On Wednesday, I was told to escort a woman, who is an adviser for the office, to her assisted living place. After work, we took a cab and got in together. It was my first experience to get in the cab in NYC for this stay. I didn't know I had to shut the door. In Japan, you don't have to do it. The door will be open and close automatically by the driver. It was a van type cab. The driver told me to push down the red button and shut it. I tried but it was not good enough. The driver said, "Do it strongly! Slam the door!" Oh I can slam the door! Usually it's considered to be rude to slam the door. I did it strongly then it was shut eventually. The driver said, smiling, "Good job!"
Then when we got off, I had use a credit card to pay the fare. There was a machine. The driver told me how to use it. I swipe the card, then failed, did it again, it was successful! Then I have to decide how many percent of tip to give him, I asked the adviser lady to decide, she pushed 25 %, then the receipt finally came out!
I said to the driver, "It took time for you to teach me, I'm sorry." He said, "No, no, sometime it'd take much more time for others to understand it. Or sometime, the machine doesn't work well at all, it's really annoying, but you are very good!" I was glad to be told that!
There are lots of things I don't know in NYC!
2 comments:
25% tip!!! That sounds really expensive to me. I never took a taxi in New York, but tips are usually less than 20% - closer to 15%. I found this website about taxis in New York.
http://www.nycabbie.com/taxitips.html
Hi Joe,
Thank you for your comment.
Maybe, the lady felt sorry for the driver because it was just 10 blocks drive. But it's good to know tips are usually less than 20%. Thanks for the information!
Naoko
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