Always Tip Your Driver

Trip length (pool): 17 minutes / 12 minutes. Trip distance (pool): 3.1 miles / 2.4 miles. Fare (pool): $17.01 / $13.88 Song of the trip: "Careless Whisper" by George Michael   I both hate and love driving in San Francisco proper. Just on general principle, I try to avoid driving here, preferring to stick to the comfort of my beloved South Bay, but every once in a while, I get dragged up to the city by a fare, and like the mafia, just when you think you're out, they pull you back in. That said, sometimes you get the kind of rides that make you pull over and turn off for a few minutes because you're laughing too hard to drive anywhere. My last fare had been some people at a Sharks game in San Jose who had bailed with about ten minutes left on the clock. (That turned out to be a hilarious mistake, as a bunch of action happened in those last ten minutes and the Sharks pulled out a victory in overtime. Go Sharks.) Anyway, I found myself in the Sunset district (it...

Trip length (pool): 24 minutes / 18 minutes. Trip distance (pool): 12.4 miles / 8.8 miles. Fare (pool): $16.73 / $13.55 Song of the trip: “Butterfly On A Wheel” by The Mission One of the questions I'm most asked as a driver is what's a good rule of thumb on when to choose a Pool fare (where you have the possibility of sharing the car with other random passengers, but pay less) versus when to choose an X fare (where you pay a little more, but have the entire car to yourself).  Things in Pool's favor You pay a lower rate, which is good for long trips that might sting the wallet! You get to meet interesting people! Things in X's favor You don't have to worry about detours that can add up in delaying your arrival time! You can change your destination en route or even add additional stops! You don't have to meet interesting people! I pull up to a trailer park in Sunnyvale on a Friday night, looking for someone named Connor. I glance at t...

Here's what you need to know up front. 1) The author's name is Cliff Hicks. That's me. I'm the one writing all of this. I can be reached at authorcliffhicks at gmail dot com. (It's been written that way to avoid spam scoop ups.) I've written a book called "Escaping Heaven" that I've self-published on Amazon. You can pick that up, either in physical form or for your Kindle, and I'd appreciate it. You can find me on Twitter , if that's a thing you're into. 2) What you are about to read is very close to, but not 100% true. The protagonist of all the stories you're going to read is a ridesharing driver named Billy, who also drives in the San Francisco South Bay area. He's fictional. From time to time, I may mention other drivers. They are also fictional. In fact, it's safe to assume that all characters on this blog, while often based on real people, are not, in fact, real people. Ridesharing drivers have a rather inten...