Ups and downs of life as a taxi driver

EARLIER this month, a Volvo driver pulled into a line of stationary Brighton taxis and became irate when they did not move when the lights changed to green.

The amusing scene unfolded outside Brighton Station: the city council was rebuilding the taxi rank and it was temporarily moved to the side of Terminus Road – leading to the driver’s confusion.

A bemused spectator said: “I walked past and somehow the man ended up in between the taxis. He thought he was in a traffic jam.

“There are traffic lights just in front of the taxis to the right and so every time the lights went green he would start beeping at them for not moving. While I was there the traffic lights went green three times.”

In 1936. a photographer captured a smart display of Streamline taxi cabs, complete with drivers in caps and white gloves, lining the seafront along Madeira Drive.

More than 30 years later Southern taxi cabs looked equally as smart when cabbies lined up by their cars in the 1960s.

Well-known Brighton driver Tony Dean also posed with his Ford for an iconic snap outside The Grand hotel in 1986. There is also a memorable picture depicting the female drivers of Lady Penelope Cabs in 1990 in a stormy setting.

More comic scenes include three people dressed as skeletons at the Fiveways taxi rank in 1985. But the stunt carried a serious message – highlighted in another picture where a skeleton sits at the wheel of a taxi, protesting at the lack of business.

Taxi protests were rife in the late 2000s. In November 2008, Brighton taxi drivers gathered to campaign outside Brighton station in support of cabbie Graham Kinsey, who was given a £60 ticket and three points on his licence by police for obstructing the pavement while he was queuing to get into the station.

In March 2009, taxi drivers blocked a road with a drive-through protest in Eastbourne against the council’s decision to reduce the number of Hackney carriage plates.