Taxi Driver Online

Cabbie hangs up keys after 50 years behind the wheel

Council honours long-serving taxi driver with special achievement award.

Birmingham cabbie Greg Caulwell is taking a well-earned back seat at last – after nearly half a century of ferrying passengers around the city.

Greg, 68, is calling it a day after working as a TOA taxi driver since the mid-60s.

During that time, cab highlights have included helping save the life of a heart attack victim by rushing him to hospital, ferrying BAFTA award-winning actor Edward Fox around the city – and making journeys to Buckingham Palace.

Now Birmingham City Council marked the end of the road for the cabbie by presenting him with a special Long Service Achievement Certificate.

Greg, from Oldbury, has been a cabbie since 1967, when he first became a driver at TOA Taxis, paying half a crown – or the equivalent of around 12 pence today – for a licensing fee. Today the fee costs £250 a year.

He bought his first taxi, an Austin, in 1972, when road tax was around £12 per year. When he first started, there were only 175 black cabs in Birmingham – today there are around 1,400.


Greg Caulwell with his first self-owned taxi, an Austin, in 1972. Greg Caulwell with his first self-owned taxi, an Austin, in 1972.

The veteran cabbie said: “I am going to have a good rest for the time being, but my wife says she has plenty of jobs lined up for me around the house and garden.

“I have no regrets and have enjoyed every last minute of taking the good people of Birmingham around this great city.”

Councillor Barbara Dring, chair of Licencing and Public Protection at Birmingham City Council, said: “I am very happy to have had the opportunity to thank Greg Caulwell for the contribution that he has made over 46 years. Taxi-drivers are self-employed, so when they retire they don’t have an employer to mark the occasion for them. I hope that by introducing these certificates Birmingham can recognise all their hard work"

Greg still owns his original driver’s badge and by-laws handbook from 1967.

source: http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/lo ... es-3196690

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