Will a cab show up faster if the bartender calls?
It may depend on the bar’s reputation. I have been blacklisted by cab companies before, for calling and then taking another cab. After a cab didn’t show up, I called to complain, and the dispatcher had a list of the times I had failed to show up. Your bar could be blackslited. In my experience, for a small tip, hotel bellhops and strip club bouncers can call you a cab that will be there very fast. The driver may be disappointed that you are nt going all the way to the airport. I am lucky to drink and work close to expensive hotels and a strip bar.
Jakey’s got it – the bar *staff* will get their cabs quick enough, if the company/dispatch is on their game. Bartenders are the best customers – they’re always there when you come and they tip well. When I was driving, there was no real difference between having the bar call and calling yourself. (Actually, I remember that from bouncing at the bar prior to driving the cab!) Depending on the system in place at the cab company, the bartender might be able to get his/her call answered faster if the dispatcher recognizes the number as a regular (that was the case with my company for quite a while). Answering a call at a bar is hit-or-miss, so there’s usually no rush. There’s a decent chance that the caller has been waiting outside, and has just flagged someone down, or they’ve decided to stay and won’t cop to calling.
In San Francisco, yes. The bartender knows what cab company is likely to come quickly if they call. The bar probably has an ongoing relationship with that dispatcher and may even have a priority dispatch phone number. The SF cab dispatch system is absolutely awful, though. Maybe in a more civilized city cabs come without heroic efforts.
I notice you’re in Seattle. I lived there for quite a while, and had to take cabs more than anyone I’ve met there. I don’t know if you caught this article in the Stranger, but they came to the same conclusions I’d come to: you’re pretty much screwed no matter what you do, though Yellow is best. Upscale places will probably call a cab for you. If it’s busy, don’t ask, it sucks. Even if they’re nice about it, and do it for you, it still sucks. They have a job to do, and you can sit there on your cell phone; they can’t, really. It would be perhaps different if there was a company there that had special priority lines for businesses, but I am pretty sure none do. Sorry.
