Seeking Favours

At 1.30 this morning I’d had enough. The odometer showed 300 kilometres and my take was in. This was the result of some heavy Airport jobs coupled with excessive Wednesday work from 36,000 football fans attending Aussie Stadium for an Asian cup qualifier. In short I was buggered and turned for home.

Exiting the City on a major thoroughfare I was hailed by a teenage girl, accompanied by two others sitting listlessly on the footpath against a wall. I cautiously pulled in, half expecting to find her girlfriends too drunk to stand.

The girl opened the door. ‘Excuse me but we need help to get home. We’ve only got like five bucks - some derros ripped off our money. There’s no buses or trains and we really need to get to _______. Nobody will take us and we don’t want to sleep in Hyde Park. Please can you take us...?’. She was talking about a $30 fare out to the western suburbs. Even though there were hourly night buses, five bucks wasn't nearly enough.

After closely scrutinising her two friends, I judged them simply tired and dejected, rather than drunk and legless. ‘Righto’, I told her, ‘jump in’. You’d think they’d won the lottery from their reaction, they were so overjoyed. ‘You’re the best...do you have daughters...people in the City are so mean...blah, blah, blah’. ‘Listen’, I said, ‘forget about it, I’m going that way....yes, I’m a parent...where’s your parents...?’. ‘We told them we were staying with different friends. If we called them we’d be in big trouble’.

They were 16 year olds on school holidays doing what plenty of kids do at that age - lying to their parents so as to have a night out, hanging around town. Chasing boys most likely. Yet unlike some young girls in the City at night they weren’t dressed sexily, showing lots of flesh. Rather they wore black, grungy, indie gear - jeans, T-shirts, jackets, boots. They looked like...rockers not clubbers, if you know what I mean.

This is relevant because here’s the hook - before I arrived the girls had hailed ‘around fifteen taxis’, with the same plea. Ten cabbies had point blank refused and driven off immediately, even though they were obviously heading home Vacant, as I was. The remaining five cabbies had lingered, suggesting or implying they would only take them in return for 'sexual favours'.

One may ask - were the girls lying, and if so why ? I don’t think so, as it wasn’t until half way into the journey they mentioned this in passing conversation, amongst themselves. By then it was plain my intentions were genuine so they had no reason to seek further sympathy to get home. It was only when I sought clarification did they elaborate, in a quiet and reluctant tone.

So if what the girls said was true, then one in three cabbies propositioned them. Even if it was one in four, or five even, it’s still indicates a disturbing number of sleaze bags are driving cabs at night. With around 7000 night cabbies that’s a worry. Therefore Sydney, after Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, may also have good reason to consider pink taxis.

Overseas - Dubai leads; UK pink franchise; South Africa considers

Comments

[Ian]

That's a pretty scary statistic you've derived there, Adrian!

[sbwright]

You sir are a true gentleman. The girls were foolish and the night could have ended very badly for them indeed.

[SurferCam]

Well done Adrian. It's people like yourself doing good deeds like that, that make Australians the best people in the world.

[Paul W]

Ditto the other commenters Adrian - you did a good deed when others were either arseholes or simply unconcerned. Kudos. Agree re Pinkcabs too.

[Lee]

You're a good man, Adrian.

As I commented in the other post...I can see why 'pink cabs' are a good idea.

There are always some that spoil it for others. The world is full of sleaze-bags, unfortunately.

We need more of your ilk, Adrian. :)

[scottks]

Thanks for being such a good person. This world truely worries me.

Off topic -- a talk radio host here in the USA was talking about Muslim cabbies today. This is the story:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4250490.html

[Yobbo]

So if they were boys you wouldn't have driven them home for free?

[Chris]

Echoing sentiments - good on you Adrian.

[ab]

Good on ya Adrian. Those little girls might have made a crappy decision to lie to their parents but at least you saved them from becoming a statistic for one night anyway,& you're pretty sharp to be able to pick who's ok & who's not.

So did you take advantage of the guardian of the streets role and give them a hearty lecture???

[The Bard]

A sick, sad little world we live in. Good on you for making it less so, Adrian.

[adrian]

Thanks folks, much appreciated.

So if they were boys you wouldn't have driven them home for free?

Trust Yobbo to be provocative. 1) the post is about girls. 2) since you imply I'd only do it for girls, for some despicable reason, I'd shouldn't reply but I will - As a cabbie, there's a different dynamic with girls and boys. With girls, I'm concerned for their security. With boys, I'm concerned for my security. 3) Once I'd allayed my safety concerns, as best as possible, then as a parent of a son I would have responded positively to the same plea by boys. As I've done before.

[Yobbo]

Im not suggesting you'd only do it for a despicable reason, Im suggesting you're a sucker.

Girls do this shit all the time you realise, hoping some good natured soul like yourself will take pity on their poor defenceless selves.

It's the same mindset of young girls who go out to bars without a wallet, fully expecting to have all their drinks purchased for them.

[Yobbo]

And I don't believe your number 3. There is no way in hell you would have given a 16 year old boy a free ride home. Because he wouldn't have pushed your Daddy button.

[Yobbo]

But probably more to the point is that a 16 year old boy would never have asked, because he would have just paid for his taxi like these girls just as easily could have.

[Walter]

I'm still wondering how this would work in practice. Would all women be automatically sidetracked into the "pink" cabs or only if they asked for them (as handicapped accessable cabs are here in the US)? In slow periods, could "pink" cabs take fares from the normal stream but not vice versa?

