Tuesday, May 30

Numbers

A driver’s number or call sign can be very important to him; some drivers want their lucky number or a number that means something to them. This leads to drivers trading numbers and even in some cases swapping firms if they can’t get the number they want. One of our drivers swapped from number sixty-one to number fourteen because he said "it was too many syllables in sixty-one to say on the radio." You will find that not many taxi firms have a driver thirteen; I guess we are a superstitious lot, but round here thirteen is reserved for a call for help. So if you hear your driver shouting for a thirteen and giving his location you know that you have spooked him and that you will be surrounded by twenty bloodthirsty cabbies within minutes.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

with our company, if your in trouble, you put a "1" in front of your number when giving your location. one of our drivers had to use it last month...within 2 minutes I counted 8 cabs that swarmed his location, when I arrived (less than a minute) the troublemaker was laying in a puddle!

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you enjoyed the story. 16 Storey Square. If you could get a couple of pictures I would be grateful. We lived there in the early 50s and I was born there. I don't even know if it still stands. It was the end unit of a block of row houses. Thanks in advance!

bob mullen said...

Len if you send me a blank mail to m5rag@yahoo.co.uk I will send the pics direct back to you.