Sometimes, when I’m “on the job” as a chauffeur driving my passengers, I feel like a juggler at the circus. There are so many things to remember, so many things to do and so many things to make sure don’t fall through the cracks… I feel like I’m juggling 10 different things at once.
Sometimes, I’ll be assigned rides with child car seats and/or infant car seats and/or booster seats. The trick is making sure that if I’m driving a family of six with no car seats, but my next ride is a family of four with car seats, I need to go back to my apartment to drop-off and/or pick-up car seats.
Timing is Critical
In mid-April, I had a day with multiple rides, and some of them requested car seats while others did not need them. In these instances, I have to strategically plan when I have to bring the car seat with me (usually in the front passenger seat) and when I can keep it (or them) at home.
Car Storage
My personal car sometimes serves as a storage unit, so I don’t have to keep running up and down three flights of stairs in my apartment building with car seats. This saves a lot of time and effort.
Sometimes, I have back-to-back rides and there’s not a lot of time between them. If I feel like I’m not going to have enough time, I warn my dispatcher that it’s going to be a tight window.
Smart Move
I moved to Union, NJ a few years to be closer to Newark Airport (EWR). It now only takes me 12 minutes to get to EWR. This was a smart move… it helped me quite a bit with my juggling act. I don’t have to travel very far after dropping off at EWR, and if I need to pick-up or drop-off car seats or anything else I have quick access.
Helping Team Members
My company has quite a few child car seats at our North Jersey office, but it’s not always convenient to pick one up. When a chauffeur needs one for a ride, they have to drive over, then drive back to drop it off after the ride is over. After doing that a bunch of times, I decided to go out and buy my own to save time and gas. I have earned enough in tips to more than pay for the car seats I bought many times over.
Often, I’ll get a call from my dispatcher asking if I can lend one of my infant or toddler seats to a chauffeur who needs one. I always joke that it’ll cost $25. Although nobody else seems to think it’s funny, I still feel good knowing I can help my team members… my fellow chauffeurs.
Planning Helps Juggling
I’ve learned that, in order to effectively juggle, I need to PLAN ahead. I even turned PLAN into an acronym:
Prepare
Learn
Anticipate
Negotiate
I am usually assigned my rides the previous night, so I always check for “special instructions,” like requests for a car seat, and use a map to optimize my travel time, to better ensure all of my passengers are picked up and dropped off on time. The moral of this Street Story is: In order to be an effective juggler, you need to PLAN ahead. Preparation will help you to succeed!
