A red-eye, a stranger's car, and the photo I asked her to take

A little after 11 one night, a text came in from a woman we had never served before. She was landing at SFO on a red-eye early the next morning, alone, and needed a ride to a town a couple of hours' drive away.

Before she would book, she wanted proof that we were real. She asked more than once, and she was right to. So I sent her what I had: our CPUC charter-party carrier certificate (TCP 52382-A), our company details, and a photo of my own driver's license.

That settled it, and she booked. She also meant to sleep in the car: a night on a plane, then a long drive.

Who would be driving

That changed the question. It was no longer whether we could do the ride. It was who would be at the wheel while she slept: someone she had never met, on a long drive, early in the morning.

"Whoever is free" was not an answer I was willing to give her. So I called a licensed charter driver with his own TCP number. Months earlier, when I was just starting out, he had given me a lot of good advice, and I still appreciate it. When I asked whether I could come along, he said yes on the spot.

Meeting her in the terminal

Her flight came in an hour early, so we were up well before dawn. I rode to SFO with the driver in his Cadillac Escalade and met her inside the terminal.

That mattered more than anything I had texted her. She knew me: my name, my license, our certificate. She had never heard of the driver. Meeting her in person was how her trust in me became trust in him.

The photo

I asked her to take a picture of the driver and his SUV: his face, the license plate, and the TCP number on the car. Everything about who was driving her was now on her own phone, ready to send to anyone she chose.

Then I got out near my home, and they drove on. She slept on the way.

Her texts

She paid, and wrote:

Your welcome great job

I will for sure re book you how about next month 7th