Do you (pretend to) care?

I read this post this evening and it got me thinking about how caring and not caring relates to pedicab drivers. (Hmmm... for some reason, most of what I read makes me think of some aspect of pedicabs.)

Does caring make a difference in the number of rides, size of tips, or just plain enjoyment of the streets if you care, or at least pretend to care?

And what exactly do you care about? The people on the street? The safety of your passengers? The experience of riding? Or your take at the end of the shift?

And, as Seth Godin suggests in this post, does pretending to care lead to actually caring? Does it make a difference?

Pretending that you care
Seth Godin 4/27/08

I spent part of the day in New York yesterday.

First stop, an expensive sporting goods store that prides itself on service. I bought some skates, paid and then asked the security guy (the one with all the shelves behind his desk, where people check stuff they bring in) if I could leave my stuff there for ten minutes while I ran an errand.

"No, I'm really really sorry," he said, "but we can't take responsibility and I'll get in big trouble if I do. I know it's a hassle for you..."

I left and did my errand. A little later, on my way back to the car, I had one last street to cross. Suddenly, a motorcade of 20 police cars, sirens roaring, whizzed by, blocking the crosswalk and making me miss the light (if anyone knows why NY City cops are suddenly doing this a lot, please let me know. Where are they going? Why? If it's an emergency, why don't they go faster?).

As I waited for the cops to go by, I watched a meter guy walk up to my car and slowly start to write me a parking ticket. I was being penalized for being a good citizen and waiting for the endless motorcade!

I ran up and begged.

He turned to me and said, "I'm so sorry. I know what a hassle it is, but once I press this yellow button here, I have to finish. But I bet if you go to court and complain, they'll waive it." Then he reached into his pocket and handed me a lollipop. "Thanks for coming to New York, and I'm sorry."

Except this story isn't true.

The guy at the sporting goods store just grunted at me. Explained it wasn't his job and just dared me to return the skates I had just bought. And the meter guy didn't even bother to acknowledge me or make eye contact.

No, you can't always hire exceptional people for these jobs. No, you can't always invest enough time to train them sufficiently. But yes, you can make, "pretending you care," a barely acceptable alternative.

It doesn't take much to take the edge off an encounter.

[Boy does this sound cynical. How inauthentic! How manipulative! Isn't it better to just hire people who actually care? Of course it is. But as far as I can tell, that's a lot harder than it looks--because so many organizations are organized around policies, not caring, and because so many employees have been trained not to care.

So, the essence of the lesson here is this: if people start out pretending to care, next
thing you know, they actually do care. They like the positive feedback and they like the way being kind makes them feel. It spreads. It sticks.]

For operators, how much do you care? How hard is it to find drivers who actually care? How can you tell? Do you bother to screen for drivers who care, and if so, how do you do it?

The Rickshaws For India Program

Rickshaws – A Major Method Of Transportation

The Rickshaw is the world’s oldest form of wheeled transportation and in India today Rickshaws are still a major method of taxi style transportation for people taking short journeys. Multitudes ride them to and from work. Business people going to appointments use them. Women travel on them for shopping and children going to and from school ride on Rickshaws.

They are also used for moving goods and courier jobs. The government promotes their use as they are non-polluting. According to official records over 7 million Rickshaws are in use in India today.


Enabling The Poor

PeopleAid’s - Rickshaws For India program promotes self-sufficiency by enabling poor people to own their own Rickshaw businesses. We provide existing Rickshaw drivers and also unemployed people with a high quality Rickshaw as well as training, maintenance help and free insurance.




Harsh Rickshaw Landlords

Despite their hard work, India’s existing Rickshaw drivers cannot break free from the cycle of poverty which themselves and their families are trapped in. They are too poor to own their own Rickshaw, so they are forced to rent their Rickshaws from Rickshaw landlords. The rent they must pay is around 50% of their daily income. In essence, they work as slave labor for the Rickshaw landlords. Many drivers have no choice but to rent trash heaps with wobbly wheels, broken seats, loose frames, etc.

Because the rental fee cuts the driver’s income almost in half, he has no possibility of saving any money to purchase his own Rickshaw. In fact, it is desperately difficult to live on the remaining income. He and his family live from day to day, struggling to feed themselves with the money that is left after paying the daily Rickshaw rental.

Our Rickshaw Manufacturing Plants produce a revolutionary and superior new model Rickshaw, which is both stronger and lighter than traditional Indian models. It is a dual purpose Rickshaw that is designed for carrying both passengers and courier type freight. This enables the recipients to earn extra returns. The seat is wide and very comfortable to sit on. It has a good storage capacity under the seat and a low flat floor pan. It is very easy for elderly people and young children to get on and off.




Yes I/we want to set Indian families free from the bondage of poverty.

A challenge for my fellow pedicabbers

I wanted to offer a challenge to my fellow pedicab drivers. You can think of it as the ultimate karma ride and you don't even have to turn a single pedal stroke. What is it? I want to challenge you all to donate a pint of blood, plasma or donate platelets.

I started out donating whole blood when I was in my late 20's to my local blood center, the Central California Blood Center. I was first motivate to donate because a family friend was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 6. After donating over 6 gallons (yes, 6 gallons) of whole blood over the years (I have met others who have surpassed 6 gallons) I was told about Platelet Apheresis, the process of donating platelets.

Well, it has been several years since my first apheresis donation. And there is one question that I am asked most often, and that is how much do I get paid. Well folks, I don't get paid. I give of myself freely and in return I receive the occasional free t-shirt, or a coupon to Baskin Robbins Ice Cream. I even have a few plastic displays that proclaim just how much of this (blood) or that (platelets) I have donated over the years.

So, once again I challenge all my fellow pedicab drivers, to donate whole blood, plasma or platelets. When you donate you give the "gift of life." If you are willing to take up this challenge you should consider registering with the National Marrow Donor Program. Here is one more interesting fact for those that aren't aware, "only 5 percent of the eligible population of blood donors actually gives blood."

What I'd like to find out is, how many of those that donate regularly ride a pedicab?

Cross posted over at Macdonald's Animal Farm.