The Real Taxicab Confessions

by Vicente Ortega
March 25, 2009

It is 6 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon, and Genaro Legarreta has been sitting in his car since a little past five o’clock, barely driving forward a couple of feet over the past hour. This is a scene that plays out every weekday in major American cities as commuters drive home after work.

However, Legarreta is not on a congested highway or on a busy city street. Instead he is waiting outside the El Paso International Airport, and the car he is sitting in is his taxi cab.

“As a cab driver, I don’t have a fixed income, and how I earn a living depends on how many trips I can make on a daily basis,” Legarreta, who has been a cab driver since 1994, said.

“Since last summer though, I’ve had to stay out and work longer hours just so my family and I can get by.”

The truth behind the matter is that as the nation is being gripped by an economic recession, the effects have trickled down to those who are near the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.

As Americans continue to have less and less confidence in the current state of the economy, they are less willing to travel; affecting those who have jobs involved in the local tourism industry.

Some of those who have felt the full force of the recession are El Paso cab drivers. They and their taxi cabs are most visible in 3 distinct areas of the city: by the international ports of entry (bridges), outside the airport, and at the Fort Bliss military base.

“We are still getting a steady work load from Fort Bliss, for the soldiers still enjoy traveling around the city,” stated Juan Salgado, a local cab driver for the past 15 years.

“Where we are really hurting is at the airport, where flights are coming in with fewer tourists than before, and at the bridges, where Juarez residents are also trying to cut back on their own spending.”

As our neighbors across the border are fighting to stem the drug-related violence that has plagued Ciudad Juarez for over a year, they are also facing a devalued peso which gives them less purchasing power when they cross into El Paso.

“People crossing over the bridge on foot from Juarez and then taking a cab to one of the El Paso malls used to be very common,” Salgado added.

“Now so few people do that that on most days I don’t even bother going downtown to look for possible clients.”

Most cab drivers have also not been helped by the fact that the monthly rent that they pay the cab company owners for the use of the cabs has remained constant while their profits have dropped. This was made evident by Javier Aguirre, a cab driver of 12 years, as he explained his current financial predicament.

“It has always been easier to rent a taxi than to own one,” Aguirre said.

“I am not so sure of that anymore since we are still the one’s responsible for maintenance of the cars when they break down and lately those costs along with rent have been piling up as compared to our income.”

Some local residents who rely on public transportation to get around the city have also decided that in times like these, it is much more economical to simply wait for the city bus.

Guadalupe Rodriguez, a Mission Valley resident who works as a house maid at some of the homes in the Upper Westside, says that even though there is nothing like the comfort of riding in a taxi, lately she has had no other choice but to use El Paso Metro.

“I always enjoyed my cab rides up and back from the Westside; the drivers were always very friendly and I could always have them pick me up on my schedule,” Rodriguez stated.

“Now, in an effort to save money, I ride the city bus to work, but it’s difficult because I don’t know of any buses that would take me directly to my destination, so I am forced to ride a couple of different buses every morning and afternoon.”

The overall downturn in income has been widely felt by the vast majority of the city’s cab drivers.

Luis Gomez, a cab driver and owner of a local tax preparation agency, Luant Services, files the income taxes for most of the city’s drivers. He claims that in the 2008 Income Tax Returns that he has filed for his clients so far, he has noticed a substantial decrease in income.

“I myself made less last year as compared to previous years, and some of my fellow cab drivers also suffered from a drop in gross income,” Gomez said.

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Vicente Ortega

Ortega is a junior Finance major at the University of Texas at El Paso. He is a member of the Regional Economic Development Association. He plans to become a commercial banker after he graduates.