Taxi drivers and chauffeurs drive people to and from the places they need to go, such as homes, workplaces, airports, and shopping centers. They must know their way around a city in order to take both residents and visitors to their destinations. DutiesTaxi drivers and chauffeurs typically do the following:.
Drive taxicabs, limousines, company cars, or privately owned vehicles to transport passengers. Pick up passengers and listen to where they want to go. Help passengers load and unload their luggage.
Obey all traffic laws. Collect fares, including allowed extra charges. Check the car for problems and do basic maintenance. Keep the inside and outside of their car clean. Operate wheelchair lifts when needed. Keep a record of miles traveledTaxi drivers and chauffeurs must stay alert and monitor the conditions of the road.
They have to take precautions to ensure their passengers’ safety, especially in heavy traffic or bad weather. Taxi drivers and chauffeurs must also follow all vehicle-for-hire or livery regulations, such as where they can pick up passengers and how much they can charge.Good drivers are familiar with the streets in the areas they serve.
They choose the most efficient routes, considering the traffic at that time of day. They know where the most frequently requested destinations are, such as airports, train stations, convention centers, hotels, and other points of interest. They also know where to find fire and police stations and hospitals in case of an emergency.Taxi drivers, also called cab drivers or cabbies, generally use a meter to determine the fare when a passenger requests a destination. Many customers request a cab by calling a central dispatcher who then tells the taxi driver the pickup location. Some drivers pick up passengers waiting in lines at cabstands or in the taxi line at airports, train stations, and hotels. In some large cities, cabbies drive around the streets looking for passengers, although this is not legal in all cities.Ride-hailing drivers pick up passengers who request service through a smartphone app.
The fare rate can fluctuate depending on demand, however passengers are notified if the current fare rate is higher than usual. Passengers pay for the ride through a credit card that is linked to the app. Drivers use their own private vehicles and set their own hours.Chauffeurs take passengers on prearranged trips. They operate limousines, vans, or private cars.
They may work for hire for single trips or they may work for a person, a private business, or for a government agency. Customer service is important for chauffeurs, especially luxury car drivers. Some do the duties of executive assistants, acting as driver, secretary, and itinerary planner. Other chauffeurs drive large vans between airports or train stations and hotels.Paratransit drivers transport people with special needs, such as the elderly or those with disabilities.
They operate specially equipped vehicles designed to help people with a variety of needs in nonemergency situations. For example, their vehicles may be equipped with wheelchair lifts, and the driver helps a passenger with boarding.Show MoreShow Less.
Most taxi drivers and chauffeurs go through a brief training period. Many states and local municipalities require them to get a taxi or limousine license. Clean driving records and background checks are sometimes required. No formal educational credential is typically required, although many taxi drivers and chauffeurs have a high school degree. EducationNo formal educational credential is typically required, although many taxi drivers and chauffeurs have a high school degree.
TrainingMost taxi and limousine companies provide their new drivers with a short period of on-the-job training. This training usually takes from 1 day to 2 weeks, depending on the company and the location.
Some municipalities require training by law.Training typically covers local traffic laws, driver safety, and the local street layout. Taxi drivers also get training in operating the taximeter and communications equipment. Taxi drivers are trained in accordance with local regulations; in contrast, limousine chauffeurs usually are trained by their company, and customer service is emphasized. Ride-hailing drivers receive little to no training beyond how to work the electronic hailing app so they can pick up customers.
Paratransit drivers receive special training in how to handle wheelchair lifts and other mechanical devices. Licenses, Certifications, and RegistrationsAll taxi drivers and chauffeurs must have a regular automobile driver’s license. States and local municipalities set other requirements; many require drivers to get a taxi or chauffeur's license.
This normally requires passing a drug test and a written test about regulations and local geography.The majority of states and municipalities do not have regulations pertaining to ride-hailing drivers because the service has just recently grown in popularity. A few cities have started to issue regulations and some have even ordered ride-hailing companies to cease and desist operations. Check with your local area for more information.The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration requires that limousine drivers who transport at least 16 passengers at a time (including the driver) have a commercial driver’s license (CDL) with a passenger (P) endorsement. To get these, a driver has to pass knowledge and driving skills tests. AdvancementTaxi drivers and chauffeurs have limited advancement opportunities. Some taxi drivers start their own cab service by purchasing a taxi rather than leasing one through a dispatch company.
