Drivers' Blues

We were once very blessed with a fantastic driver. He took good care of the car, ensured that every inch of it was clean (something very hard to maintain in Moscow) and was very proud to drive in it. All the horror stories we heard from friends about their drivers were distant to us. However, things changed when Adrian changed job.

We have 2 drivers now (on a 2-day rotation schedule) and we find ourselves counting on only one. The other one belongs to the pool of "undesirable drivers". What constitutes being an "undesirable driver"? Here's my experience....

Driver M arrived at my apartment. It was our first meeting. I opened the car door and discovered grass on the back seat. Driver M indicated to me that the back seat was dirty and suggested that I take the front seat instead. Fair enough, I thought. I was meeting some friends for lunch and it so happened that they decided to hitch a ride to a nearby supermarket after the meal. When they got on board, he was immediately mesmerized by one of my friends. When she failed to get into the car again after the supermarket visit, he asked about her whereabouts. *Scratch head*

I told Adrian about the grassy back seat and we suspected that he had used the car to either transport something or had taxied someone.

The next day, he was tasked to fetch me again. This time, he assumed that I should take the front seat but I declined. (Some drivers, when driving a female, prefer to have them seated at the front; to show off!???) Maybe I was being sensitive but I did not think he took the refusal very well. *But who cares?*

Many days later, I heard that he was skirt chasing one of Adrian's colleagues, trying ways and means to date her. *What was he thinking?!!!*

After that episode, on one cold winter day, we found a bottle of half-drunk coke in the drinks compartment of the car. It didn't belong to the other driver, neither did it belong to us nor Driver M. So, possible scenario is that Driver M, being the driver the day before, picked up a passenger (let's call him Passenger C) who had a half-drunk bottle of coke. As Passenger C got off, he forgot about it and our dear Driver M did not even realise that Passenger C had left behind that bottle of coke! Well, we could not conclude anything as it was all just a guess and he was not caught red handed. But certainly, our tolerance was running out.

All was calm until a few days ago. It was his turn to drive Adrian but the other driver was unable to contact him the day before to notify him about the time. He was nowhere to be found in the morning and when he finally appeared in office, he refused to explain to anybody about his disappearance. *PMS?*

The last straw came today. He was supposed to fetch me at 1130. He decided to leave the office at 0930! On a good day, the drive from the office to my apartment takes only 15 minutes. On a bad one, it would take at most an hour. Never, never requiring a 2-hr lead time. When he was stepping out of the office door at 0930, Adrian's colleague stopped him. "Damn! There goes my plan!", I guess this was what he was thinking then. Well, that's not the end of the saga. When we reached office, he told Adrian that the front car plate had dropped off! How? Don't know. When? Don't know. Where? Don't know. Explaining that he could easily be stopped by the police without the car plate, he said he needed to get back to the leasing company to get the plate replaced. This would take at least 2 1/2 hours (actually, they just needed an hour at the most). So the plan was, he would drive me home first before proceeding to get the plate replaced. I waited and waited in the office. "Where the hell was he?" Turns out that he decided to put the back car plate at the front and take a drive to find the other plate. *I call that stupidity!*

We had had enough! Though it didn't feel good, he would be replaced with effect from Friday. I think it is important to have a driver you can trust. What I don't like about him is his dishonesty. He is also not a careful driver, especially when his mood is down and I certainly wouldn't want to let someone like that accidentally "murder" me. Let's hope the replacement is better.