Because of Uber, the brand new(ish) Second Avenue Subway, and the truth that many individuals in New York are nonetheless working from residence, it’s miles simpler than ever to catch a cab in my neighborhood of Manhattan — and that signifies that I take much more cabs than I ought to. That, in flip, signifies that I have been spending quite a lot of time listening to New York cabbies complain about all the brand new competitors they’re encountering, and the way laborious it’s to search out fares.
Whereas I am keen to acknowledge that it is more durable to be a cabbie than prior to now, it is tough to be sympathetic when so a lot of them refuse to make use of two extremely highly effective instruments — one which’s comparatively new, and one which’s been round since earlier than most of them have been born.
The primary is GPS, which would appear an apparent alternative for individuals who drive for a dwelling. And but the overwhelming majority (greater than 95%) of the drivers I’ve ridden with do not use it in any respect, which suggests they routinely select suboptimal routes. (I do know this as a result of I usually quietly examine the route they’re taking up my cellphone — however I haven’t got the braveness to inform them they’re taking the slowest-possible path, as a result of I do not wish to seem to be a typical know-it-all New Yorker.)
The opposite device is 1010 WINS, an area information radio station that provides site visitors updates each 10 minutes, alerting drivers to site visitors jams, accidents, and each different type of main holdup, from parades and avenue gala’s to these occasions when the president is on the town, snarling site visitors in every single place. In my 4 a long time of dwelling in New York, I’ve not as soon as heard a cabbie listening to 1010 WINS — each different doable radio station, sure, from heated political dialogue in Kreole to each single faculty radio station from right here to Jersey Metropolis, however by no means 1010 WINS, the one station that truly delivers data helpful to their occupation.
I point out this for 2 causes: One, I am hoping each cabbie in New York will learn this and notice that they are handicapping their efficiency by not profiting from these free, easy-to-use instruments. Second, and extra vital, it made me marvel what number of helpful instruments all us non-cabbies are failing to make the most of in our personal professions. Synthetic intelligence would not supply a lot to cabbies proper now, nevertheless it has loads of present functions for accountants and journalists — and but how many people are utilizing it? And I can assure you that the tax prep or accounting or apply administration software program that you have been utilizing for years has lengthy had loads of options you were not conscious of — or, worse but, selected to disregard.
So the following time you are caught in site visitors as a result of your cab driver did not examine their route on Waze, why not use that point to consider all of the instruments you are not utilizing?