For chauffeurs, advancement usually takes the form of driving more important clients and different types of cars. Some taxi drivers and chauffeurs can become a “lead driver,” which means they train new drivers in addition to continuing to drive their own clients. Important QualitiesCustomer-service skills.
Taxi drivers and chauffeurs regularly interact with their customers and have to represent their company positively and make sure passengers are satisfied with their ride. Because passengers rate ride-hailing drivers after each trip, excellent customer-service skills can lead to a favorable review.Dependability. Customers rely on taxi drivers and chauffeurs to pick them up at the agreed-upon time so they get to their destinations when they need to be there.Hand-eye coordination. Taxi drivers and chauffeurs have to be able to observe their surroundings and steer away from obstacles and dangerous drivers while operating a vehicle.Initiative. Taxi drivers and chauffeurs usually work with little or no supervision, so they must be self-motivated and able to take initiative to earn a living.Patience.
Drivers must be calm and composed when driving through heavy traffic, congestion, or dealing with rude passengers.Visual ability. Taxi drivers and chauffeurs must be able to pass a state-issued vision test in order to hold a driver’s license.Show MoreShow Less.
Steve Oliver, PresidentSteve is currently chairman of the Board of First Federal Savings and Loan. He retired from the practice of law in 2010 after serving as President of the Platt Irwin Law Firm, the largest law firm on the Olympic Peninsula, for many years. Steve’s law practice emphasized maritime, banking and municipal work as well as real estate development and environmental law and personal injury litigation. He served as general counsel to First Federal for 20 years and as general counsel to the Port of Port Angeles for over 30 years. Steve is a past president and current board member of the Olympic Medical Center Foundation and has served on the boards of many other charitable organizations during his career. He and his wife Kelley own and sail Blackbeard II, a 43′ Bill Garden ketch.
Kris Morris, Vice PresidentKris is founding partner of and counsel to the retained executive search firm Morris & Berger. During the past 25 years, the firm has received numerous honors, including being named one of the 50 leading retained executive search firms in North America. Kris and her colleagues specialize in service to the nonprofit sector. Clients include secondary and post-secondary educational institutions, policy organizations, foundations, arts organizations, and human and social service agencies.Prior to entering executive search, Kris was an administrator at Occidental College, where she had graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and where she remains a Trustee Emerita. Between college years, Kris owned and operated a 32-foot Monterey style commercial fishing boat out of San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf.She remains active in the philanthropic community, and has served on numerous boards and commissions, including current service on the Port Townsend Arts Commission and previous service on the Greater Los Angeles Boards of the American Red Cross and United Way. On a national level, Kris has been a frequent speaker on topics ranging from change management and institutional leadership to cultural competency. David King, TreasurerDavid’s introduction to marine trades came in l971 with his first exposure to wooden boatbuilding on the Chesapeake Bay.
A few years later he was teaching boatbuilding at the Apprenticeshop of the Bath Marine Museum in Bath, Maine. David arrived in Port Townsend in 1978 as an itinerate shipwright. Later David was project manager and general manager at Admiral Marine Works Inc., during which time the company grew from 20 to 160 employees. Most recently he was a founder and the chief financial officer of Townsend Bay Marine, a full-service composite boatbuilding and repair partnership, from 1999 – 2015.
David has served on the board of directors of the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, The Wooden Boat Foundation, and was previously on the Board of the Northwest Maritime Center from 1999 to 2012. David has a B.A. From Harvard College and holds a certificate in project management from the University of Washington. He was a member of the Port Townsend City Council from 2008 – 2015 and was the City’s Mayor from 2012 – 2015. John AndersonJohn’s family has a rich seafaring history. Both of his grandfathers were sea captains, and John grew up sailing and racing on San Francisco Bay.
