The Dream Client

Let me tell you about our Dream Client, lets call him Danny, since I shall not reveal his true name.

I met Danny just like any taxi company.
“Hallo, is this Limo Taxi?”
Yes Sir. How can I help you?
I need to go from Brussels to Dinant tomorrow, can you pick me up at 11:00 AM.

Well this guy shows up dressed like any other, with jeans, a classic jean jacket, long hair with a tennis pet on his head and Spanish Sanchos boots. Not shaved for few days but well cared. One could not tell that he was rich. So returning from Dinant he asked how much the fair was. I told him 160EUR + 20EUR waiting time.
Then he started looking in his pockets for money. To be honest after him going through of each of his pockets I started thinking that he had no money to pay. Finally after going through almost every single pocket he had, he found his money. A note of 500EUR!

I went a bit bizarre. Was it real money? How on earth am I going to change this? No shop will change a 500EUR bank note! Thanks to my ING bank I thought of the perfect solution. I went to the cash deposit facility of my bank. If the note was counterfeit I would have known straight away. As you probably thought, it was real money.
I changed the money got a nice tip of 20EUR and Thank you Sir, Goodbye.
That was my first encounter with Danny. I was not sure if I was going to hear from him again. I should confess my sin here. I was almost sure that Danny found the money somewhere. I could not imagine that this simple guy was who he is.

Well ok but all of this does not define him as the Dream Client. Correct?
I am not finished yet, that was just the first time with Danny. The second time was as educative, perhaps more than the first.

Danny is rich, very rich. He is not working. He is just spending money. I dare to classify him as idiomorphic and eccentric. The reason for this is his attitude towards paper work including bank notes and his magnetic field to yield troubles.

About a week later, around 18:00hrs I received the following call.
“Hallo, is this Limo Taxi?”
Yes Sir. How can I help you?
I am the lawyer of Danny, one of your clients that you brought a week ago in Dinant, do you remember him?
Yes Sir, I do remember him.
Could you please pick him up from Schiphol?
When that will be?
Now. He is waiting for 2 hours in Schiphol Airport.

I did not know what to say! My brains went spinning at 12.000 rpm. The telephone number was at private settings, I could not verify at any way who was calling. He did not say his name. That was strange. I replied:

With whom am I speaking sir?

Then he properly addressed himself, acknowledged that I could not see his telephone number. He called me immediately back from his office tell that I could verify if necessary. It was a Belgium land line number. He explained me that he would take care of all the costs, asking me how fast I could get to Schiphol airport. I needed 80-100 min depending on the traffic. There was however a problem. Schiphol airport is huge! It has four very busy terminals. Not to mention the Schiphol airport parking police. Where exactly was Danny, the lawyer did not know! Danny did not tell him. I was going to get paid even if I drove there and returned empty, if I could not find him, he reassured me. Could I do it? Yes or no?

I was driving back from Brussels direction Antwerpen, Breda on my way home. During the conversation I had passed my home exit and I was already driving direction Breda Utrecht Amsterdam. I thought of myself, why not? I had no reservation at that moment small redirection, the person on the telephone sounded very intelligent, short and to the point understanding his mistake to call from a private nr. Professional.


Recalling my memory I shall change on present tense.

Yes Sir. I replied. I am on my way already. Sent me an SMS with his location or agree with Danny on Schiphol terminal 3 arrivals.

About 20 min later just passed Breda ring direction Utrecht I receive a SMS on the BMW screen. I have to pick him up from Rotterdam Central Station and bring him to Antwerp. He will be waiting outside the back side on the Taxis spot. Grate I though, he picked up the best spot in the city of Rotterdam. But wait a minute. If he can take the train to Rotterdam, why is he there waiting for me? He can just go on to Antwerp with the train. He is not doing this to make me happy!
Something here does not fit the puzzle I thought. Never the less I make a small deviation before Utrecht heading Rotterdam. I am not going to drive 100 km back home while 40 km from destination anyway. Soon the puzzles will some how fit.

Going through the labyrinth of Rotterdam Central train station, I noticed all the taxi drivers that are looking at this Belgium BMW 7 series, Taxi, stopping just on the taxi spot in front of their noise and a client running in. The door goes open next to the driver seat and Danny sits inside the car telling me to drive fast out of there.
I should fill the paperwork immediately as soon the client steps in. It is the law. So this is what I do, However Danny keeps insisting to drive fast and I notice the taxi drivers are moving towards my direction, I think that Danny has a point here and I step on it. Danny’s short leather jacket glues to the black leather of the front seat. They can write down my state plate if they wish.
The traction control makes sure that there is no other sound than of the BMW engine roaring, A feeling that is short lasting, eventually soon I have to hit the brakes.

At this moment I notice a painful expression on his face.
Could you please put the heating on? Danny asks.
He is shivering and I just see that he is not wearing any jacket, a short leather gillet with a shirt under, that’s all. It is 9 degrees Celsius outside.
So I turn on the chair heating. Minutes later his face is full of joy.
“I shall take a nap, wake me up in Antwerp please” Danny says and he is closing his eyes enjoying the first warmth for some time I guess.


Let us try putting the puzzles together now.
Danny is not looking very well. He looks in some kind of trouble and has lot of pain. The driving directions are Lawyer, Doctor and his place.
Shortly the puzzles are like this. Danny got robed, beaten and dumped in the airport. He had no papers, no money. The Schiphol airport police identified him through telephone with his lawyer. He refused to go to the hospital and they did not keep him under custody since he had done nothing illegal. He refused to make a statement to the police or accept any help.
Danny, why? I ask
Paper work. I don’t like it. He replies.


We normal people have a bank card and we get our money from the “wall” or we go to the bank right? Danny not! He gets his money from his lawyer and recently from Limo Taxi as well.

He told me that he has not been in a bank for about five years and he does NOT have any bank cards. I think I do believe him. For him the difference between a bank note of 50EUR and 500EUR is the number and color, they are both papers he claims! He doesn’t have a mobile telephone, not only because he is loosing them all the time. If he needs to call he asks someone who has one! It is more convenient and it has the advantage of him having his privacy and ho telephone day -nightmare. My argument, urgent situation, was quickly dismissed. A minor disadvantage he said and reminded me that we live in Europe and not in Africa. I got his point. However, the bank note point was hard to get.

Epilog
That day Danny’s lawyer offered me a bank note of 500 EUR while I told him that Amsterdam Schiphol Antwerp was much less. And Rotterdam was even shorter. I argued this as correct amount for the fair. It was almost double. I felt sympathy for Danny and I was not going to charge someone double price after all.
Danny smiled, and said. You know what? Can I open an account with your company? I replied of course. We offer cash withdraw service as well.
Ok then keep 400EUR for all the troubles and the traffic and driving around and put 600EUR in my account. If I need some small cash or transport I can always call you when I have no “papers” with me. If you are not available for some reason, just arrange it then. I could do this of course; fair enough. I was about 4 hours busy and drove few hundredths km. I walked out his office with two bank notes of 500EUR. I was feeling more familiar with them this time. I kept in mind though that only 400EUR was mine.

Is this after all the definition of the Dream Client?
What you think? Perhaps no.
There are some more educative points in later encounters with Danny that I did not mention. I believe I can prove to you beyond doubt that he is the Dream Client.

To be continued… some day soon.

© http://limotaxi.net/ 2oo8