By Andrew Carter

One of the great joys of driving a Private Hire vehicle is the variety of stories that sit in your car. Not everyone wants to talk to you, but the majority do, and that makes the miles go past quickly for both cabbie and fare alike. Golden rules for the driver have to be: to be discrete (so no secrets here, I’m sorry!) – the fare paying passenger has to be able to assume confidentiality; to let the passenger initiate and lead any discussion threads; but most of all just to listen. A few polite queries at the beginning of a trip will soon establish who wants to talk, who wants to sleep, who likes the sound of silence, and which is the odd one who’s just too angry or preoccupied from whatever he or she has just been doing to be able to hold a civilised conversation (and yes, have had a couple of those in the car recently).

People want to talk about all sorts of things: work, weather, local customs and politics, sport, the headlines and maybe even their life story. Most certainly people want to talk about their children (a favourite topic) and things outside of work. Others have holiday tales to tell (these are fun), or even business stories. I’ve even been asked my advice once or twice. Occasionally one has the opportunity to air views and opinions of one’s own, and every so often a testimony or life story of my own is called for.

I used to wonder how a taxi driver could have become the first ‘Mastermind’ on UK television back in the seventies – I now know two key reasons for this: the first is that you never know, Mr Passenger, who is behind the wheel – he or she could have a Masters degree, they could have a second job as a teacher – who knows?; the second is that a taxi driver listens to a lot of different opinions, facts and ideas during a normal day’s work – and anyone with a slightly absorbent brain is bound to accumulate what computers would call data, but what we would call ‘knowledge’! They say, don’t they, that we have one mouth but two ears, and we should use them in the same proportion. So to the taxi driver reading this – LISTEN! To my next passenger – go ahead and chat, get it off your chest, even - I’m listening!

Andrew operates a private hire vehicle in South Wiltshire, UK, specialising in airport transfer work, for more information on the services offered visit the Ethical Taxi website.

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