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So, the last time I posted, certain things were happening that were disadvantageous to we drivers. (I mentioned them in my post Time for something else.) Those things have continued, but my job search never really started.
Big changes have happened in the past 6 months. One of our 3 locations (Flat Table City) was closed, with all personnel, equipment, etc. being transfered to the main location (Superbowl Stadium City, which is also where corporate is). Those transfers were... interesting. You see, when you have X shifts available, but X * 2 people to fill said shifts with... well, I'm sure you all can guess what happened. (For those that can't, all the highest-paid (and most-experienced) people in most categories were let go. I don't know what it was officially called, "layoffs", "downsizing", whatever.)
The people let go included all of our trainers except one, our two most awesome yard attendants, half of the cash office, half of the shop employees, the facilitator that everyone liked (although, to be fair, he was a contractor, while the guy they kept is an actual employee), and the safety manager (although the real reasons he was let go, I'll deal with in another post, some other time). There may have been more people let go that I don't know about... for example, I haven't heard anything about the Mesa Area Manager (the guy overall in charge of the closed location; essentially a VP).
In addition to massive personnel changes, there have been some rule changes that drive me bonkers. One that really pisses me off is one that is related to a pending lawsuit... Nothing I can't say, but it really deserves a thread of its own. (Later.)
There is the occasional bit of good news as well. Most notably, weekly leases of wheelchair vans dropped by a significant fraction, only the second time Big Green Cab Co has lowered anything they charge drivers (not including specials for holidays or whatever). The reason they did this was because corporate wants wheelchair drivers
to be on weekly leases, as opposed to 12- or 24-hour leases.
Related to that, and at the same time, a really bad rule was implemented: 12-hour drivers can now be bumped out of their vans by 24-hour and weekly drivers. Say I'm checking out a van for a 12-hour shift, and I have a really good van... let's say #200. Another driver could walk in while I'm checking #200 out and tell the yard attendant that he wanted #200 for a 24-hour shift. He would get the van, and I'd have to go back on the waiting list, possibly missing out on the chance to work at all. (I don't know what would happen if he came in after I left... would I get called back in? Or would he be told too bad?) Of course, that can't happen to me; as soon as the lease rate dropped, I (and almost every other wheelchair driver) switched to weekly. (In my case, back to weekly, but whatever.)
In other news, Big Green Cab Co tried to compete more directly with Uber by creating their own ridesharing service, with its own app and everything. It was (and still is) a complete failure, for a few reasons:
We still have the app, and I guess people still use it to request rides once in a while... but it's pretty rare any more. (I've only done about a dozen trips off the app over an almost-2-year period.) But not too long ago, word came down from on high that a new app was in the works. Sigh.
(The app was also used to launch another new company that is sorta like Uber for medical transportation: people driving their own cars, getting paid a pittance (well, more than Uber, I suppose) to drive people to and from doctor appointments.)
As an added bonus, for the past several days, Desert Hell has been in the grip of a heatwave. (Yeah, I know, desert, but still.) A few days ago we had a day where almost every weather station in the entire state reported record high temperatures. For drivers in normal cars, they can mostly get away with staying in the car and letting the passengers let themselves in (I'm speaking from experience, of course), but with wheelchair passengers... not so much. In fact, not at all; there are things that have to happen that they simply are unable to do at all. Now, I'm a native here -- I grew up in Superbowl Stadium City and spent all but 7 years of my life here -- and this is summer after all, but enough is enough.
Big changes have happened in the past 6 months. One of our 3 locations (Flat Table City) was closed, with all personnel, equipment, etc. being transfered to the main location (Superbowl Stadium City, which is also where corporate is). Those transfers were... interesting. You see, when you have X shifts available, but X * 2 people to fill said shifts with... well, I'm sure you all can guess what happened. (For those that can't, all the highest-paid (and most-experienced) people in most categories were let go. I don't know what it was officially called, "layoffs", "downsizing", whatever.)
The people let go included all of our trainers except one, our two most awesome yard attendants, half of the cash office, half of the shop employees, the facilitator that everyone liked (although, to be fair, he was a contractor, while the guy they kept is an actual employee), and the safety manager (although the real reasons he was let go, I'll deal with in another post, some other time). There may have been more people let go that I don't know about... for example, I haven't heard anything about the Mesa Area Manager (the guy overall in charge of the closed location; essentially a VP).
In addition to massive personnel changes, there have been some rule changes that drive me bonkers. One that really pisses me off is one that is related to a pending lawsuit... Nothing I can't say, but it really deserves a thread of its own. (Later.)
There is the occasional bit of good news as well. Most notably, weekly leases of wheelchair vans dropped by a significant fraction, only the second time Big Green Cab Co has lowered anything they charge drivers (not including specials for holidays or whatever). The reason they did this was because corporate wants wheelchair drivers
to be on weekly leases, as opposed to 12- or 24-hour leases.Related to that, and at the same time, a really bad rule was implemented: 12-hour drivers can now be bumped out of their vans by 24-hour and weekly drivers. Say I'm checking out a van for a 12-hour shift, and I have a really good van... let's say #200. Another driver could walk in while I'm checking #200 out and tell the yard attendant that he wanted #200 for a 24-hour shift. He would get the van, and I'd have to go back on the waiting list, possibly missing out on the chance to work at all. (I don't know what would happen if he came in after I left... would I get called back in? Or would he be told too bad?) Of course, that can't happen to me; as soon as the lease rate dropped, I (and almost every other wheelchair driver) switched to weekly. (In my case, back to weekly, but whatever.)
In other news, Big Green Cab Co tried to compete more directly with Uber by creating their own ridesharing service, with its own app and everything. It was (and still is) a complete failure, for a few reasons:
- drivers refused to use it (for the first year, it only worked on a very short list of phones, the cheapest of which was $500)
- the company didn't advertise it hardly at all
- after a while, it was found that the app was extremely easy to defraud, so the company basically put the kibosh on it
We still have the app, and I guess people still use it to request rides once in a while... but it's pretty rare any more. (I've only done about a dozen trips off the app over an almost-2-year period.) But not too long ago, word came down from on high that a new app was in the works. Sigh.
(The app was also used to launch another new company that is sorta like Uber for medical transportation: people driving their own cars, getting paid a pittance (well, more than Uber, I suppose) to drive people to and from doctor appointments.)
As an added bonus, for the past several days, Desert Hell has been in the grip of a heatwave. (Yeah, I know, desert, but still.) A few days ago we had a day where almost every weather station in the entire state reported record high temperatures. For drivers in normal cars, they can mostly get away with staying in the car and letting the passengers let themselves in (I'm speaking from experience, of course), but with wheelchair passengers... not so much. In fact, not at all; there are things that have to happen that they simply are unable to do at all. Now, I'm a native here -- I grew up in Superbowl Stadium City and spent all but 7 years of my life here -- and this is summer after all, but enough is enough.
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