What's going through the head of your ride share driver when you make them wait

At pick up: Is the map right? Godamn these maps. Or maybe it's the GPS. Or my phone. What if they have mobility issues. Well, I'm here now. Hazards lights on. Hope a cop isn't going to ruin my day for the illegal stop. Hope the passenger shows up. Well, patience. Just because they have an app that shows them the driver every block of the way, that doesn't mean they are going to be waiting on the street for you. Despite you doing that for every driver you've ever taken, and plenty of passengers, especially in good neighborhoods, doing just that. Goddamn, is that so hard?

1 minute in: Let's just check their rating here. Be a real shame if something were to happen to it. Oh, here's the app telling me that I'm being paid to wait, which is the biggest crock of crap yet, and rideshare platforms pay their drivers in crocks of crap. Four minutes left until I cancel this schmuck. Should I move to where the app thinks their phone is? That never works until it does.

2 minutes in: I wonder if a rideshare driver ever just pulled out a weapon and iced a passenger for making them wait. That would be a cool scene in a movie. Why hasn't anyone ever made a decent movie where a rideshare driver is the protagonist? I should totally write that. Or at the very least consult for realism. It has to be more lucrative than waiting for some asshat to finally get in my car.

3 minutes in: I don't even want them to get in the car now. People like you are the reason I'm totally going to quit this job, just like I've been saying to myself for nearly everyone of the last seven years. In two minutes, I am totally locking the doors and driving away, probably while flipping the passenger the bird. I'm so doing that. I don't even care that I'll make a lot less that way, that I won't get closer to the quota goal, and so on. Principles! I'll feed principles to my family.

4 minutes in: I'm imagining you, dear passenger, in a pot. I guess maybe a pressure cooker? A pot, you'd just leap out of. You'll be in the pot for as long as you made me wait here, flashers on, committing the garden variety traffic violation that always make me twinge a bit, since it's making the world worse. Either that, or I'll just sit in the car in park after you get in, making you very aware of what I'm doing, then cancel the ride without ever going anywhere. Sure, you'll be angry and confrontational, and if I do this kind of thing often enough, I'll be out of a side hustle where I routinely get to wait for inconsiderate people, but maybe -- just maybe -- you won't do this to your next driver. I'll pay it forward, be the better person, help my fellow drivers achieve a world in which everyone is considerate enough to be ready and waiting for us on pick up. Can't make a better world without cracking a few omelettes.

5 minutes in: Oh, you're here, and apologetic, and I have the memory of a puppy, as for as you know. Let's get you to where you are going, with as much insincere enthusiasm as my tip-grifting ass can muster. There's hand sanitizer in the door handles, water bottles behind my head...


Single moms have things to get done

 The ping comes from the Wal-Mart, a five minute ride on a weekend when I'm trying to rack up a bunch of short rides for a bonus, so not...