TomTom GO 730

Old-school drivers tend to be very anti-GPS but personally I couldn’t survive without one.  Whenever a passenger gets into the car I always require the destination straight away.  If they don’t know (“I know where it is, I’ll give you directions”) then I insist that they make a phone call to their friends and find out for sure.

People often think they know how to get somewhere but when they get to the actual area their recollection suddenly starts to get rather vague.  This frustrates both myself and the passengers, and extends the fare to a higher cost than it should be. Sure, I like earning money, but driving around suburban roads needlessly isn’t how I want to do things.

Other reasons why I insist on the destination:

- it stops the spontaneous runners.  Sure, someone might have intentions of paying the fare when they initially get into the car but when they get close to the destination they decide to run. That won’t happen if I’ve already got their address up front. 

This has also worked in my favour when people have vomited in the car as it means that they can’t just say “tough luck” and walk away to call or hail another taxi.

And yes, both Deb and myself have had passengers give us false addresses and then ran.  We can’t stop the ones that have pre-planned it but we can stop the others.

- it means that I can drive properly.  I know when to slow down, when to indicate for corners and generally I know what’s going on. If I’m following directions and someone calls out, “turn here” and I make that turn at the last second then I’m compromising the car and passengers. 

A police officer who sees the car turn or veer suddenly isn’t going to give a damn about my reasons as he writes me a ticket for failing to properly indicate.

I keep the GPS in my line of sight, mounted on the windscreen to the right side of the steering wheel.  This means that I can follow the directions without taking my attention off the road and surroundings.  Holding a streetbook in my lap and looking back and forth is way too frustrating.

- if something is left in the car and I’m not too far away then I can just look up Recent Destinations and take it straight back to the place.  I have done this several times, and find that it’s much easier to return a mobile phone or purse at the time than organise something for the following day.

- it shows the speed limit for most roads.  It’s far from perfectly accurate, but it’s a useful guide.  There are plenty of roads where I’m not sure what the speed limit is and I’ll go by what’s on the GPS until I come across the next speed limit sign (which I wish there were more of).

- a GPS has Points Of Interest categories. As well as what comes with the GPS I’ve also customised mine extensively, creating my own categories for places such as airports, backpackers hostels, brothels, Cabspots, car washes, hospitals, pubs and nightclubs, hotels, restaurants, taxi ranks (suburbs, shopping centres and city), taxi repair places and a few others.

When passengers get into the car and ask for the nearest train station/brothel/hotel/etc then I can find the nearest one straight away and let the passenger know how many km and minutes away it is.

I’ve driven people that for years have been catching taxis to what they think is the nearest train station, only for me to point out that there is an alternative closer one.

- it gets me to jobs faster. It only takes me a few seconds to type in a street address or place name and then I can get on with driving there at the speed limit. I don’t have to slow down or miss turns because street signs are missing or can’t be seen at night.

- it helps to find the correct house.  On some roads the numbers are way off but for most it is accurate and will get me to the correct house.  This is useful when there are a bunch of houses in a row without numbers on them.

Surprisingly, on country and farm roads, it has been extremely accurate, which really makes a difference when it’s 2am, there are no street lights and no letterboxes.

- when passengers are being disruptive, at least I know how much further it is to go. 

If it’s a long trip then I can make the decision on whether to ask the passengers to calm down or bunker down and put up with it. And I know that being a long trip, there’s money in it for me. 

If it’s a short trip then I know that it’s only going to be for a few minutes and then I’ll get some civilised behaviour in the car again.

- it means that if a passenger asks how far it is, what it will cost or how long it will take then I can tell them with a high level of accuracy.  It’s rare that I ask for a fare deposit up front but if I do then I can calculate the fare to within a dollar or two, based on distance and how many traffic lights we’ll probably stop at (ie stationary time).

Disadvantages of using a GPS

- yes, it makes me lazy.  Old-school drivers had to do it the hard way and learn the roads so it’s understandable that they are frustrated when some new technology gadget comes along and makes that skill largely obsolete.

I know the general Perth road infrastructure fairly well by now but there’s no doubt that I would know it a lot better if I solely used a street book. 

- until recently, Tom Tom map updates were hideously expensive, at usually around $150 each update.  I bought my current GPS in December 2008 and didn’t update the maps until July 2010.  It wasn’t until then when Tom Tom finally got their act together and made available a better priced option.  I paid $62.50 to get the current map and the next 12 months of updates, which is a much more reasonable cost. Until the recent update, there was the occasional new street that didn’t appear on the old GPS map, which is when the street book actually got used.

- there’s the financial outlay.  I bought my Tom Tom 730 for $500 brand new.  There were much cheaper options but I wanted the features that the 730 has. Being a technology item means that it also depreciates at a rapid rate. But it has definitely paid for itself with extra productivity and efficiency.

- it’s one more thing to carry in the car, be aware of and maintain.  It means running a cable from the cigarette lighter to the far right side of the dashboard, although Tom Tom now have a cable kit available that can be wired into the dashboard.

