Dangers of driving a cab
It's late morning as cab driver Mike Kane arrives at the curbside pickup area of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to meet his latest fare -- a businessman coming from Miami heading back to his office in Itasca.
It's a routine Kane will repeat four to six more times over the course of his 10- to 14-hour day as a driver for area taxi service Metro Yellow/Metro Checker Cab.
(Andrew A. Nelles/For Sun-Times Media)
"For me, being able to pick and choose where I want to work is really a luxury," he said.
The clicking sound of the last seat belt being fastened can be heard when Kane has begun to strike up a conversation with his customer, asking questions about the trip.
"They're little questions you ask to break the ice," he said.
For Kane, breaking the ice not only serves to break the awkward silence of a long trip but is part of a strategy that can help him at times to determine a rider's intent.
"If the customer is not talking, then that's your first red flag," he said. "The quiet ones, you always got to worry about."
With cab drivers often working alone -- at times during the late-night hours and carrying cash -- crimes against them have been viewed as an unfortunate but unavoidable hazard of the job.
Reminders of the dangers of the job were provided last week when two drivers were held up at knifepoint in two separate incidents on the same night near Elgin's downtown area.
"At nighttime, the danger level is escalated because it's dark," Kane said. "I don't know what's going on in the back seat."
Elgin Deputy Police Chief Jeffrey Swoboda said sudden rises of particular types of crime have been known to occur, although he could not say whether the recent attacks were the start of a trend.
"Different people have different types of crimes they feel comfortable committing," he said.
"So a lot of times, when we have robberies, we'll find that they occur in clusters because it's the type of crime they feel comfortable doing."
Another factor could be with the cabs themselves. Mostly all suburban taxis are not equipped with a partition, or barrier, separating the customers from the driver, which are seen in nearly all cabs operating in other cities such as Chicago.
Despite safety concerns, most drivers prefer keeping the interior of the their vehicles open, a choice Kane said underlined the difference in suburban culture compared to that in larger urban areas.
"People going to the laundromat don't want to feel like they're sitting in the back of a squad car," he said. "We have that hometown feel -- they don't want to feel alienated in the back seat."
For victims, the experience often leaves feelings of apprehension and mistrust in an occupation where the number of fares received in a day can mean the difference between making a living or going into debt.
Drivers either lease the use of a cab from the company they work for, lease a cab from a fellow cab driver who owns his own cab, or become an owner/operator themselves.
Frederick Kavanagh, a cab driver for the past three years who was robbed at gunpoint two years ago while taking a fare in Streamwood, said that while the demands to make ends meet great can be at times, it all comes down to an individual's choice of whom they feel comfortable giving a ride.
"Everybody that gets into my car I trust," he said.
Metro director of corporate sales Kurt Lester said one way the industry has tried to combat the problem of driver safety has been the push toward increased use of credit and debit cards, making it less likely a driver is on the street carrying large amounts of cash.
"A lot of our business now is credit cards and corporate charge accounts" he said. "It's a big misnomer that every one of these cabs are running around with a hundred, two hundred, three hundred dollars in cash -- that's rare."
Other technological advances, such as global positioning satellite (GPS) systems and silent emergency codes, also have contributed to increasing driver safety, Lester said.
Ultimately, however, Kane said the best tool at a driver's disposal is their ability to connect with a customer, as well as his or her own good judgment.
"Our only weapon is our mouths," he said. "You're either cool and able to keeps things cool, or you're not cool -- and then you have a problem."
