Bullshitters

 One of the ' perks' of being a taxi driver is getting to look at the scantily clad ladies in town at the weekend, I say, but you can look at the menu without selecting....Not according to some taxi drivers who would have you believe ' they didn't have any money so offered to pay in kind ' yeah right....

There's always someone who has earned more than you and delights in rubbing it in...then there's the guy who has had big job after big job and earned three times what you have when you've been out twice as long and it's been a quiet night yeah right..In one and out the other I say!!!

The Early Days....

Cut my teeth in the taxi trade in the office, answering the phones and giving out the jobs..On each six hour shift you would fluctuate from public enemy to drivers best friend.,.all goes to prove you can't please all the people all of the time.
I found myself in among a group of grumpy, cynical, hardened Hackney drivers and a couple of oddball operators...I  found myself batting off accusations of being biased and ' bent ' accepting favours in exchange for giving out good jobs...this was never the case, although it became a source of fun going along with one or two of the drivers....
Some of the names the drivers gave each other were amusing ,,,Pig Man..Rabbit Man...Poison Dwarf...Shovel Hands...to name a few..
It wouldn't be long before I could recognise each of the drivers voices...and many of the customers on the phone too...
' Taxi Drivers ' I was told were people who ' couldn't fit in or conform ' in a proper job...How right they were and after a year I aspired to be one of them...

Pet Hates..

Seventeen years of people, invading your space...in your car ..in your face.....What can be worse than four blokes, been for a curry, getting in your cab and one decides to practically shit his pants while they decide to argue who's guilty..your face is changing colour...

Then there's the ' know all ' thinks they know the shortest route and proceed to navigate their way while you grit your teeth at every turn. They end up paying more cause it's the long way...why do people confuse the fastest with the shortest...

I don't go for all the loud music, like to listen to a good news topic or phone in...' Turn the radio up driver..put some music on ' as they reach for the radio with their hands stinking of kebab meat...

In My Own Space In Time..

There's plenty to be said for being your own boss....for seventeen years I've been just that. A knight of the road to some, escorting old ladies home with their shopping by day and drunken revellers by night...Listening to the gossip and the moans and groans....and the male and female drink fuelled adventures in the small hours..

As a taxi driver, or private hire driver the official title, you clock up many thousand of miles...mostly in and around your own patch, mine being Chester in the North West of Britain...Give me a destination and I'll get you there.....