Apple iPhone

Despite being the typical Apple geek, I didn’t actually get an iPhone until about October last year.  Now that I have one, I’m kicking myself for not getting one much earlier. 

I love the applications that it runs and use them regularly in the taxi, such as:

OzWeather

I tried a bunch of different weather forecast applications and decided that I prefer this one.  It lets me know in advance what the weather forecasts and conditions will be, both for Perth and other cities. 

When I’m taking people to an airport I often ask where they are flying to and then give them the weather forecast for the city that they are going to. If there’s a significant different in temperature then I also suggest either changing clothes before their luggage is loaded onto the plane or carry something on the plane.  It might be fine and sunny here in Perth but if it’s pissing down rain in Sydney then they might want to replace the shorts and t-shirt with pants and jumper whilst they still have access to their suitcase. People have been very amused at these suggestions - it’s not what they normally get from other taxi drivers.

Shazam

This ripper of an application tells you the name of the song that is being played.  If there’s a song on the radio that I particularly like then Shazam will tell me what it’s called so that I can download it on iTunes later on.

FuelWatcher and FuelView

I go through lots of LPG each week and there is a wide range of pricing.  LPG pricing is volatile and changes dramatically, but there are always particular service stations that are substantially cheaper than others.

iTT Perth

This one has train and bus timetables for Perth.  If I’m near a train station then I check when the next train is due.  This is relevant especially on weekend nights as the last couple of trains for each night are full of people that want to get from the station to home.

White Pages

I know all the main restaurants, pubs, nightclubs, etc, these days but there is still the occasional one that I haven’t heard of or has only recently opened. I open White Pages, type in the name and get the address. I also have Yellow Pages on my iPhone but haven’t needed it yet.

Voice Memos

I haven’t actually used this one in the taxi yet, but when the time comes that I cop threatening abuse from a passenger then I’ll be using this to record the conversation.

Some others for personal use:

TFLN - Texts From Last Night

This is the iPhone application version of www.textsfromlastnight.com, a web site of amusing SMS texts.

FreeWiFi

Shows me where the nearest McDonalds free WiFi is.  I park in the car park and use the WiFi with my Apple MacBook Pro laptop, although getting data through the iPhone means I don’t use this app as much as I used to.

eBay

Means that I can check the pricing of items that I am interested in, and set up a snipe bid with my MacBook Pro if I’m interested enough.

iFart and iGunPro

Both these apps are for making stupid sound effects.  As you would imagine, iFart making all sorts of awful farting noises and iGunPro makes various gun and explosive sounds.

Playing each of these through the FM radio at full volume has amused numerous passengers. Playing gun sounds in a busy area such as Northbridge would be asking for trouble but it’s only a matter of time before I start experimenting with loud fart noises there.

F1 Racing and V8

F1 Racing shows me how many hours and minutes until the next race, a live text feed of the race itself and what the results are.  V8 does something similar. I’m rarely home when the races are on but at least I can find out what’s happening.

Facebook

Another one for wasting a few minutes when there’s nothing else to do.

WA Rego

Now that WA has made registration stickers obsolete, it’s difficult to know when a car’s registration expires. This application lets you type in a vehicle’s registration and tells you the expiry date.  When I was trying this one out I found that the registration on one of the taxis that Deb drives was about to expire, meaning that she was able to get onto the owner to get it renewed before she drove it next.

Motorola MOTOROKR T505 Bluetooth Speakerphone

I initially used a Blueant Supertooth II which was ok for a while but the Motorola T505 is worlds ahead.  The main feature that I love is that it can broadcast through the car FM radio, giving much better sound clarity and volume.  I look forward to the day when I own a taxi, so that I can get a proper phone kit built in, but until then this portable unit is the next best thing.

Coin holder

Must have - I keep it full almost all the time.

Calculator

Useful for working out how many kilometres and dollars that I’ve done for the night, and showing people what the total fare will be if they ask in advance.

Business Cards

Often people ask for my direct mobile phone number, so I have my own business cards.  People rarely call back and they tend to be small jobs (ie not worth the total time required by the time I drive there and back) but they have resulted in a few good regular passengers.

Smiley Face Stamp

This is an idea that I came up with last year.  I now carry a smiley face stamp and often stamp passengers hands before they get out of the car.  People get a buzz out of it, and it’s certainly something that sets us apart from other drivers.

LED Lenser P7 torch

Finding house numbers at night is a nuisance. Some research and thinking resulted in getting an LED Lenser P7 torch.  They do put out very good light and are robust.  At around $100 each, you certainly pay for it.

iPhone Charger

I use a Belkin Auto Charger and Belkin iPhone Retractable Cable in the car to keep my iPhone charged.

Notepad

I write down basic details of every job that I do, such as pickup time, pickup suburb, destination suburb, how much the fare is, how it’s paid and how I got the job (ie computer, hail, phone, etc).

When I get in the car each night I record how many km the car has done and what time I start.

If there is something out of the ordinary, such as a problem with a passenger, then I’ll write some quick details down in case it becomes an issue at a later time.

