The Blog Novice

The Personal Trek of Eric P. Martin

Monthly Archives: December 2010

S.O.C. business diary 12-28-2010

Today I wanted to start working on my Send Out Card business again. I joined Send Out Cards last year. I attempted to build the business but got sidetracked with work and school. Now, that I have more control over my time, I thought it would be a good idea to start it again.

Starting I believe is the hardest thing to do. What to do is next.  The first question I asked myself was “who are my customers? I had met another network marketer at a holiday networking party last week. He was a distributor with Organo Gold. I called him up, talked a bit about what I felt about his product since I was sipping on a cup of the coffee while we were talking. Then I found out a little about him. I then asked more about his follow-up to his customers. Did he send them Thank You cards after he received a new customer? What about the referrals that he got from customers? The answer was no. So, after hanging up the phone, I sent him a card from the Send Out Card system and a business DVD. This process took about an hour.

Next, I downloaded some software. I need to be able to keep track of my contacts. I then started looking for services on Craigslist to call. I found a photographer who had talked about using the card. Now I had created a second way to generate leads. I went to created an email to send him my business link. I revised the email and put it into the signature.  I then entered him into my new database.  Now I have to add more people to the database.

Each of these task I’m going to repeat each day for a month to see my results.

New Chicago Taxi Drivers- Choosing A Taxi Affiliation

My first week of driving as a Chicago cab driver, I choose the first company that I interviewed with. My reasoning, it was close to home. This turned out to be a big mistake that cost me money in the long run. Everyday I worked, I lost time trying to find a cab that was drivable. I found cabs that were left dirty, trunks that wouldn’t open, back seats that weren’t secure, and locks that were frozen or the wrong keys that were issued to me.  The final straw was when I took two customers to O’hare airport and the credit card machine said that they were “bad swipes.”  I eventually lost $75.00. The company wanted to blame it on the customer rather than admitting it was the new credit card machines they installed recently.

I’ve created a list of cab companies for newly cab drivers to choose from. Harold Washington College, didn’t supply a list of cab affiliations as a part of their course.

24 Seven – 773-878-8294

  • Weekly Lease - $500.00- 540.00
  • Bond – $250.00
  • Garage Location - Bryn Mar and Western
  • Phone Interview – Poor – Complained that I was asking too many questions (12/18/2010)

Ace - 773-381-8000

American United – 773-991-8720

Contact: Steve

Blue Ribbon - 773-878-5400 – leasing dept- ext 223 (Monday – Friday)

 

Checker - 312-243-2537

Chicago Carriage - 312-326-2221

Choice – 773-338-9502 – Call Monday – Friday after 9:00 a.m.

City Service - 773-907-0909 -Call Monday – Friday after 9:00 a.m.

Dispatch – 773-685-2908 -

Gold Coast Taxi - 773-271-0163

Globe Taxi Associate – 773-725-6500 – No cabs available to lease when called (12-18-2010)

Flash - 773-561-4444 – Need six months of driving experience before hiring

Koam Taxi - 773-973-3535 – No available cabs to lease when called (12-18-2010)

Peace – 312-274-1346 -

Samuel Tamene - 773-878-8294

  • Location – 5606 N. Western

Sun – 773-736-3883 – No cabs available to lease when called (12-18-2010)

Top Cab – 773-286-4400 – No cabs available to lease when called (12-18-2010)

Royal – 312-791-1272

Yellow- 312-829-4222

The Chicago Cabbie – 12-17-2010

Today was a total disaster which pushed me to leaving my cab affiliation. My day started out perfect. It only took two testing of cabs to find one that I was satisfied to drive for the day. My first customers that I picked up, I knew direction to take without hesitation. My problems started when I took a radio call. A woman wanted to got to O’hare airport. She was a freshman photography college student at Columbia College. She wanted to use a credit card. The swipe went bad. She said she had just used it last night. I read the numbers to the dispatcher over the phone. She said it came back insufficient funds. Rather than call the police, I chalked up the ride as a loss. I did take down her credit card imprint and got her signature.  I went back to the city. I picked up a few more fairs. One customer wanted to go to Lincoln & Belmont. The next The AON Building. I went there flawlessly. I headed back to Lincoln Park and it was 12:00 p.m. That’s when I got my next ride to O’hare. I thought I was lucky. The customer was a film producer working on a twenty-five hour documentary for the Big O. I had a wonderful conversation on the way to the airport about the film industry. When we arrive, my fair was $47.00 with tip. He had a bad swipe. This is when I figured out that it was the company’s machine and not the customers (at least I suspect it was.) When I tried to get an imprint of his card, I did it from the inside and not from the back which really didn’t give me an imprint. I had him sign it anyway. I decided to go back to the garage after talking to the dispatcher. They claimed they never heard of it happening twice. This is the same person who first trained me on the Gandalf machine.

When I arrived at the garage, I talked to the supervisor. He pointed out that I should have made the credit card impression from the outside rather than the inside. While I was sitting inside the dispatch office, I overheard the conversations the dispatchers were having. They were having the same problems with the machine as I was. Maybe not the credit card but saying the system failed.  The supervisor asked if I wanted to attend a Gandalf training class at 4:00p.m. My total loss on the credit cards is $75.00.

I told him I was going to think about it. I went to the window and cashed out.  I signed my paper to get my bond money back, which takes thirty days to get back. They hold it to see if you are going to get any tickets.

So I started taking down taxi telephone numbers and calling to find about driving.

The Chicago Cabbie – 12-15-2010

I decided to blog about my new experience as a Chicago cab driver.  I’ve been driving for only five days now. Each day brings a new experience and a new understanding of what it’s like to earn a living as a cab driver. I thought I would use my blog to give insight to cab drivers looking to enter into the profession, as well as those outside the industry who want to know what life is like as a Chicago cab driver.

This morning started out great. I arrived at the garage and picked out a cab without having to check a number of different cabs to get a good one. The night before,  I left my snow scrapper in another cab. Luckily for me the cab was in the same spot I left it last night.

After washing my cab, I pulled my G.P.S. system out of the box and connected the cigarette light. I couldn’t get a connection. Apparently, the light wasn’t working. I unconnected the GPS electrical cord and turned it on by battery. I had no idea how long it was going to last but at 10:30 a.m. my G.P.S. device sent me a low battery message. I found another lighter underneath the tray.

I tried something new this morning. I thought I would go to Hyde Park and pick up customers in that area. After eating breakfast, I drove up and down Lake Park. I took 55th to Cottage Grove to the University of Chicago. No one wanted a cab at 7:00 a.m. No wonder it’s an under served area.

My first customer was a dispatched call. When I arrived in front of the woman’s house, her house was on the same street and  several doors away from where I used to live when I was a teenager. I brought that up when she entered my cab but she was unimpressed. I tried mentioning the woman’s name and she said, “I don’t know names.” So much for friendly banter. She instructed me on what streets to take. “Take North Ave to LaSalle, LaSalle to Clark street, Clark to Jackson.”

My next fair I picked up on State Street. She wanted to go to the Sun Times Building at 350 N. Orleans. I kinda knew where Orleans was but how to get to it I didn’t. I used my G.P.S.  to plug into the address.  I guess because of the buildings downtown, the G.P.S. device starts “recalculating.” I managed to screw it up and the customer gave me directions on how to get there.

I went to O’Hare Airport for the first time. I forgot to add a two dollar surcharge, fifty cent gas tax, and something else, and add the extra dollar for the extra person.However, it was a $40.00 fare.

Today’s Net Earnings: $43.48

Hours Worked: 11.0

Meals: $8.84

Gas Expense: $30.00

Lease Expense: $60.00