Things that taxi drivers have said to you

Inspired by someone else saying a taxi driver said a different thing to them.

A taxi driver once angrily said “I would set that woman on fire” to me about Heather Mills, I didn’t like it or him.

What have taxi drivers said to you?

Had a Turkish taxi driver very passionately tell me that the Scottish people were idiots because they could have had their independence without a single bullet being fired.

I smiled and nodded.

He’s right tbf to the lad

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One made me guess how many people worked at the parkhead steel forge (which existed decades ago).

“Guess how many people used to work there.”
“No idea mate.”
“Have a guess though.”
“I honestly don’t have a clue, could be anything.”
“Aye, but guess.”
“I don’t know… 800?”
“40,000*”
“Oh right.”

*can’t remember if it was this number, was definitely a really large number though. I should have answered 6 million to make anything he came out with seem paltry in comparison.

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That sounds like classic taxi patter, thanks for your example.

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Thankfully I’ve managed to dodge unsavory conversations with taxi drivers. One driver, when I told him I worked with international students, decided to go on and on about how he used to live next to a Chinese couple and they were SO SO GREAT. Alright, come down.

Best taxi encounter was when it transpired by taxi driver used to drum for Boredoms :smiley:

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Should stress that this thread is not chiefly for unsavoury conversations. Contributions about good taxi chats are welcome, and frankly, encouraged!

Something to the tune of ‘Black people are better at sport because they’ve been slaves for so long and their bodies are more used to it’

A few weeks back i taxi driver told me he couldn’t believe that they hadn’t made a thundercats movie and then proceeded to talk about the various characters ‘aye so how could a move caharcter would mumm ra make…?!’
This went on from the minute he picked me up at my flat till he dropped me off, about 15 mins of thundercats the movie chat :slight_smile:

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What? Was he having a stroke?

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i was just invoking the style of our very own PO

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I used to get very, very drunk when I was younger and the taxi ride back from town would take about 20-30 minutes. Young, drunk impassioned me would get into deep debates with every driver about politics and the wars of the time. I cringe a bit thinking of it now.

Now mostly talk about the weather or the traffic.

I remember getting an Uber with a mate and the driver was Romanian. We asked him about life there, and he started telling us all about life under Nicolae Ceaușescu and how he was involved in the uprisings in 1989. We both fell asleep and I remember feeling terrible about it for days. Kept picturing him in full flow, and then turning around and these pissed up English pricks have passed out as he ferries them across London for tuppence.

:grimacing:

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I was reading about the speech where everyone turned on Ceaușescu live on telly this morning!

I have asked them where they are from on several occasions to ascertain if they have traveled along way to pick me up or live in the area, so we can both find common ground on complaining about road works or new developments in the area. However I have stopped this because it has made it awkward when they ask ‘where I live or where am I from?’
(In retrospect I should just ask where they live thus making it clear)

“Would you like to get to know me better” when I was 19 and drunk and getting a taxi because there’d been so many rapes recently. Oh and this was after I’d given him my exact address, of course. GBOL.

Fucking hell. This is all the worse given the prevalence of advertising for licensed cabs to avoid this exact sort of thing (which in and of itself is a dreadful thing to even need to advertise)

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This happens loads

I can (literally) only imagine. Is there any kind of jurisdiction from the transport police over cabs?