Taxi Driver Online

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2004 The Times

Byline: Nick Barlay

With around 90 million taxi trips a year in London, and more than 20,000 black cabs on the streets, it is not surprising that other drivers, legal and illegal, compete for a slice of the sizeable public carriage market. Clampdowns on the unlicensed trade have become a regular feature of London's cab wars, but one of the main bugbears of the professional black cab driver is the emergence on the capital's streets of the rickshaw.

For Bob Oddy, a cab driver for 38 years and general secretary of the London Taxi Drivers Association, "rickshaws are deathtraps. They're white-knuckle amusement rides." Oddy, the self-styled "world's leading expert on rickshaws" regrets losing a court case last November in which rickshaws were deemed to be legal and allowed "to act as old-fashioned stage carriages". According to the LTDA, which represents London's 25,000 drivers, some of whom share cabs, new research reveals the less savoury aspects of rickshaw travel, such as the expensive fares, black market labour and the operators behind the trade.

Another issue has been the reduction from 400 to 320 in the number of routes or "runs" that make up the "knowledge", a move criticised for making it easier to become a driver. "They want to hire out more cabs," says Oddy, "so they reduce the knowledge." At least the 48-hour week was "beaten off", which would have made cab driving, a profession in which there are "no average earnings", a misery. In fact, for many drivers, the choice of when to work and how long to work is the prized aspect of the trade. And behind the gripes, Oddy is very clear about one thing: "It's the freedom of the job that is 99 per cent of the attraction. Other self-employed people have to turn up or meet a deadline. You decide your hours.

You don't let anyone down."

1. ROUND TRIPS

The "EcoCab", a gas-powered vehicle that claims to produce 75 per cent less pollution than its diesel counterpart, ushered in the new millennium. But, 100 years ago, the electric cab had already tried to take on both the horse and the petrol engine. Walter C. Bersey launched his London Electrical Cab Company on August 19, 1897, having seen no future in the "constant vibration, objectionable odour and unavoidable heat and noise" of the petrol engine. At the time, the Hansom cab ruled London's streets and was, according to Disraeli, "the gondola of London". Bersey's electric cab (pictured) disappeared under the weight of its own battery and the Hansom under the sheer weight of motorised traffic. Hackney, from "haquenee", an ambling horse used to pull Elizabethan coaches; cab, from "cabriolet de place", a one-horse, two-passenger, ride introduced from Paris; and taxi, from taximeter, invented in 1891 by Wilhelm Bruhn: all three terms are still in use, while the vehicles they relate to are still evolving.

Bersey's Cab Company, Juxon Street, SE11

2. PUBLIC CARRIAGE

There is no age limit on drivers and, according to Bob Oddy, of the London Taxi Drivers Association, "there are a few guys working in their eighties". As for who drives, what is driven, how it is driven and how far it is driven, there are strict regulations, from doing the "knowledge" to setting tariffs. The Public Carriage Office was established in 1850 and the first driving tests were conducted by police on the former Hansom cab drivers who drove Bersey's electric cabs. Part of the test was to negotiate Savoy Hill, Central London's steepest. Back then, the famous turning circle had yet to be achieved, with the wheel taking up to 20 turns from lock to lock.

Public Carriage Office, 15 Penton Street, N1 3. THE BRAIN BEHIND THE WHEEL

"The grey matter volume in London taxi drivers is," according to a University College London study in 2000, "greater than in age-matched controls, and the size of this increase correlates positively with time spent taxi driving". The brain of the London taxi driver, though, could be getting smaller with a reduction in the number of routes included in the "Blue Book", the guide to the "knowledge". The 400 runs that formed the basis of a detailed knowledge of the metropolis within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross have been reduced to 320 to encourage more cabs. The rigorous test came into being after the poor knowledge of cabbies during the 1851 Great Exhibition. But the attitude of many of today's drivers can be traced to 1869, when the cab proprietor and driver John Cochran took pride in making tests "as strict as possible".

4. SHELTERED LIVES

"Many of my passengers," wrote Maurice Levinson in his 1963 book Taxi!, "have asked me what the inside of a cab shelter is like. Strangely, the inside of a cab shelter looks twice as large as it does outside." This mystical truth can be observed in some of London's 13 remaining shelters, each a listed building. The first, which was opened on February 6, 1875, in Acacia Road, St John's Wood, was inspired by a local resident, Captain G. C. Armstrong. "Temperance refreshments" and warmth at strategic locations would, he felt, encourage the availability and sobriety of drivers. Only the licensed trade is allowed inside shelters, but an exception was made earlier in the year for the Prince of Wales when he drank tea at the Hanover Square shelter during a reception for drivers. The rest of the time, as one driver says, it's "a place to swap stories and play practical jokes".

