Willow Glen Resident

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Photograph by Vicki Thompson

Cab Call: Joann Landers of Willow Glen has been driving a taxi for more than two decades. She has a daily blog, 'Taxi Vignette,' which has developed a loyal following that includes her passengers.

Day in the life of a Willow Glen cabby

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

Joann Landers sits in her Yellow Cab van parked on shady Glen Eyrie Avenue in Willow Glen.

A scratchy voice comes over her two-way radio asking for a driver to pick up a fare in East San Jose. Landers decides to pass because she is too far away.

Landers picks up between three to 10 fares a day, and by the end of the month, she has spent $1,000 in gas and her van needs an oil change.

"When I first started, an old-timer told me the key to making it in the industry was to always keep moving," she says.

Making connections with customers has also played an integral role in her driving career, and 23 years later she has melded low tech with high tech, creating her own blog, "Taxi Vignette."

Her experiences as a cabby have led to some interesting pickups she blogs about on www.joannrides.blogspot.com.

One of her strangest pickups involved a box from the airport and its delivery only a few blocks away.

She was given a number to call after she made the pickup, and was surprised by the interrogation she was put through when she made the call.

"I called the number, and a man answered," Landers says in her blog. "I told him that I was a taxi driver, and that I had been asked to call him."

The man asked Landers for her full name, nationality and questioned her loyalty to the United States.

By this point, Landers wanted to know the reason for all the questions, but the voice on the other line continued with one last question: Could she lift the 99-pound box? Landers said, "yes."

"I found out after I made the delivery that they were machine guns for the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS," she says.

In addition to her Mission Impossible experience, she also has her share of celebrity fares.

The cabby has rubbed elbows with NFL referee and Willow Glen resident Bill Leavy, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and musician Tommy Lee.

But Landers said her most colorful fares are the hockey players.

"Most cabbies don't pick them up because the arena is such a short drive, but they make for great blotter fodder," she says. "I like trying to make the players laugh or smile, get them off their game a bit. It's my little way of helping the home team out."

And then there were the Crocs--those popular plastic shoes.

Landers got a call for a fare that needed to go to the San Francisco airport. Mr. Ma was an employee of the shoe company that makes the Crocs in China.

"The man in the backseat of my taxi was so interesting to talk with I hated to see the trip come to an end," Landers writes in her blog.

The two talked shop about his shoe company, about his life in Shanghai, air pollution and the Internet.

"I asked if he felt the "freedom" when he was in California," she writes. "After a long pause, he said, 'Yes, I do.' "

Ma told Landers everything that was sent on his computer, personal or at work, was filtered.

Landers told Ma her blog has also been "watched" because of her suspicious box incident and because she drives local judges and politicians.

The cabby made such an impression on the businessman he promised to bring her a gift.

"He asked for my card saying, 'On my next trip to America, I will bring you some yellow Crocs.' "

Landers says the Crocs are the most comfortable shoes she's worn, once you get past their odd look.

"They look like the shoes you see people wearing after a foot operation," she says on her blog, "but they are worth the funny looks that they incur."

She just has to resist the urge to quack.

Her "Taxi Vignettes" have had a loyal following since Landers first began typing away in 2004.

"My regulars like reading about themselves on my blog," Landers says. "They especially like hearing about the celebrities that I drive on occasion."

Landers' "Taxi Vignettes" gets on average 50 visits a day.

Cabby history

Landers first got into taxi cab driving because she was a stay-at-home mom and wanted something that would allow her to spend time with her daughter.

"I love the freedom," Landers says. "It's a good job for a mom. I could fit my family into my schedule so that I don't need to ask for days off or miss my daughter's school play. I just work it into my schedule ahead of time."

Without her rig, Landers would never have met her husband, who also drives a cab. She drove the day shift and her husband, Ken, worked the night shift with the same cab.

She says she thought he was cute and would leave him fresh gardenias or an apple or fresh cookies on the dashboard when they would exchange the cab.

"Then we would get together to eat," Landers says. "It would be my dinner and his breakfast, and we got to know each other this way."

That driving schedule has changed very little, so the two make time during the day to see one another by scheduling a lunch date or taking a break to play a game of pool.

"It gets us out of traffic," Landers says.

But there are a few challenges.

"It's kind of hard to watch a full movie together at home," Landers says. "We have to watch it in chunks."

When she is not picking up a fare, Landers spends the extra time with a book or blogging, but she picks and chooses her rest stops cautiously.

"It's more dangerous for a woman," Landers says. "You have to use your common sense. I can't park at the Greyhound station or sit in an empty parking lot like most of the guys do. So that's why I like to work in Willow Glen. It's a nice area, and you get a nice mix of people."

But the job is tough, Landers says.

"You are always asking yourself, 'Am I going to make it this week?' she says. "There's no set income. You work seven days a week and don't have any vacations."

But there's another reason Landers has been picking up fares for more than two decades--she likes the company.

"Driving a cab puts you in places where you meet people and people rely on you," Landers says. "They feel secure with you."

Landers' favorite location is her hometown neighborhood of Willow Glen.

Landers' grandparents, parents and family all lived in the community that she now works in.

"They have someone to see them off at the airport and someone to take them home when they return," she says.

Over the years, Landers has gained the trust of many of her regular customers and has done more than just take them and bring them home from the airport.

As a courtesy, if a regular flies out before garbage night, she will take their trash out to the curb. Landers will also store items such as car seats for customers at her storage shed.

It's this customer service and commitment to her job that sets Landers apart from others, says Yellow Cab Company co-owner Larry Silva.

"There's a difference between a professional cab driver and someone who drives a cab," Silva says. "That's customer service."

Silva says Landers' knowledge of the city and its happenings enhances customers' experience.

"She always knows when the conventions are happening and where the best places to eat are," Silva says, "Joann is truly an entrepreneur."

Silva's father, Art Silva, bought the company in 1953 and ran it from its Willow Glen location, 615 Bird Ave., until 2003, when Larry and brother Don took over. The cab company is now located downtown on Seventh Street.

Cab drivers are independent contractors. They work their own hours and lease or buy their cars from Yellow Cab. If the car is leased, the company provides oil changes and maintenance work. If the car is owned by the driver, the expenses for maintenance are out of pocket.

Landers shows pride of ownership with the van she leases from Yellow Cab.

"When you get in her van, it's spotless, and there's always a newspaper waiting for you," Silva says. "She's an ambassador to our city. That's what makes her a professional cab driver and not someone who drives a cab."

Silva says Landers dispels many of the stereotypes people have about taxicab drivers.

"The taxi industry is not a well-understood industry," he says. "Through her blogs, Joann has brought a kind of humanity and public awareness to taxi cab drivers."