I am writing this from the backseat of a car as my driver takes me to the airport. When I booked this trip, I looked at a couple of choices of companies to provide transportation from the airport to the hotel. It is a one hour trip from the airport to the hotel, and because I am leaving right after I speak, I don’t need a car of my own.
The price difference between the two options I explored was $80. Compared with the overall price, that’s a lot of money because it is a high percentage of the total. Remember, it’s only a ride from the airport to the hotel, from point A to point B.
One thing is for sure; the driver smokes in the company’s car. The air fresheners designed to mask the smell only remind you that someone has been smoking in the car. I noticed it as soon as the driver showed up. She was ten minutes late and told me she was stuck in traffic. At 9:30 PM. In Jacksonville, Florida.
My driver is a very nice, pleasant person. It isn’t her fault that the car has a severe suspension problem. We are driving down the freeway at 75 miles per hour into very high winds. The car is all over the mostly empty road. But when we pass trucks, it’s a bit of a safety issue. We are very close to bumping into the trucks next to us when the wind gusts. The steering wheel has a lot of play.
I tell her, “Wow, the suspension on this thing needs work.” She says, ” The owner just replaced the shocks.” That might have solved one problem, but there are clearly more problems.
My outcome wasn’t the cheapest ride from the airport to the hotel. My outcome was a comfortable, safe ride to the airport. As priorities go, I would have given up comfort for safety. That’s the difference between price and cost.
Just now, as I am writing these words, we ran over someone’s bumper. The driver was going to swerve, but the suspension was so bad, she couldn’t. She said, “You think that there is a problem with the suspension?”
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