Examples of shelters: Russell Square, WC1; Hanover Square, W1; The Wharrie Shelter, Rosslyn Hill, NW3

5. UNDERPRIVILEGED PASSENGERS

In 1928, 12 London taxi drivers took a party of children from an orphanage to London Zoo, marking the beginning of a charity that celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2003. The London Taxi Drivers' Fund for Underprivileged Children has organised hundreds of outings for a wide range of children with special needs, although in the early days the children came mainly from workhouses, orphanages and homes. Apart from outings, such as the favourite taxi convoy to the coast, the Fund has raised Pounds 750,000 since 1980. Another annual event is the Paris Disneyland trip, organised by the Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers and involving 90 taxis and around 200 children.

www.ltfuc.org.uk

6. TAKING CABS

The average taxi clocks up 100,000 miles a year. On February 19, 1953, Michael Marriott set off across the Sahara in an 18-year-old Austin taxi called "Bertha".

The drive from Algiers to Kano in northern Nigeria was recorded in his book Desert Taxi -the gondola of London had become the ship of the desert. Almost 40 years later, in 1994, another London taxi provided the means to a world record when three Britons, Jeremy Levine, Mark Aylett and Carlos Arrese, travelled 21,691 miles from London to Cape Town and back again, making it the world's longest taxi ride. The fare of Pounds 40,210 was waived.

7. WOMEN DRIVERS

"Licences to act as Hackney carriage drivers are not granted to females," according to the Public Carriage Office of the early 20th century. The exception was the widow of a driver, who was able to take over her dead husband's licence.

In 1908, Sheila O'Neill (pictured), a former nurse, circumvented this policy by driving a cab in a semi-private capacity for businessmen. She mounted on the bonnet of her cab a small figure of a policeman, his upraised arm permanently ordering her to stop. There are now 350 women drivers of black cabs, less than 2 per cent of the total, although the Public Carriage Office says that there is an upward trend in the number of women drivers.

8. FROM DRINK-DRIVER TO TORCH-BEARER

One of the motivations behind cab shelters was to curb drivers' reputations for heavy drinking. Their reputation for business hadn't been much better, as witnessed by Mogg's 1844 postal district and cab fare map, which was praised by The Times because "it should make cabmen honest". On September 10, 1897, their reputation took another dent when a 25-year-old driver of an electric cab became the first motorist to be convicted of drink driving. Today, however, the reputation of cab drivers is such that in June Phil Davis drove the Olympic torch from Wandsworth to Windrush Square in Brixton as part of the Olympic Torch Relay.

Nick Barlay has written three London novels, Curvy Lovebox, Crumple Zone and Hooky Gear Next week: Hoteliers

Copyright (C) The Times, 2004

Another interesting story I found.

The Independent Sunday (London, England), Feb 29, 2004 p34
LONDON LIVES: Nothin' to grumble about; Taxi drivers - possibly the last people in London you'd expect to hear say `Can't complain' - have begun to recognise their good fortune, says ANDREW MARTIN. (Features) Andrew Martin.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2004 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.

Byline: ANDREW MARTIN

A few weeks ago, I flagged a taxi at 2am in Notting Hill. After I'd stated my destination, the driver looked at me in his mirror, and said: "Where've you been then?" "Party," I muttered. He stared at me for a little longer. "It's just that most people I pick up in Notting Hill at two o'clock have either been to a casino or a brothel," he said. "Is that so?" I replied. The driver continued to look at me with the utmost scepticism for the next 10 minutes.

Until 30 years ago, the back of a London taxi was blacked out, so cabbies haven't always been able to give you the evil eye in the rear-view mirror, because for a long time there wasn't one. But they've always been a rum lot. When I first came to London, having been brought up in York, I was actively scared of cabbies. They made me feel that they were the only true Londoners, and that I personally was a rather unwelcome guest. The whole business of flagging a taxi was intimidating, implying an emergency or at best a sudden change of plan, both of which seldom occur in York. Hailing a cab is not part of the culture of most provincial cities. The custom is to phone for a car, which is why mini-cab firms always aim to be first in the phonebook, which explains such otherwise unaccountable names as "Aardvark Taxis" or "AAAAAA Cars".

