Driving A Taxi As A Woman?

[Ancient trees]

Should I feel ashamed or embarrassed to be considering this route?
I live in a major city. I could earn a lot of money and create actual savings.
There's going to be a positive change here in regards to female taxi drivers.
I'm battling two demons at once: anger at myself for not having a profession (I feel absolutely worthless), largely due to ptsd, and the stereotype against taxi drivers that I have in my own head, as uneducated immigrants who can't get anything better.
I'm an attractive female who looks like she should be working in a bank or at the front desk of a luxury hotel (both of which would probably kill me with stress, and I'd earn much more by driving a cab for a while).
help...

 

[rightkindofme]

I have known women who drove taxis. If you are willing to go through some basic safe defense courses I think it could be a dandy career. :) I think it could be fun. I would do some basic self defense courses just because it is a situation with lots of one on one time and I would feel more comfortable with more physical defense training in such a situation. Not everyone has my biases. :)

 

[RussH]

Two things:
1. Driving a taxi is an honorable occupation. It allows you to earn a living, and meet a lot of different people.
2. It takes an intelligent person to learn all the streets and locations in a city, so don't sell yourself short.

 

[Sarah542]

I think you being a taxi driver is cool! I also think that doing a career that makes you happy is better than having a really 'good' well paid job and being miserable in it :)

 

[Deleted member 1860]

I say go for it! Don't worry about what anyone else thinks about your profession. Its important for you to be happy doing whatever it is that you do. To heck with what other people think.... Its your life!

 

[digger]

Okay, I've tried really, really, REALLY hard, but I've completely failed to find where shame and embarrassment come in to being a taxi driver! If you want to do it, go for it!

 

[Ancient trees]

I have known women who drove taxis. If you are willing to go through some basic safe defense courses I think it could be a dandy career. :) I think it could be fun. I would do some basic self defense courses just because it is a situation with lots of one on one time and I would feel more comfortable with more physical defense training in such a situation. Not everyone has my biases. :)

Thank you for your support, rightkindofme! That makes total sense, and I believe that passing a self-defense course is required as part of getting a license, here in the city. I feel a bit safer knowing that I'd be driving other women, exclusively. There was a recent news article about a new service in the city, and if it weren't for having read the article, I'd never have considered this. It's a fancy livery service for women by women, and they are recruiting.

Two things:
1. Driving a taxi is an honorable occupation. It allows you to earn a living, and meet a lot of different people.
2. It takes an intelligent person to learn all the streets and locations in a city, so don't sell yourself short.

Thank you, RussH! I'm just so happy to have opened my email in the morning this week and forced myself to read an article about it. It would be perfect for PTSD, especially since I won't have an authority figure breathing down my neck (my PTSD flares up around bosses). And it would be my golden ticket to financial independence, as I'm still somewhat dependent on my abuser. I think the female drivers earn $500-$1,500/week.
My best friend who passed away, would always bring this career up when I'd bemoan my situation, and I always winced in reply, feeling that it was beneath me. I guess that mixing the ingredients of economy in the US and PTSD, calls for thinking totally out of the box and reinventing oneself...
I'm just nervous at the thought of someone I know getting in to my livery cab, at some point, and feeling ashamed when they say, "So you're driving a cab now... that's...great..." . Having people feel sorry for me is poking at a wound that never heals, and that's why this whole career thing fills me with so much dread. I won't have the classic excuse of, "I'm doing this while going to school". Wonder how professional it would sound if I were to say, "This is temporary so that I can create savings, get out of poverty, get away from my abusers, and work on music."?

I think you being a taxi driver is cool! I also think that doing a career that makes you happy is better than having a really 'good' well paid job and being miserable in it :)

Thank you Sarah542. I'm not a driver yet. Just pondering. Not sure if I'll be happy doing it... it's just a route I never even considered before. Thank you for the cheer :)

I say go for it! Don't worry about what anyone else thinks about your profession. Its important for you to be happy doing whatever it is that you do. To heck with what other people think.... Its your life!

Thanks Solara. I hope I can remind myself to think this way when, as happened last night, I could tell that my family member felt slightly embarrassed and disappointed. I wanted to say, "Well, f*** you, it's because of you that I'm in this hole and can't function at a desk job!"

 

[rightkindofme]

Sounds like a great opportunity! Go for it. :)

 

[RussH]

something to consider, if your state and city allow it, would be buy a taser that you can carry with you.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

I think its awesome that you can be a female taxi driver and only drive other females! That is VERY empowering! And, I'd say its just the opposite of being shameful....it is a job you can VERY much be proud of as you can make other females feel comfortable in a taxi. There are so many females out there who don't feel comfortable around men, and dare I say this could prohibit them from being in a taxi alone with just a male driver? Its not always convenient or feasible to take a bus, so you would be giving many females a greater sense of freedom as they would feel more comfortable moving around the city.

I completely understand not wanting to talk about these sorts of things with family members. I have family members who are very judgmental and I cannot even tell my mother what I am studying at school as she has made disparaging remarks about this sort of job in the past. I don't need that sort of grief! I'm finally to the point where I am going on my own journey and saying to heck with what everyone else thinks about me! I have restrictions that keep me out of certain jobs as well, so I think its important to find something that suits your situation, your personality, and is compatible with your symptoms/disorder. Life threw us a curve ball, and we shouldn't have to apologize for trying to make the best of our situations.

But again, I think its awesome that you want to be a female taxi driver because you truly will be giving back to other women and empowering them! You rock!

 

[Friday]

I <3 cabbies!

I sometimes moonlight as a courier*, which is a bit different. I freaking love it. Cars, trains, planes... I get to travel on someone else's dime :D as well as all the benefits you listed.

My oldest friend hates it. Ditto, she thinks it's beneath me. Um. I don't exactly get that. If I were doing something I hated, for crap money, then I might consider it beneath me. But I don't have to use 100% of my (puny) mental or physical abilities in order to enjoy myself and make some darn good money in the process. Is it my dream job? Nope. Will I do it forever? No idea. It's kind of perfect for now, though.

((LeSigh. Compelled to add, since my own mother thought that meant "drug-courrier" or something equally nefarious... This is legal. Mostly artwork, organs, lab specimens. Museums & hospitals are my mainstay. Things where it's the item itself, and not the insurance payout, that is important. Which is why one has it babysat across the country instead of FedEx or DHL))