For twenty years I’ve grafted out a living by driving, twenty years of slogging it out in traffic jams.

 Prior to taxiing I was a White Van Man, a profession which is probably one of the most hated road users behind BMW drivers.

From my own experiences the White Van Man is probably one of the most skilled drivers there are. Think about it; they earn their living on the roads, spending hours upon hours driving around clogged up cities, most of the time running on deadlines and they can ill afford to dilly dally about at busy junctions.

If I was short on time driving around the city, I’d rather be behind White Van Man than School Run Mum, that’s for sure. Time is money and all that.

They won’t seem skilled to the casual road users, rather they’ll seem abrupt and bullish for pulling out into the smallest of gaps in traffic, or blocking lanes off when attempting a right hand turn.

These manoeuvres are usually executed with precision timing and accuracy by the White Van Man, and rarely have I seen one cause a danger to other road users while pulling off the manoeuvres.

The dangers I have seen have mostly been down to the selfish car drivers who speed up to fill up any potential gaps in the traffic, solely for the purpose of preventing the vans from pulling in or out and getting on with their job.

In contrast to the selfish car driver, if you’re observant enough you will notice camaraderie among van drivers and other drivers who do their graft on the roads. It’s as if there’s an unwritten rule of courtesy between them, it’s almost like instinct. Just look out for it the next time you’re out, watch and I’m sure you’ll notice how they let each other in & out of traffic despite probably never even setting eyes on each other before.

I’m pleased to say that since starting the taxi day shift I’ve noticed how the White Van Man has extended that courtesy & instinct of helping their fellow road grafters, to Black Cab drivers too.

 Honestly, in the past few weeks I’ve been given the flash of lights or nod of head by the van man so many times, while I’ve been struggling to get out of a busy junction.

That courtesy and instinct I will be offering back to them in future and I hope other road users did so too. Why should I? I hear you think, well, because... one day you’ll be their deadline job that they’re struggling to get to because of the traffic.

Oh I almost forgot, among all the trades that do their graft by driving there’s one that very few White Van Men will let out. Any ideas? Yep, absolutely correct... The Bus Driver!

 Nothing against bus drivers, it’s just that no van driver with a deadline will let out a vehicle that is certain to stop every few hundred yards or so, will they?

How’s this for true love?

Picked up a flag down on New Hall Lane; a young couple they were, wanting to go to Bamber Bridge.

I asked them what they were going there for, and they said to see about getting tattoos.

So I asked them what they were thinking of getting done, and they said each other’s name.

The lady was called Chelsea & the man was called Aaron.

I asked how long they’d been together and they replied... “Eight months”!

Now that is commitment to each other, isn’t it?

How sweet, they certainly did look a happy couple and I wish the all the best.

(I did ask if they’d mind me telling this story, names included and they both were quite happy for me to do so)

I got a cracker of a job today I’ll tell you.

While all my colleagues were getting Frenchwoods and Avenhams, which are basically sub £3 jobs, I got a whopping big job to the back of beyond, a place called Winmarleigh, heard of it? Well it’s near Garstang.

What happened was, I’m there number one on the taxi rank and this young lad approaches with a suitcase. Now suitcases are a good sign, anyone with a suitcase could be going anywhere and they do more often than not prove to be a distance job, i.e, out of town.

Anyway, this young lad stops outside my cab and asks if I know where Winmarleigh Hall is. To be honest I wasn’t quite sure and the mention of Hall made me think of student accommodation.

 So I asked if it was student halls here at the University. He replied that it wasn’t student halls but rather a former stately home in the country.

As soon as I heard “in the country” I grabbed his suitcase, chucked it into the cab and said “get in, we’ll find it!”

I wasn’t letting this one slip no way; all it would’ve took is for some old dear to come to the cab while I’m discussing the possible whereabouts of Winmarleigh Hall with the potential customer and the jobs gone. I’d have to take the old dear and let Mr Long distance job catch the cab behind. I wasn’t going to let that happen.

Anyway, I got him in the cab, had a look in my map and to my delight the place was in the back of beyond...in the countryside.

Oh yeah, the countryside, and beautiful countryside at that. I was getting paid for a leisurely drive in the country, fantastic.

Anyway, the customer told me the old Hall is now an adventure holiday place for kids, you know, rock climbing, abseiling and the like.  The young chap was going there to start a new job as like a Red Coat that you get at Butlins etc.

One the way back to Preston I stopped to take some snaps of WInmarleigh which I’m sharing with you here.

I’m really enjoying working days at present; even though the money isn’t as good as nights it has still been worth doing. I mean, I even got sunburned today, how about that?  The last time I saw enough sun to get a slightly darker shade of white on my chops was like three years ago.

