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We'll admit it--we programmed Orange Cab into our cell phone just because we thought it was funny--it's not Yellow Cab and what do oranges have to do with Seattle? As with most major decisions in our lives, we made it capriciously and with great good luck.
We've also noticed that our cabbies are uniformly pleasant to talk to. We've never had to talk when we don't want to, we've never had to endure political rants or white-knuckle-inducing drivers, and we've more than once had charming conversations that stuck with us.
Case in point: We're in Oakland, we get bumped from our flight all the way to the San Jose airport. The cab driver who takes us there spends the ride talking on the phone and eating a yogurt (simultaneously, of course) all the while telling us we'll never make the flight. Nice. Meanwhile, in Seattle, our Orange Cab comes on time but we've forgotten something. We apologize to the driver and tell him to start the meter while we sprint upstairs. Later, when we just manage to miss the drawbridge going up on the First Avenue bridge, the cabbie turns and says, "I knew we were a lucky pair." He has decided that our moment of goodwill--which, to us, wasn't goodwill necessarily, more like reality--was actually a karmic action that is now being repaid. We'll go with that; we made the flight.
We also had an Orange Cab driver who was shocked that we refused extra blank receipts and then praised us for our honesty.
Maybe we love them because they love us, but basically we love anyone who doesn't eat yogurt while they drive.
Seattle Magazine even recently mentioned Orange Cab as a "great place to work" because the dispatchers are allowed to read magazines in-between calls. We'd love to link to story, but the Seattle Mag website stinks.
What do you think...are you a Yellow Cab devotee or a Red Top man? What's your cab of choice?
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Red Top is horrible.
Excerpt from my horror story:
"On the way home we pull into Texaco to get water for Keith's radiator.
There's a Red Top Taxi sitting in front with the window rolled down. Alisha said something to the effect of "I'm gonna ask the cab driver if he knows how to get to I-5." So the taxi driver heard the word taxi, and assumed that we were the people who had called him for a ride. I guess someone had prank called him and told him to come to Texaco and he was miffed about it.
He drove up closer to my friends and rolled his window down and proceded to swear and gesticulate at us as if we were the people who were responsible for his current situation. Even on repeated attempts by us to explain that we had in no way called or requested him to come there, did not know who he was, were only getting water, he still kept swearing at us. After he finished his tirade I told him to watch his mouth. He looked at me disgustedly and called me "boy" several times and swore at me and told me he would "get out of his car and slap me. in the face." I said that all I was trying to do was have him stop swearing and communicate in a responsible manner. He told me not to "tell him what to do," and that he "hoped I learned, before I died." I told him to watch his mouth again. He swore some more and told us that he hoped our car died.
He was a big guy, wearing glasses, he looked older. My friends told me he was driving car 333, but they weren't sure if that was the exact number. Oh well, I get to call and get him fired tomorrow."
The manager talked to the guy and told me he denied it so there was nothing he could do. Idiots.
Orange Cab's my favorite. They always show up earlier than their estimate. One time, I was stranded in Bellevue and they told me it'd be 15-20 minutes, but they showed up in under 10. If I'm in Capitol Hill, they arrive in about 5 minutes. I give them mad kudos.
Ha, Orange Cab is also in my phone under "taxi".
"Your cab has arrived."