Recently, I spent some time in Las Vegas and had to take a number of cabs to get where I needed to go. It was interesting observing this group of professionals as it isn’t one I am used to seeing. We had one gentleman who was born in Vegas, was in construction for 18 years and has driven a cab for 35. He loves it and has never had an accident. We had a woman who had started her day at 1:00 in the morning and we were her last fare. She loved being a cab driver and knew a ton about the hotels and how the town works. We had a gentleman from Chicago who was happy to get away from winter but also hated traffic. Another guy was really burnt out on driving after 11 years. Before that he was a roadie for a number of bands and wasn’t sure what he wanted to do next. He said he was a workaholic with no wife or kids and the house is paid off so the sky is the limit. And two guys who literally said NOTHING.
These people basically have customers come into their “office” and have nothing to do but make polite conversation while they navigate tons of traffic and drunk people. And how hard is that, right?
The thing that was most interesting to me, aside from the stories of the people, was the amount of data they had at their disposal. First, they all knew the back ways around things. It is MUCH easier to watch them drive if there aren’t a lot of other cars around. But what was really interesting was how they know things. It is in the best interest of the cab companies to know when shows are getting out, how many people will be checking out on any given day, and what conventions are where. The hotels have a vested interest in their guests getting around when they want to do so. So they have developed a website where the hotels post their information each day so the cab drivers know where to be and when. Cool, right?
So these two industries are really symbiotic and have found ways to work together by sharing information. If other industries looked at this model and found ways to work together, they could also help their customers do more and do it more efficiently. What industries could you partner with to make things more effective?
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