His father built him his first sailboat when he was eight and taught him the basics.John was hired by the Berkeley Fire Department at age 21 and spent the next 32 years as a firefighter, EMT, and officer. He went to school to become a Hazardous Materials Specialist and was on the Haz Mat Team from its inception. John was also on the cliff rescue and heavy rescue teams and responded to wildland fires in the western states.
He received the certificate of valor for his actions in the Oakland Berkeley Firestorm and was one of the first truck companies on the scene of the Loma Prieta earthquake. John has spent a large part of his life in public service, including 10 years as a volunteer flight medic for the East Bay Regional Park Services Helicopter Division.During a road trip to Washington, John and his wife Una happened upon the road sign to Port Townsend, and after a visit fell in love with the town. They retired here in 2013, and John started volunteering at the Northwest Maritime Center shortly thereafter, helping with boat maintenance, driving Martha J on the weekend harbor tours, and sailing in the Thunderbird Club. He also took advantage of the many classes offered at the Center and got his Captain’s License. John renewed some of his medical certifications and has joined the Event Medical Team for the Wooden Boat Festival.
Andrew BielAndrew grew up surrounded by oceans of corn in northern Illinois. In the ‘90s he came to Seattle for school and fell in love with the water and land of the Pacific Northwest. A brief detour to Colorado lasted twenty years, but now he is very happy to be back and on the water in his kayak. He is the owner and CEO of Books of Discovery, a publishing company that produces learning tools for students of manual therapies, and the author of Trail Guide to the Body and other texts about anatomy, kinesiology and palpation. He has served on the boards of the Massage Therapy Foundation in Evanston, IL, the Lyons Regional Library District, and the Lyons Valley Preschool in Lyons, CO. He and his family—Lyn Gregory, Grace and Elias—love to paddle on the Discovery Bay, play music, hike in the forest, and have impromptu dance parties. Mark BunzelMark is the publisher at Fine Edge Nautical & Recreational Publishing.
My touch screen for my Inspiron 3558 stopped working today and I don't know why but I want it back. I tried running diagnostics for the touch screen in the product support section but it said it was 'unable to find the selected device' and suggested I go to the drivers and downloads page to install the latest drivers, but when I did, it said that 'no driver updates were found' so now I have. Dell INSPIRON 15 TOUCH SCREEN NOT WORKING? I've noticed that I'm not the only one having this issue so does anyone have the solution to this? My HID doesn't have the touch screen selected anymore. I restarted it and it isn't working and the touch screen in Device Manager isn't there anymore. Dell Inspiron 15 touch screen has stopped. Dell inspiron touch screen not working. How can the answer be improved? Mar 04, 2017 I just purchased the Dell Inspiron 15 i5558-5718SLV signature edition. I just turned it on and set it up and the touchscreen isn't working. It allows me to go into tablet mode but it still doesn't work. In the about section on the actual laptop it says that pen and touch input is not available for this display. Mar 24, 2017 My new Dell Inspiron 13 5378 laptop's touchscreen just stopped working on me. I am not sure if it was after an update or not. I have already googled ways to fix it, and disabling and re-enabling the touchscreen through the device manager didn't work. All drivers are up to.
He is also the new Editor and Publisher of the annual Waggoner Cruising Guide, the most popular cruising guide in the Northwest and British Columbia. The Waggoner is often referred to as “the bible” for Northwest cruising. Mark has always enjoyed boating, and while working in the corporate world he annually would charter in the San Juan Islands and British Columbia as well as other places around the world including the Caribbean, the Bahamas, the Greek islands, Honduras, Mexico and the Chesapeake Bay area. Mark holds a U.S. Coast Guard Masters license with endorsements for towing and sail, and is a NAUI-certified scuba diver.
In addition to boating, Mark is an instrument-rated, twin-engine private pilot with over 2000 hours of flight time. He is a long distance cyclist, and has completed several Seattle to Portland (STP) cycling events. Jan DavisPresident and founder of International Clinical Educators, Inc. Since 1983, Jan is passionate about life-long learning and specializes in creating and producing innovative, video-based educational platforms used in universities around the world.
