Cabbies Are Bitching That San Diego International Airport is Monitoring Whether They Smell Like Shit
SOURCE – Body odor is among 52 criteria that officials at San Diego International Airport use to judge taxi drivers. Cabbies say that smacks of prejudice and discrimination. For years, inspectors with the San Diego Regional Airport Authority run down their checklist for each cabbie — proof of insurance, functioning windshield wipers, adequate tire treads, good brakes. Drivers are graded pass, fail or needs fixing. Anyone who flunks the smell test is told to change before picking up another customer. Leaders of the United Taxi Workers of San Diego union say the litmus perpetuates a stereotype that predominantly foreign-born taxi drivers smell bad. A 2013 survey of 331 drivers by San Diego State University and Center on Policy Initiatives found 94 percent were immigrants and 65 percent were from East Africa. Drivers wonder how inspectors determine who reeks. Driver Abel Seifu, 36, from Ethiopia, suspects they sniff inconspicuously during friendly conversations in the staging area. Airport authority spokeswoman Rebecca Bloomfield said there is ‘no standard process’ to testing. Others drivers question how inspectors distinguish between them and their cars. The checklist has a separate item for a vehicle’s ‘foul interior odors,’ which Bloomfield says may include gasoline, vomit or mildew.
Cabbies are the whiniest bunch of motherfuckers out there these days. These fucking guys are ready to complain about anything at the drop of a hat. “Our wages aren’t fair, Uber is taking all of our business, we’re being forced to smell like we didn’t wake up at the bottom of a dumpster!” It’s unbearable. You smell like shit, it’s bad for business; if you’re bad for business, somebody is gonna fire you or tell you to get your shit together. Welcome to capitalism.
I don’t need the shit about how it’s discriminating against foreigners, either. It doesn’t matter if you’re American, Mexican, Zambian, Chinese, Pakistani, white, black, brown, yellow, red or green: if you smell like a rotting bird carcass, people don’t want to be in the same enclosed space as you. Nobody wants to sit in traffic with you when it smells like your cab is permanently under the pier at low tide. And if any of these guys actually think the “it’s not me, it’s my car that smells like someone took a dump in a bag of old Indian food” excuse is gonna fly, they really shouldn’t have a license in the first place because they are a retarded person.
Fair is fair, though, 94% of these guys are immigrants and may not be familiar with America; I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and gladly leave them with a few little pieces of advice: 1) Take a shower. 2) Use deodorant. 3) Shut the fuck up. 4) Make more money.