Dasboard Confessional from inside the taxicab

SARATOGA SPRINGS - His days are long. The nights even longer. And this time of year, it can get downright strange.
For the men and women behind the wheel of local taxis, the activity heats up with the weather.

Dale Van Arenem works the day shift during the week and every other Saturday as a cab driver in Saratoga Springs.
“There’s a big difference between the earlier part of the year, and what happens after the track season opens,” Van Arenem said. “A BIG difference.”

Like his fellow drivers, Van Arenem works long hours, knows the ins-and-outs of city streets, and wears many “hats.”
In addition to driving, a successful cabbie also must play the role of regional tour guide, customer service representative and part-time psychologist. All this while moving virtual strangers from point A to point B as quickly as possible.

“You have to be a people person. You’ve got to know what to say, how to say it, and you have to say it at the right time,” said a man named simply "Joe," who has been driving a cab for three months.
The taxi company's office is in a big garage at the end of a long dirt driveway lined with rows of yellow cars. Inside, a soda machine sits in one corner, a purple and white refrigerator in another. A brown ceiling fan turns overhead and the radio plays country music.
Most of the space is filled with mechanical tools of the trade: tires, hubcaps, lug wrenches and a network of pumps, valves, wires and machines that heal vehicles that have been wounded only to send them forth to live another day.

The dispatcher is in charge of coordinating it all. Seated at a small table, he answers the incoming calls and matches them with available drivers. His skill is in managing the timing and planning of setting the vehicles into motion.
The night shift arrives around 5 p.m. Most of the year, and under normal circumstances, everything goes off without a hitch. But during the busy summer months, just about anything can, and usually does, happen.

“June, July and August. Those months are much different than the rest of the year,” said Freddie, who has been driving a cab for about a year. “Some of the funniest things that happen is right after they get in - they start looking for the camera,” he said.

"Freddie" doesn’t have a camera in his cab, hidden or otherwise, but apparently a lot of people riding in taxis are seriously affected by what they see on TV.
“They think they’re on that show,” Freddie continues, “they’ll say ‘I know this will be on (the HBO series) “Taxicab Confessions,” won’t it?’ And even when I tell them it’s not, they don’t believe me. They keep looking around for the camera. That’s when they sit back and start telling you their ‘story,’ - and let me tell you - they tell some of the strangest stories. Real personal stories,” Freddie said.

He talked about a young woman who got in his cab and started pouring out her soul about catching her boyfriend in a tryst with two other women. She poured out the intimate details in a slow, deliberate fashion that began with her observations of the three who “looked like they were having such a good time.”
The drivers said that, for the most part, passengers are polite, well-behaved and generally just people going about their business. It’s just that sometimes, there are those occasions when the mix of a summer party-town reputation, late-night bars, and thousands of incoming visitors “enjoying” their respective vacations, can lead to some unusual behavior. And for one reason or another, some drivers seem to be a magnet for the more eccentric types of behavior.
“K Dog is one of those guys,” Joe said.
K Dog is not nearly as imposing as his handle implies, although perhaps due to his late-night weekend shift, he draws his share of outrageous behavior.
In his travels during eight months of driving, K Dog has encountered explicit liaisons on different occasions with a variety of gender combinations.
There was one ride from Middle Grove to Glens Falls, when he was offered sexual favors from one of the two women he was transporting, in exchange for the balance of the fare.
There are celebrity stories as well.
“I drove the band Emerson Drive from their motel down to Albany,” K Dog said. The country music band was in town performing. “It was funny, I had the country music station on the radio, but they asked me to change it - and put on some rock ‘n’ roll.”

Rebecca Novok found Dave Matthews sitting in the back of her cab a few weeks ago. Matthews was in town for a pair of shows at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
“He was a real nice guy, a regular guy,” said Novok, who drove Matthews to the golf course at Saratoga Spa State Park.

The cabbies also work with the police on occasion, keeping an eye out for trouble.
“The police call on the dispatchers for help,” Joe said, “and we help with things like (reporting) if someone messes with the horses, or trashes the flowerbeds,” although he wishes the police would be a little more patient with drivers waiting curbside for their fares.
“There is a city ordinance that says we are allowed to wait for a fare in front of any business for a few minutes,” he said.
He explains that almost immediately, the driver is urged to move his vehicle, which often results in another cab pulling up behind him and picking up the customer. In the process, the original driver ends up losing the fare.
“I can understand not wanting to tie up a busy place like Caroline Street,” he said, “but at least give us a couple of minutes for the customer to come out the door.”
There are a lot more “flag downs” during the summer months, but for the most part, fares come from the dispatcher for pickups. Still, the drivers never really know what to expect.

“I had two older ladies who looked like sweet little old grandmas when I picked them up,” said a driver named Nazira. “When they got in, they started cursing at each other using such language you really didn’t expect coming from them,” she said.
There are customers who are also surprisingly eccentric. One, from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, was picked up at the Sheraton Hotel.

“He said he wanted to go to a jeweler in Lansingburgh,” Van Arenem said. “It was a $100 call, $50 each way. I said to him, ‘you know we have jewelers right here in town,’ but he said: ‘No, someone recommended this place to me.’ He was going to get his watch repaired.”
Off they went and on the return trip, Van Arenem asked how much it cost to get the watch fixed. “Five dollars,” his passenger said. “Can you imagine?” Van Arenem asks incredulously. “He pays $100 to go to a jeweler for a $5 repair. Plus, he left me a $10 tip.”

Joe has had his own experience with the generosity of customers.
“I picked up two gentlemen at the Rensselaer station for a $56 fare,” he said. “In the end, they paid me $256. That’s a $200 tip.” You certainly meet a lot of characters,” he concluded, “and these are the good stories.”

The good, the bad, the ugly and the strange are all part of it, the drivers say. Still there’s another week or so until things return to “normal” in the Spa City.
In the meantime, those yellow vehicles will be zipping in, out and around town at all hours of the day and night, carrying all kinds of people from one place to another.

“Some nights there’s not much happening,” Freddie said, “but on others - it’s like, drive a cab for one night during July or August, and it’ll be an experience you’ll never forget.”

by Thomas Dimopoulos
The Saratogian, summer 2002