On top of the fact that I’m seeing a bit more sunlight, you’ve got the comedy factor that the day shift brings. Seriously, it can be hilarious!

Picture the scene; you’re sat there on the rank opposite the Bus Station watching a manner of all shapes and sizes of people trying to scale the 4FT odd fence.

Honestly it’s fantastic. So far I’ve seen a young guy try to scale it in one leap, only for his trailing sports bag to snag the fence causing him to slam back into it face first.

Then there was the young lady who lobbed one leg over the rail only to get stuck while trying to bunk over, thankfully she had tights on.  She persevered by trying her other leg first but got stuck again, so she tried again and again and again. Honestly, she could’ve walked the subway to the station in half the time it took her to succeed.

The best one of the lot was the very drunk guy who approached the fence; he tossed his bag over it and then started the climb over. This was hilarious. After several attempts he managed to get one leg over and he was sat on top of the narrow rail horse riding style. Just by the look on his face you could see he was in discomfort and he was swaying away on top of the fence. He was hammered, that was obvious.

Anyhow, he made it over but what a calamity it was, it was brilliant entertainment and if it was captured on video the footage wouldn’t be out of place on You’ve Been Framed.

The fence climbing entertainment looks like a thing of the past now, due to the Council erecting some cheap taller fencing to prevent people from crossing the Bus Station apron.

But will the new 6FT odd fence really prevent people making the dangerous short cut?

Well to answer my own question,... will it heckers like.

No, already people are climbing over the new fencing and I’ve got a picture to prove it. 

The new fence.

Someone leaping it.

Working the day-shift the majority of my jobs have been to the fare flung places such as Avenham, Frencwood and Deepdale.

But today I got a run of cracking jobs, with the best being the Lea return.

Let me tell you about it...

Imagine the situation. The main rank is full so I go and try out the new rank on Lancaster Rd.

Now this rank can be really hit and miss, but today it proved just fine for me.

The other drivers have named the new rank as the Pie Rank due to there being a Bakery right next to It., which can be pretty tempting for the ‘rounder’ cabbie.

Anyway, as soon as I parked up on there I was approached by a couple of females who wanted to go to Lea and back to town in as quick as time as possible.

I asked them what the problem was and they replied that the younger of the two had her Theory Driving Test in an hour’s time, but she couldn’t sit it without showing her paper version of her provincial licence to the test centre. Unfortunately for her, she’d forgotten to take it out with her, hence needing to go home to Lea.

Oh Dear.

So I asked... You’re in a rush, right? Get your seatbelts on and we’ll be back in no time.

The agitated pair soon relaxed when I reached Lea with a full 45 minutes to spare before the student’s 3PM test time.

The Journey back to town was less rushed, so I dropped off a very calm young lady at Guildhall Street ready to sit her Theory Test.

I hope she passed, I really do.

I write this with a tear in my eye.

Today I picked up a group of people who had been to a funeral but I didn’t realise this fact until the end of the journey.

 Their destination was near to my old secondary school St John Fishers.

In order to break the ice I told them that I went to the near-bye secondary school, and asked if they did also.

 One of the group asked what age I was, so I told them that I was 37 years old.

 She then asked if I knew her relative John Stanton who went to the same school in the same era as me.

I replied that I knew Stanny from school,( he was in the same class as me), and that I had him in my cab just a few weeks ago.

I was about to get a shock.

She replied back that they had just been to Stanny’s funeral.

That bit of information put a dampener on my day.

Since leaving school I only saw Stanny a handful of times, and like I said the last time I saw him  was a few weeks ago when he hired my cab.  

Rest In Peace John, you were loved by all from the class of 88!

The opinion among some of the cabbies is that the County Council election results couldn’t have been better for commuters and motorists alike.

It has to be said that under the Labour controlled council we have seen ever worsening congestion and road conditions in Preston.

Over the past two years I’ve wrote about terrible traffic lights, pot hole laden roads, speed humps akin to a roller coaster ride and many other examples of poor traffic management. Not to mention the brick wall we faced as a taxi union when asking for new ranks and other improvements for our trade and its customers.

 What used to happen under a Labour LCC is that we would get our proposals passed by the city council only for the county council to say a big fat NO to them.

For example the chairman of the Preston Hackney Carriage Association said “that the change in the political make-up at Lancashire County Council could revive plans to set up feeder ranks at nearby Charnley Street and Theatre Street, which had been faced with objections by the previous Labour administration.”

The incoming councillors, especially the aptly named Mr Driver, will be a breath of fresh air for motorists in the region, and rest assured the relationship between the city and county councils will improve immensely with bridges being built over the brick wall that Councillors Harding & Tomlinson built.

As always, the above is my opinion based on how I’ve interpreted what I’ve read in the local press.