Fujifilm F30 digital camera

For my first couple of months I drove day shift but once I went to night shift it became obvious that it would be worth carrying a digital camera in the car. 

Initially I wanted a camera that uses AA batteries so that I could always have a set of rechargeables available but quickly found out that the Fujifilm F30 and F31hd cameras have been the best ever compact cameras for night time photography. Because almost all of the photos that I take are at night, I needed a camera that would function well in low-light conditions.

These models are a few years old now so it was off to eBay to try and find one secondhand. Although very hard to find in Australia, they are readily available in America and the UK.  After a few weeks of looking I did manage to find one in Australia on eBay and bought it at a reasonable price.

Now that I’ve had it for a while the collection of photos that I’ve got is impressive.  This thing has really captured some worthwhile moments and has allowed me to take photos of things that people wouldn’t normally see.

Vomit/Sickness Bags

Frontline Innovations is a company that sells various first-aid products, specialising in sickness bags. I keep two EmBag Vomit Bags in the back pocket of each front seat cover. If it’s obvious that someone is possibly going to be sick then I get a bag out for them to hold, just in case. 

These bags have saved me a few frustrating cleanups and have allowed me to carry passengers that I knew no other driver would carry (ie very drunk and unwell vulnerable females that I wanted to make sure got home safe). 

Back of the car - in the box

I keep a plastic tub in the back of the car which has a collection of other items that I need, or might need, occasionally.

There’s the usual battery cables, tools, EFTPOS paper rolls, spare pens, fuses, tail light globes, headache tablets, manuals and even a Ford Falcon service manual.

One thing that has been exceptionally useful a few times are rubber medical examination gloves.  People vomiting in the car has only happened a handful of times but wearing these gloves makes all the difference.  It allows me to clean the mess up but without coming into actual physical contact with any of it.

I also use these for oil changes. Once I’m done I just pull the gloves off and I have clean hands. I haven’t had a flat tyre yet, but when that time comes I’ll be able to change it with a pair of these gloves on. 

Car Mechanicals and Cosmetic

QFM Taxi 269 brake pads

Frequent stop/start driving meant that normal brake pads were churning out lots of brake dust (making the hubcaps dirty) so I spent some time on the net trying to figure out what pads would produce the least dust.

I ended up trying out a set of QFM Taxi 69 pads.  I still get brake dust, but noticeably less than what I was getting from other pads.

I found them to be very reliable under high heat conditions, where frequent hard stops would have other pads fading from excess heat.

BSA 291 wheels

I just like the look of these wheels. It took nine months of constant checking on eBay to find a suitable set.  Besides appearances, there are some practical reasons why I bought these:

- they are easier to keep clean than the conventional hubcaps.

- they allow for better cooling and ventilation of the brakes.

- I can see through the wheels and check the brake pads. I can now time my brake pad changes so that I can do them before the pads wear down to the backing plate and cause damage to the disc rotors. 

Accelera Alpha tyres

I can’t remember what brand and model of tyres were on the car last winter, but they were crap whenever it rained  The way that they so easily lost traction on wet roads meant that I wasn’t confident in those conditions.

There was a tyre comparison article in Wheels magazine a couple of years ago that I referred to. The major brand name tyres were out of the question due to cost reasons but the Accelera Alpha was one cheap tyre that performed exceptionally well.

I put a set on the car for this winter and they are worlds ahead of the previous ones.  I have tested these tyres by doing stop/start accelerations, hard braking down hills and cornering and the traction that I am now getting is a vast improvement. 

I am now much more confident in the car and its handing on wet roads.

Sperling seat covers

There was a set of Sperling Platinum Velour Grey set covers in the car when I initially started driving it in May 2009. I initially didn’t think much of it until someone vomited on the back seat and, apart from where the vomit went down the holes for the seat belts, nothing went through the actual seat cover.  It turns out that they are impervious, thus not allowing liquid to get through.

One time when someone vomited on the back seat it was simply a matter of removing the cover, washing it, drying it and then re-fitting it. The seat itself didn’t even get touched by any of the passenger’s indiscretion.

One trick that I’ve also learned is that when you go to replace the seat cover with a new one, leave the old one on there for extra protection. Just put the new one over the old one.

Vehicles that have a risk of something being spilled should have these (eg, taxis, parents with young kids). 

Degreaser and brush

I keep the car pretty tidy but I’m extremely pedantic about clean wheels on cars.  Yeah sure, brakes should work, cars shouldn’t leak oil and they should go around corners properly, but cars with dirty wheels should simply be impounded or crushed.

I use CT18 degreaser in a one litre spray bottle with a brush, and keep it in the back of the car next to the spare wheel.

When the car had the original wheels and hubcaps I was regularly cleaning the hubcaps with the degreaser and brush. Now that I’ve got the BSA wheels on there I’m finding that the high pressure water at a car wash does the job well enough.

Car mats

With a lot of people getting into the car there’s the resulting amount of dirt and other crap. Conventional car mats don’t do the job.