Andy Peters Brighton & Hove Cab Trade Association info@bhcta.co.uk www.bhcta.co.uk


I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry


Having taken my new replacement taxi to have the CCTV and meter to be fitted at Radio Relay in Lewes after they stripped it out of the retired taxi, I was given some quite shocking news.


I was told that my MR400 Cygnus meter was the same age as the engineer who was fitting it, being twenty- three years old. I had purchased that new way back then, along with a couple of spare ones just in case, having previously had an MR100, then an MR300 and a Lucas one many years before. There were a couple of Bell Punch meters still being used when I started! But it really got me thinking whilst I was sitting there waiting for the work to be done, I would never have imagined that the taxi/PH trade would be so chaotic and trashed as it is now compared to when I started forty-years ago, let alone just twenty-three.


I know things change, but usually in a progressive way, but that’s not the way it’s turned out, is it? I certainly now wish I’d gone forward into an electrical career when I was in my forties that I never got around to pursuing, rather than at times earning less than the minimum wage. Hindsight, as they say, is a wonderful thing.


Experience matters


It’s been a long time since I had any altercation in my taxi with a customer as I’ve never given a reason for any issue to occur. However, I suppose it was time to have one.


I got a job to pick-up at a pub. Normally I don’t take pub jobs but this particular pub has never been any issue. I did the call back (thank goodness we no longer have to go into pubs and shout: ‘Taxi for John!’ whilst trying to look through the thick cigarette smog, and then seeing that customer sitting there with a freshly ordered pint) and the landlord gave a wave through the window. That should have been my first clue as when the landlord orders the cab there is usually a good reason.


I could see an old boy and a younger woman supping up where the landlord was standing over them and


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they eventually got up to leave. The old boy came out and got in the back and the woman a few moments later and she sat in the front.


At this point all was well and I asked them where they wanted to go, got the address and headed off.


It was then she started moaning about Ukraine and how much money we were giving them. Her mumblings revealed that they had been ejected from the pub because she was not allowed to “…express her views..”. I could fully understand why she was thrown out by the vile language she was now using. I then found out that they had been ejected from a taxi going to the pub earlier on and she was very foul about that as well. That was another clue.


She then asked me, well mumbled, what I thought about Ukraine and “….the millions we were giving them..” whilst using extreme profanity in the process. I said very politely and with humour: “I just drive a taxi, getting people from A to B, and I don’t have any political views or get into such discussions”. I really was quite jokey about it.


She didn’t quite like that and kept pushing me for an answer, and again I politely and with humour repeated what I had previously stated. She carried on with her loud profanity and then starting hitting me on my shoulder, albeit gently, but in a very distracting way, trying to push me into the conversation. So, I very politely and with humour, asked her to stop hitting me as I was driving.


At that point she exploded! She screamed in my face that I was accusing her of hitting me, and went on and on! I had no choice but to pull over being very glad that the CCTV was running with audio right from the start of the journey. I told her very politely that the CCTV was on and was recording everything that was happening. She told me she didn’t care and continued to scream at me, denying she was hitting me. The old boy in the back had not said a word up until that point but then told her to behave herself.


She was clearly out of control and I would say by the state of her eyes had taken more than alcohol and opened the door a couple of times to get out, then closed the door again and continued to scream at me. Keep in mind that we are probably less than foot away from facing each other - I could feel the spit!


In the old days I would have had no hesitation in leaping out of the car and dashing round to the


APRIL 2025 PHTM


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