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Hi, folks. Been a few months since I last visited. Things at Big Green Cab Co have continued the downward trend, and I can't help but think that I may be out of a job before the year's out. Maybe before summer's out.
Ah, you'd like to hear that story? Pull up a chair (well, okay, you're almost certainly already sitting, yeah, I know, shut up) and read my tale of misery and woe.
(Previously in this drawn-out tale: Time for something else, followed by Big changes at Big Green Cab Co.)
Just a bit of refresher: I drive for the largest cab company in Desert Hell. (That's "Arizona", for you literal-minded people out there.) Big Green Cab Co has many contracts to provide transportation for various organizations, including the state's largest Medicaid provider, local paratransit (meaning public transportation that isn't a bus driving a fixed route), some mental health providers, the police department (almost exclusively for when they arrest someone in a wheelchair), the fire department, etc.
Most of those accounts are small, generating no more than a few trips per week (the police probably average something like a dozen calls per year), but some of them... well, let's go into some quick details.
1) That large Medicaid provider? That's our largest contract, 1/3 of our total business. Let me say that again: ONE OUT OF EVERY THREE TRIPS WE DO COMES FROM ONE ORGANIZATION!
2) Paratransit is our second largest contract, about 20% of our total business. (1 trip in every 5.)
Note that those two big contracts are both with what amount to government agencies. They both use government funds to provide their services... but they are not directly answerable to "The People" (meaning voters).
The contract for paratransit was up for renewal last month. The board of the local transit authority got a new member fairly recently. He apparently convinced the board to move away from companies that pay their drivers per mile (e.g. cab companies) and toward companies that have hourly/salary employees. Rather than deciding to stay with Big Green Cab Co, the contract was awarded to Largest Transportation Company On Earth (which I also refer to as "The Walmart of Transportation Companies").
So... there goes 20% of our business. Ouch. I'm lazily looking for some other work now, but not very hard.
Rumor has it that Big Green Cab Co might be losing the Medicaid provider. Again. If that happens -- and that's a big "if"; I talked to our GM about it and he had no info aside from "we looked into it and haven't been able to confirm anyhing, which I choose to interpret as no change" (his phrasing, not mine) -- If we also lose that contract, well, simple math says that's more than half of our business gone. The company is already planning to downsize the Prius fleet when the paratransit contract ends (July 1st), but not wheelchair vans... but let's not forget that new drivers don't qualify to drive wheelchair vans.
Losing that paratransit contract will hurt quite a bit. Also losing the Medicaid contract... well, let's just say that I don't think the company would survive very long. (For more info, read pretty much every other thread I've posted in MiM.)
Ah, you'd like to hear that story? Pull up a chair (well, okay, you're almost certainly already sitting, yeah, I know, shut up) and read my tale of misery and woe.
(Previously in this drawn-out tale: Time for something else, followed by Big changes at Big Green Cab Co.)
Just a bit of refresher: I drive for the largest cab company in Desert Hell. (That's "Arizona", for you literal-minded people out there.) Big Green Cab Co has many contracts to provide transportation for various organizations, including the state's largest Medicaid provider, local paratransit (meaning public transportation that isn't a bus driving a fixed route), some mental health providers, the police department (almost exclusively for when they arrest someone in a wheelchair), the fire department, etc.
Most of those accounts are small, generating no more than a few trips per week (the police probably average something like a dozen calls per year), but some of them... well, let's go into some quick details.
1) That large Medicaid provider? That's our largest contract, 1/3 of our total business. Let me say that again: ONE OUT OF EVERY THREE TRIPS WE DO COMES FROM ONE ORGANIZATION!
2) Paratransit is our second largest contract, about 20% of our total business. (1 trip in every 5.)
Note that those two big contracts are both with what amount to government agencies. They both use government funds to provide their services... but they are not directly answerable to "The People" (meaning voters).
The contract for paratransit was up for renewal last month. The board of the local transit authority got a new member fairly recently. He apparently convinced the board to move away from companies that pay their drivers per mile (e.g. cab companies) and toward companies that have hourly/salary employees. Rather than deciding to stay with Big Green Cab Co, the contract was awarded to Largest Transportation Company On Earth (which I also refer to as "The Walmart of Transportation Companies").
So... there goes 20% of our business. Ouch. I'm lazily looking for some other work now, but not very hard.
Rumor has it that Big Green Cab Co might be losing the Medicaid provider. Again. If that happens -- and that's a big "if"; I talked to our GM about it and he had no info aside from "we looked into it and haven't been able to confirm anyhing, which I choose to interpret as no change" (his phrasing, not mine) -- If we also lose that contract, well, simple math says that's more than half of our business gone. The company is already planning to downsize the Prius fleet when the paratransit contract ends (July 1st), but not wheelchair vans... but let's not forget that new drivers don't qualify to drive wheelchair vans.
Losing that paratransit contract will hurt quite a bit. Also losing the Medicaid contract... well, let's just say that I don't think the company would survive very long. (For more info, read pretty much every other thread I've posted in MiM.)
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