Women behind the Wheel

When hailing a cab or calling a car service most of us expect a driver of the male persuasion at the wheel. But just as women today become EMTs plumbers and zookeepers some of the ladies who once drove “Mom’s taxi” now earn a parnassah as drivers-for-hire.

Driving a car service isn’t a career most girls aspire to when they’re growing up. It’s usually a job women move into as a second or third career or a means of supplementing the family income. Faigie for example began driving despite her degrees in accounting and psychology. Widowed at age 23 she spent 15 years selling computers and many more running a business inBrooklyn. When business waned and she found herself in desperate need of income her son suggested driving for a car service to stay afloat. “Because I was over 60 I couldn’t find any other work ” says this mother grandmother and great-grandmother in her throatyBrooklynaccent.

At first Faigie found working for a car service in BoroParkvery tough. She wasn’t used to an all-male environment — some of the dispatchers were not as refined as the frum clients she’d dealt with previously. “But they were decent” she admits. “And some of the drivers were nice ehrlich men between jobs.”

Dispatchers weren’t always so obliging about funneling female callers her way. “Sometimes I’d wait for hours” Faigie says. “At one point I left and tried another car service but they weren’t any better so I returned to the first one.” Little by little she built a client base and now has steady customers.