By Moshe Hackner
This story dates back to June 23, 2014 on a monday night.
While driving Lyft and picking up riders, I get a ping from a bar in downtown Los Angeles on Winston St, (likely from the bar "The Lash").
In steps into my vehicle, passenger named A.T.
As we get going, he was too drunk to have entered his address before we started, so he tells me, we're heading to Westwood, and he'll enter the address.
We begin talking, and as a Lyft or Uber driver, or any rideshare service driver, there are multiple 'standard' questions, that most people will ask you. and us drivers, have created our own list of questions that we ask riders.
- The usual ones are: How's your day going? Is this your only job? How long have you been driving for? Where you from? (usually, based upon our accents). Do you also drive for the other ridesharing company on the side? How do you like working with the company?
- We ask: How's your day going? Why is your rating so low? How do you like this vs the others? What do you think of the tipping or lack of? Are you aware of how the company treat us drivers? Have you noticed the rates recently went down again and the drivers are getting the short end of the stick? Why do the drivers have to rate the passengers, while the passengers, don't have to rate the drivers? How come, if a drivers rating falls below a certain point, the driver gets kicked off the platform, however, the riders can behave as and how they wish to the drivers and we are obligated and expected to accept all rides? (in our own private vehicles, perform a professional service, deal with people's moods and if we cancel, due to distance or rider rating, we get penalized by the company).
Moving right along, to make this easier on the eyes, I will write it as a question and answer.
Me: I ask AT how his night was?
AT: Not very good.
Me: Didn't I just pick you up at a bar? You must have had some drinks, that should say it was good.
AT: To start with, I had a fight with my best friend.
Me: Verbal or Physical?
AT: Physical, he punched me in the face. AT continues to tell me, that for the last 5 nights, he gotten stone drunk and he doesn't feel any value in life. He's educated, has a good job, gets along with girls without any problem, but he's getting stone drunk too often and doesn't value himself and is too judgemental on himself.
Me: Slow down, that's a lot of information and we have quite a ride to go over all these details.
AT: Plus, it's a Monday morning, (Sunday night) and I've done the same for the last 5 nights since Wednesday night. Gotten stone drunk.
To cut the long story short, when we arrived in Westwood, the first thing, I did, before I allowed AT to get into his car, was a field sobriety test. To ensure he was totally sober before I let him get into his car, I kept him talking to me, for almost another hour, until we parted ways and shared phone numbers. We arrived in Westwood at 2:25 AM and I didn't part with him, and continue on my way, until after 3:30 AM!
During the conversation, I shared with him, part of my life experiences and my journey. He asked me, if his life has no worth, what is there really that he can do about it? That's when I suggested, that my recommendation is, that he go to an AA meeting, (or two or three), he shouldn't even, or at least doesn't need to participate at all! and after the meetings, he should call me and we'll talk about how the meeting went.
As they say, the rest is history!!!
It has been a pleasure keeping in touch with AT, we have gone out for dinner to celebrate our birthdays, we text on a weekly basis if not more often, and I am honored to have been following his progress, his 2 promotions, him joining a Philanthropy Club and within the first year became the Board Director and Chairman of their biggest fundraiser! and he even got to meet the mayor of the Culver City and shake his hand to congratulate him on the money he raised for humanity!!! an experience he may never have had, were it not for the conversation we had in the Lyft ride on that warm night in June.
PS. I even have him saved in my phone, as: "Lyft Passenger A.. T....."
...to be continued
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