A Port Townsend resident since 1994 and previous Board Member of the NWMC from 2001-2004, she was active in the design and architectural phase of the programs and buildings. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Puget Sound and her Masters in Rehabilitation Science from the University of Pittsburgh. In 2014 was awarded the Professional Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Puget Sound. Since childhood Jan has been happiest on the water; swimming, snorkeling, kayaking and sailing, and is delighted to call Port Townsend her home.
Peter GeerlofsPeter founded Port Townsend Family Physicians in 1976 and practiced medicine in the community for 20 years, as well as serving as Public Health Officer for 10 years. He founded Medifor, a medical software company that was subsequently acquired by Allscripts, where he was Chief Medical Officer for almost ten years. The last seven years have been devoted to writing fiction. Peter is currently working on his third novel while finding time to explore the Inside Passage on his 44’ steel Diesel Duck, Seaducktress.Peter was raised in West Orange, New Jersey.
He attended college at Earlham in Richmond, Indiana and Medical School at New Jersey College of Medicine. He completed a three year residency in Family Practice at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is currently completing an MFA in Creative Writing at Goddard. Jeanne GoussevJeanne was the skipper of the 2018 winning Race to Alaska team, Sail Like A Girl. The team is a group of 8 women, three with little to no sailing experience, who set out on a journey of adventure and achieved more when they reached Ketchikan as the first monohull to win the race, ever.
Jeanne began sailing in 1999 in Boston where she met her husband, Evgeniy, who has circumnavigated the globe on sailboats. They have two children and live on Bainbridge Island. They now proudly own and race their custom Lyman Morse built boat, Gray Wolf in and around Puget Sound.Jeanne is the Managing Director of Fiduciary Services for Laird Norton Wealth Management, where she administers trusts and estates and carries out the wishes of her clients for the people and non-profits that they love.
Laird Norton Wealth Management has the largest privately held trust company in Washington state and a 50+ year history helping families with their complete financial needs. Jeanne has spent volunteer time working to increase planned giving in the Puget Sound area, and is engaged with a number of non-profits to aid them in this goal. Patrick IrwinA native of Port Angeles, WA, Patrick received his degree in History and Political Science from Gonzaga University in 1996, followed by a Law degree from the Gonzaga University School of Law in 2000, graduating cum laude. He joined Platt Irwin that same year, where his practice is concentrated in the areas of business law, real estate, estate planning, civil litigation and personal injury. Patrick served as Prosecutor for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe from 2000 to 2004, was President of the Clallam County Bar Association for the year 2008, and is a member of the Washington State Bar Association. In addition to the Northwest Maritime Center, he serves on the board of the Clallam County Family YMCA. Neil McCurdyA lifelong native of the Pacific Northwest and grandson of H.W.
McCurdy, Neil carries on the family’s maritime tradition through a variety of interests and business endeavors. He is currently the COO of OceanGate, Inc., a provider of manned submersibles for commercial, scientific and exploration applications. Prior to OceanGate, Neil spent 10 years as V.P.
Of Worldwide Sales & Service for Grand Banks Yachts Ltd. He was an early employee and instrumental in the growth and development of YachtWorld.com, the world’s largest online yacht brokerage multiple listing service where he served as VP & General Manger. He enjoyed an early sales career that started in broadcast television, then into wireless telecommunications before delving into the marine industry.Neil, and his bride, Ann, of 30 years have three grown boys. All avid sailors, Eagle Scouts and active mariners.
When he’s not on the water, he’s skiing in the mountains, riding his bike or working on his sailboat, Discovery. Ron MollerThird generation on the family homestead near Gig Harbor, Ron grew up exploring Puget Sound in wooden boats built by his dad. College brought him to California, and a 30-year engineering career at Apple kept him there. Retirement in 2017 allowed Ron and wife Elizabeth to become full-time residents of Port Townsend.Apple vendor and manufacturing interactions brought extensive international travel, with opportunity to learn from different cultures and work styles. Decades of collaborative engineering experience shaped an ability to bring people of varied backgrounds together in creative problem-solving.Northwest Maritime Center and all it represents are major factors in Ron’s choice to live in Port Townsend; serving on the Board provides opportunity to contribute to that enterprise and its future. Stuart MorkStuart has been a pilot at Puget Sound Pilots for thirteen years, transferring to Washington after a 12-year career as a pilot in Western Alaska. While working in AK, he maintained a home in Chimacum, and now lives in Seattle with his wife Laura.