None of this addresses the safety issues, but perhaps the taxi business is just different here in the States where I can't hardly think of a driver-on-passenger assault case (though I'm sure it does happen, its pretty rare).

[Lee]

Yobbo just can't help himself! I wonder how many wooden spoons he has hanging on his walls? The nick certainly suits!

[steph]

Good on you Adrian. I haven't be propositioned by a taxi driver myself, but i have heard of it happening.

[huggies]

I think the woman who have been propositioned should be calling the Cab company and filling a complaint about said Cab driver. This might weed out the bad drivers in the industry.

[Hardened skeptic and (long ago) cabbie]

I'm with Yobbo, over all. I don't see why the girls shouldn't have gone home, woken their parents to pay the fare, and copped the lecture.

My guess is that boys would have done that. Few boys would have thought they could ask a driver for a free ride home. And very few drivers indeed would stop for a bunch of boys in that position.

If the girls didn't want to face their parents, they could find some friend with the cash - don't tell me they didn't all have mobile phones and, between three of them, one person they could have asked to help them. It's not as if they were far from home - $30 can't be far past Strathfield, if that.

As to the "sleazy" drivers, even if the girls were telling the truth (and I am skeptical), I doubt if any of those drivers were making a serious proposition, if only because I doubt they would expect any of the girls (let alone 3) to accept it. I take the proposition (if made) as merely a rhetorical question - I'm going to drive you home for free - what are you going to do for me?

I also am highly suspicious of any claim that a bunch of derros ripped them off: in my experience, homeless people in the city do their best to stay out of the way of revellers or the parts of town that they frequent, since generally it is the homeless who run the risk of being bashed, burnt to death, etc. I would say these girls spent the last of their money on drinks.

So, that's why I'm with Yobbo on his return comment. You taught those girls the wrong lesson. Of course, it could also be that they told the truth, and you were a jolly nice chap.

But I had to click on the link about the "Pink Taxis", because my first thought was that "Pink Taxis" must be driven by accredited homosexuals. Difficult to accreditate, of course. Conversely, what about lesbian lady drivers? Would they be excluded from the scheme? Not that I am saying that every lesbian harbours rapacious thoughts towards other women (despite the widespread fear to the same effect amongst heterosexual men as regards gay men), but if the appeal of the proposal is based on a category of drivers who are assumed to pose absolutely no threat, this would need to be borne in mind.

[adrian]

Hardened skeptic and Yobbo - what you both argue, in different degrees of forcefulness are understandable sentiments. Yet I'm different and so accepted the girls story at the time.

And with the benefit of hindsight I still tend to believe my intuition was correct. That I'm different to how you both would have responded in this regard in no way diminishes my position. I would and will do it again, for girls or boys I adjudge sincere. That's just me, like it or not.

As a parent one tends to give kids the benefit of the doubt, especially when they appear to be in difficult situations. They were going my way; I was finished work; it was no skin off my nose; so sue me.

Oh, and the best bit - on alighting one girl said, 'If there were more people like you the world would be much better'. 'No worries', I told her, 'keep the faith'. With that another girl said, 'May God bless you', with absolute sincerity.

And Yobbo calls me a sucker. Poor form indeed.

[Lee]

You can't win either way you go, Adrian. When you do some nice, you're crucified...when you do something wrong, you're crucified.

Just continue being who you are and act as YOU see fit...to hell with the detractors, I say! ;)

[Lee]

"something" even! :)

[James]

Good on you Adrian...
Your right, theres a hell of a lot of sleazy cab drivers out there.
I rememeber a few years back parking my car in the back of Darlinghurst where all the prostitutes were doing their business whilst waiting for a friend to arrive. For every car that pulled up next to these girls there was at least one vacant taxi pullng up as well.

[Yobbo]

What hardened skeptic said.

Even if the girls were being 100% truthful, "not wanting to get in trouble with their parents" is not a valid reason for asking to be let off a cab fare.

The lesson you taught these girls is: The world owes them something because they are female.

[Lee]

Quit while you're 'a-behind', Yobbo...or go and join a sawmill...that chip on your shoulder must be the whole forest! ;)

[Yobbo]

Why use a smiley when you're obviously intending to insult?

All you have managed to contribute is one-liners. Perhaps because you having to offer except snide comments?

P.S. Get Fucked.

[Lee]

Thanks...I'm planning to have a good weekend! ;)

[pat]

Whether the girls were genuine or not - Adrian's actions were noble and something that I would hope more people would aspire to.

One day those girls could be my girls and, even if they were in the wrong, the city at night punishes far in excess of the relative gravity of the majority of its citizens perceived sins.

When I was young and was in a similar situation I walked home (city to Bankstown is quite a hike) or hitch-hiked. I certainly wouldn't want my boy to do the same once he grows up. This city has become far too dangerous.

Good on ya Adrian.

[Yobbo]

Why should more taxi drivers aspire to giving people free rides home?

That's how they make their living.

If it concerns you so much why don't YOU drive around town on Saturday night offering young people free lifts home?

Yeah, I didn't think so.

[pat]

Because that would be a form of scrupulosity bordering on full blown OCD Yobbo.

It does concern me and I do pick up hitch hikers or people who are obviously in need of a lift. Living in the mountains you get to know the regulars but when I am interstate I am wary of who I pick up.

It's no reflection on you Yobbo that you don't do the same. However, it is praiseworthy IMO that Adrian sees that life is more than chasing the dollar.