WORKING -- Mike Reynolds

-- Story by Jennifer Kho, photo by [tk]

HE IS

Taking you places

A JUGGLING ACT

Mike Reynolds, 50, picks up his cellular phone and puts down the

regular phone.

“What time? Where? OK, we’ll be right there,” he says, hanging up and

grabbing a walkie-talkie in one fluid motion.

“Get a move on, or you’re going to be late,” he says into the

walkie-talkie. “No, that one was canceled. You need to be at the

airport!”

Reynolds, who has worked at Newport Irvine Cab Enterprise -- also

known as NICE Taxi -- since 1997 balances his duties the same way he

juggles the telephones.

He is a dispatcher, a taxi cab driver and a mechanic for the Costa

Mesa business.

But driving is probably his favorite part of the job.

“Driving a cab is like being your own boss,” Reynolds said. “You never

know where you are going to go, and every day is different. I’m not stuck

between four walls in an office. I go everywhere and see the entire frame

of life, from people so poor they are lucky if they can afford a cab to

rich businesspeople with their briefcases and suits. The funny thing is

that regular people tip better than the rich people.”

GETTING STARTED

After leaving the Army in 1972, Reynolds was a cab driver in Detroit

and Tucson, Ariz., before moving to California. He worked in Los Angeles

in 1984 and later moved to Costa Mesa, where he worked for South Coast

Cab from 1992 to 1997 and became a manager.

After a collision with a tractor-trailer left him with a hole in his

chest, an artificial hip and a disfigured face, however, Reynolds said he

sued the company for his medical bills and subsequently lost his job. He

quickly got a new job at NICE Taxi.

DANGEROUS BUT REWARDING

Accidents are not the only dangerous part of the job, Reynolds said,

adding that he has been robbed at least five times in his career.

“You have to be able to read people quickly,” he said. “We have no

bulletproof windows, so we have to judge whether we’re going to feel safe

having this person in your cab. I was robbed at gunpoint once by a

druggie who was so stoned he got mad at me because I had just started my

shift and only had $17, not enough for him to get his fix. It scared me

to death because looking at him was like looking at a dead person.”

People also often try to cheat taxi drivers out of their fares, he

said.

LONG DAYS AND NIGHTS

The hardest part of the job is the long hours, he said.

Shifts are usually 12 hours, but sometimes last 18 if the company gets

a lot of calls.

And the pay is not the best, Reynolds said, explaining that he makes

about $8.50 an hour after he pays for his car maintenance and the

company’s dispatch, insurance and office rent fees.

But the job satisfaction is worth it, he said.

“I love it when I can get someone somewhere on time when they are in a

hurry,” he said. “Maybe they were stood up by another cab, they called

you in a panic, and you got them to the airport on time so they didn’t

miss their flight. I don’t ask for much, just the satisfaction of knowing

I helped someone get there on time.”