He has had leadership roles at both pilot organizations, serving as either an officer or member of the board of directors, as well as on various standing committees. Stuart’s interest in the Northwest Maritime Center revolves around professional training in the Pilothouse, as well as youth education through onsite programs and the Maritime Discovery Schools initiative. He divides his boating time between salmon fishing in a 16-foot Lund, and rowing/sailing a 15-foot Lowell dory. Lynn TerwoerdsLynn began her sailing career late in life with an ocean passage from Hawaii to Seattle and repeated the magical experience again four years later as First Mate. For the past 25 years she has been in information security and risk management, working for large corporations – Microsoft, Barclays and Oracle. Her background includes being a founding member of the Cloud Security Alliance, working on national critical infrastructure protection projects with IT-ISAC and Telecom and Electrical Power Interdependency Task Force. Her volunteer work includes being former board member of the National Women’s Sailing Association and currently serving on the advisory board for the Executive Women’s Forum.
She enjoys sailing locally with her spouse Nancy aboard Tethys. Debbi VanselowDebbi’s passion for helping clients achieve their financial goals over the last three decades is matched by her passion for spending time near, on, or in the water.
She grew up in eastern Washington next to the Columbia River, and when she graduated from Washington State University she moved to Seattle to be near the Puget Sound.In addition to achieving numerous performance awards over her career as a financial advisor, at Edward Jones Debbi also volunteered as field trainer, mentor, performance leader, Regional Leader, and was a General Partner. She is currently the Women’s Inclusion Specialist for the greater Seattle area.Debbi also served the boards of the Nordic Heritage Museum, University of Washington Friends of the Library, and the Northwest Ladies Golf Association.
Debbi and her husband, Larry, split their time between Seattle and Port Townsend. They can often be found sailing on Mystic with their Portuguese Water Dog, Webster, or walking on the beach in Port Townsend. Carlyn Stark, Board EmeritaA lifelong boater and the first donor to the Northwest Maritime Center project while on the WBF board in 1995, Carlyn contributes in multiple ways to WBF and NWMC. Respected regionally for her role in bringing the 100 year old Schooner Martha from California to Puget Sound, she is also well known for her decades of work with Four Winds Camp on Orcas Island. Her namesake boat, the Carlyn, sails throughout the sound as an integral part of youth maritime education programs. Jim Whittaker, Board EmeritusJim Whittaker, internationally renowned mountaineer, adventurer and environmentalist, is best known as the first American to summit Mt. Everest, on May 1, 1963.
A visionary business and community leader, Jim was the first full-time employee of one of the country’s largest outdoor retailers, Recreational Equipment, Inc. – REI – retiring as its President and CEO after 25 years with the company. Jim is a talented and inspirational public speaker, who has given presentations to hundreds of corporations and organizations for more than four decades. He has led numerous, high-profile climbing expeditions, including the first ascent of Mt. Kennedy (with Senator Robert Kennedy) in the Canadian Yukon in 1965, the first American ascent of K2 in 1978, and the spectacularly successful Mt. Everest International Peace Climb in 1990. He is an accomplished blue-water sailor, having twice skippered his own boats on the 2,400-mile Victoria-to-Maui International Yacht Race.
He and his wife Dianne Roberts, along with their two sons, made a four-year, 20,000-mile Pacific sailing journey to Australia and back to their home in Port Townsend, Washington, aboard their 54-foot steel ketch, Impossible. Jim is the author of the best-selling, award-winning memoir, A Life on the Edge: Memoirs of Everest and Beyond. (Bio courtesy of jimwhittaker.com.).