This even though there are plenty of "hackney carriages" outside London, by which I mean cars legally entitled to ply the streets for hire, by which I also mean "taxis" (the terms are interchangeable). The term "hackney carriage" originated in London of course, but it doesn't come from Hackney. A "hacquenee" is a French word meaning a horse for hire. Outside London they can look like anything. Inside London they look like fairly close relations of the sturdy, sombre four-wheeled carriages that were the archetypal London hackneys of the 19th century. They were nicknamed "growlers" because of the noise made by their iron wheels, and the diesel engines of today's taxis are still said to "growl", as are their drivers.

When I first came to London all taxi drivers, even the young ones, seemed to look old, which probably stemmed from my awareness of their being hedged about with ancient regulations and terminology, of which they were proud, but in a masochistic way. They were like the south's equivalent of miners: fiercely protective of their profession, but forever moaning about it.

In their fascinating little book, Taxi!, Simon Garner and Giles Stokoe suggest that the proper collective noun for taxi drivers would be a "grumble" and the grumbling reached a peak in 1998, when it became clear that London's mini-cabs, or private-hire cars, were to be licensed. Taxi drivers were frightened that this would put the mini-cab drivers (who do not have "the knowledge" of London) on a par with them, and they tended to collar their passengers, asking them where they stood on the matter while fixing them with the old rear-view stare. (It would be interesting to see the question asked of a passenger who was by profession one of the few remaining Thames boatman. The boatmen kicked up a fuss back in 1633 when a Captain Bailey set up the first ever cab rank, in The Strand. It was the beginning of the end for mass transit on the river.)

The licensing of the mini-cab drivers started a couple of years ago, but it was the next phase of the process, the licensing of the cars, that particularly bothered the taxi drivers. In recent years, mini-cabs have tended to display their company names on their vehicles which, the taxi drivers argue, tempts people to try to flag them down - that is, to treat them as hackneys. Well, under the licensing terms, announced earlier this year, this type of advertising will be banned, which is good news for taxi drivers, the only downside being that it leaves them with less to grumble about.

Another opportunity for grumbling arose last year when Ken Livingstone decided that the "conditions of fitness" of a hackney carriage should remain unchanged. Many drivers want them to be revised, especially as regards the requirement for a 25-foot turning circle. This would enable more manufacturers to begin producing London taxis, probably at lower prices than those charged by the two existing manufacturers. But at the time of writing Ken is reviewing his own decision, so it could still go the way that many of the drivers would like, leaving them with even less to 'ave the 'ump about.

Ken, and Transport for London, have been the bosses of the Public Carriage Office since 2000, taking over the role from the Metropolitan Police. Of course the taxi drivers didn't want Ken. Grumbled about him something rotten, they did, especially his plan for congestion charging. But a call on this subject to Bob Oddie, General Secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers' Association, reveals further remarkable mellowness. Of course, he started with a grumble: "Traffic's moving faster within the zone, which means the drivers are taking lower fares - but," Mr Oddie reluctantly conceded, "there's the possibility that, with traffic moving more freely, more fares will be picked up."

And I have yet more good news for drivers. Frederick Hitch, the only London taxi driver ever to be awarded the Victoria Cross, was recently commemorated with a blue plaque at his home, 62 Cranbrook Road, Chiswick. Hitch won the VC in 1878 at Rorke's Drift where, as the Zulus advanced, he is said to have shouted: "Here they come lads! Black as hell, and thick as grass!" I suppose political correctness frequently went by the board in that particular setting. m

Hear hear! I've always maintained 'we aint fick' in the smoke!

As for the PCO title being in the same line as the word 'brain' that could be subject to a lengthy debate.

This was relocated to St Johns Wood, opposite the Wellington Hospital during the 1940's, and is still in use to this day.

You will find a happy GBC stuffing his face in there late afternoons before going into battle.

Yes I have that on VHS, the odd copy pops up on e-bay, if anyones desperate for a copy PM me and I will pass it on.

100'000 a year ? My R reg has only covered 216'000 in just over 7 years!

Can't see me ever reaching those dizzy heights.

Change is'nt always for the better.

Hmm...so I take it that you weren't one of those practising the old rear-view stare on this issue Mr GBC?

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Thats certainly one thing i've never been worried about, the old 'taxee' crowd being on par with the trade.

Luckily the good old London public also realise that.

In fact my rear view is tilted away from their looks.