Taxi Driver
Self-employed

Gary C, Taxi Driver

0:02 My name’s Gary and I’m a Taxi Driver. I learn loads from all sorts of people I get in my car. If I have a question about anything, you can guarantee I keep that in the front of my head and as soon as I get somebody in, I’ll get my answers to the question, so I love my job in that respect. I don’t like the driving part of my job unfortunately.

00:29 I grew up in Canada. I spent most of my childhood bringing myself up ‘cos my parents were always working and that, you know. I mean at one point, my father had three jobs to keep us above water, you know.

00:42 I was very resourceful as a child to make money, very resourceful. Three paper rounds, doing odds and ends for people, you know, things like that.

00:51 The majority of my schooling was in Canada. I came over here when I was a 15 year old and my parents both moved back here and got divorced at the same time so it took me a few years to recover from that. A very traumatic time in my life it was, 15, moving countries. I mean I stayed with my father for a bit then I stayed with my mother and other members of family ‘cos I’ve got loads of family over here.

01:18 And I just wandered for quite a while actually from pillar to post. I just couldn’t settle, and then I met my wife and then now I just don’t foreseeing me moving at all. I’ll be quite happy to live in the house I live in now for the rest of my life, you know. I’ve gone in the opposite direction now.

01:30 I’ve done a few little odds and ends, you know. In my younger years, you know, kitchen work, you know, building work, you know, and things like that but it was my wife who pushed me into being a taxi driver. Yeah.

01:48 So I work six nights a week so my days are free. Monday morning I’m up for college, I’m usually up about six o’clock in the morning, and that’s my only night off but I do it ‘cos I enjoy learning. I think most people just get stuck in their ways and they’re never open to new experiences, and I like to try my hand at everything.

02:10 I’ve got qualifications in IT, I’ve done a diving qualification and I’m doing a cookery qualification now. I mean I like to keep my options open. I don’t want to be a taxi driver forever. To be able to move on, you have to learn, you learn, that’s what life’s about, learning. You learn, you pass that knowledge on and that’s the cycle of life I think.

02:35 Well I overcame my fear of water by doing a diving course, you know, that was quite an achievement, you know. I’ve never really used it since then but I only did it to overcome a fear of water so to go like, and my deepest dive was 16 metres. That’s quite an achievement, and I have asthma so I have breathing difficulties as well so that’s got to be my proudest moment I think. Yeah.

03:04 My fantasy in the future, my dreams would be a job that has a fixed income, holiday pay, sick pay and some job satisfaction. I’m leaning towards kitchen work, cheffing and things like that. I enjoy kitchens. I think a job’s got to keep you motivated, be always changing, you know, you have to always be learning in your job. I think I’ve learnt about as much as I can in taxi driving. I will work on this qualification and next year, I’ll do my Level 3 as well and just see where it goes from there and then apply for jobs off the internet and see if I can get my foot in the door.