add 15% no add 18% let's do 16,57% let's simply double the tax.. )...
THE waiters ran after us asking for more and complaining for the dollars we left! this is what would happen...

Could some explain plz why the owners do not hire and pay the waiters? isn't a service after all? i go to a restaurant, and i pay ONE check. With this money i pay everything: the food, the chef, the use of the toilet etc etc. Why is the service up to the client? it's like you go in a shop, you buy a tshirt and you have to pay the guy who looked for your size and color or for the people at the counter.

Also, could some explain why the prices showed are never final? why they do not include the tax already? i see that some shop/deli shows directly the final price the customer has to pay, but 99% here in NY show just a price without tax. So i queue for 5 minute to take a coffee, i read in huge letter the price, i get ready with all the coins, and when i arrive at the counter the price is different because of the tax!!!

[Ninjahedge]

Many of my analities are similar.

TRhe theory behind adding tax after the fact is multifold, but does not really apply to the service industry in teh same way.

Manufacturers say that they can't print a price on the package including tax since it varies and they do not want different values for their net proceeds because of this and a constant final selling price.

Also, the theory is that people will go somewhere else if it is less expensive. SO adding tax into the price beforehand is seen as unfair.

For restaurants it makes NO sense. I would not go to NJ for lunch because the tax is 1% less, but yuo DID see peopel go to Jersey City and other areas for a measley 3% difference in taxes between NJ and these "special" areas.

People are stupid, and our system followed it.


There was no real deal going on with tips here. Capitalism made it this way. People would tip a certain ammount, on average, and that began to be expected. Afetr a while, owners started paying less because they knew their workers were getting extra on the side.

When minimum wages were established, this was also taken into account, since most places were already paying on that shifted scale.

Ehe ULTIMATE insult is that these guys are expected to earn a certain % in tips and are actually TAXED on it!

I think we need to change this. "gratuity" should never be mandatory. Minimum wage should go up. Tips should NOT be taxable. But getting that to pass is VERY improbable.

So when you come here, just expect to pay more taht you see. Kind of similar to anyone from the US going to europe and paying in euros!! ;)

[Schadenfrau]

Okay, now you're just ranting.

Why should anyone care how things are done in your home country? You're not there now, and you need to abide by local policies and spare us all the drama.

[Ninjahedge]

He isn't allowed to express his feelings on the matter?

I did not read his words as an insult to the states, but rather someones view of what we have as a standard from a different perspective.

No matter how comfortable you are standing on your head, sometimes you need a stranger to come up and ask you what the heck you are doing to realize how silly it is.

[Schadenfrau]

The last I checked, my Lord Of All The Internet card hadn't arrived in the mail. So, yes, Lorcar is allowed to express his feelings on the all-important matter of tipping.

In that vein, I'm also technically "allowed" to start threads about how many countries serve room-temperature tap water. I'm sure you would all find it riveting.

[Ninjahedge]

The last I checked, my Lord Of All The Internet card hadn't arrived in the mail. So, yes, Lorcar is allowed to express his feelings on the all-important matter of tipping.

Meh.

In that vein, I'm also technically "allowed" to start threads about how many countries serve room-temperature tap water. I'm sure you would all find it riveting.

Nope. I probably would not reply either!

So what's holding you back! ;)

[lorcar]

Many of my analities are similar.

Manufacturers say that they can't print a price on the package including tax since it varies and they do not want different values for their net proceeds because of this and a constant final selling price.


if this were a strong argument, we wouldn't have other countries (Sorry SchadenFrau, i'll reply on this later) where manufacturers/sellers show final price


Also, the theory is that people will go somewhere else if it is less expensive. SO adding tax into the price beforehand is seen as unfair.


this is an even weaker argument...since the tax would be the same for all the manufacturers/sellers under the same regulation and the addition would be the same...

Schadenfrau, cmon, why ranting? i didn't say you should care about my country. I simply brought an example, to point out how strange is to me what i see here, since my question sounded like "why do u do in this way, that looks so strange and also unfair to me?"
Here, I do abide to everything i have to, I do not complain at all even when probably i should.
Ok, tip (and all the related issues in term of higher real prices, especially for those people "moving to NY", or for students without a job nor other income stream) is not such important matter, i am sorry for diverting your attention from all the highly philosophical issues going on in other threads.

[Ninjahedge]

Lor, point of advice?

Keep your original statement of protest to Schade, but lose the sarcasm at the end. It usually does not go over well.

As for the issues you brought up, yes they are silly, but those are their issues. The real issue is that no-one wants to take a potential hit if they change things. Someone always will, so no-one wants to do it.

[lorcar]

Lor, point of advice?

lose the sarcasm at the end. It usually does not go over well.



ok i keep your advice
hope none get offended, just pretended to be funny, didn't want to create a flame