I have a truly wonderful mother. In my younger days, whenever she came to pick me up to go home, she would never fail to ask if I had any friends who needed a ride. It used to annoy me back then, because it meant I got home a lot later. But many of my friends (and acquaintences) benefitted greatly from her generosity. So when I started driving, it was only natural for me to extend the same courtesy to the people around me. But sometimes, the lack of appreciation really makes me wonder if the effort is worth it, or if people realise what a sacrifice this can be.
I think especially late at night, it is quite natural to expect drivers to send their friends home, especially once the midnight surcharge kicks in. But this means that the drivers somestimes end up travelling cross-country to drop people off. It means they get home perhaps an hour later than they otherwise would. And the difference between 2 and 3 am can be very great, especially when you are tired. There has been more than one occasion I have taken a cab, or not gone out to avoid the situation of refusing to send people home simply because I am too tired to drive.
Most people are very appreciative of any offer of a ride that will shorten their journey. But it really irks me when people expect you to offer a ride (when they are perfectly capable of taking public transport), or when they actually ask you to change your route of dropping people off so you can send them to their doorstep (thereby delaying everybody else), instead of giving them a ride partway. This happened to me last week, in broad daylight, which got me thinking about this whole thing.
Perhaps people don't realise the cost of the car. I am spending about $1,800 a month on installments, insurance, road tax and petrol. I am not spending this kind of money so that I can be anyone's chauffer. Fuel costs about 6km/$, and it's going up faster than the taxi fares. So if a ride is offered, please take it in good spirit as an act of gentlemanly kindness or a gesture of goodwill and friendship. Consider all these before you ask for more of your driver friends ...
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2 comments:
Liftee dependent.
Else I leave functions 5-10 mins early. No one can hitch a lift if I'm not around. End of problem.
funny how u blogged about this because I just sent someone home and I don't remember a word of thanks which made me feel a little disgusted. I felt like I was expected to send him/her.
I usually dun mind sending anyone because I think having a car is a blessing which should be shared as much as possible.
But it's being taken for granted that's not nice. I do think i've done it before too though, so I guess I should not think much about it.
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