ALAN English’s career path started when told by his father to work for him, driving a taxi in Albury.
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Then 17, the soon-to-be cabbie asked about wages.
“He said, ‘Didn’t say anything about paying you, just drive it’,” Mr English recalled.
Sixty-seven years later, Mr English has only now hit the brake, retiring as a taxi driver recently, at the age of 84.
Some ongoing health concerns have finally ended a professional life behind the wheel, in both truck and taxi, with several stints beyond the Border, including the Sunshine Coast.
“I had to make a decision, my licence was due for renewal on January 5 next year, which was just around the corner,” he said.
“I was doing the early morning, 2am to 8am, six hours, just three days a week, but I don’t do anything now.”
These later shifts seem a little less fraught than some of his earlier experiences, like the drug-runner on his way to Melbourne, the passenger who abducted an orphanage girl or the time 10 soldiers piled into his taxi.
Once a jockey from the Albury Cup got a lift to Craigieburn, 25 pounds’ worth back then, and went into his house to get Mr English the fare payment.
When nobody returned, the taxi driver knocked on the door and asked about his passenger.
“Oh, not another one … he doesn’t live here, he goes over the back fence here,” was the response.
“I drove home and Dad said, ‘Good experience, you don’t get paid and neither do I’,” Mr English said.
The veteran said driving a taxi could bring in reasonable money, “if you’re prepared to do the hours”.
“People in Albury are spoilt rotten, they ring for a taxi and if they can’t get it in five minutes, they’re ringing again,” he said.
“I enjoyed it, the company, I knew everybody, that’s how I met my wife Wendy, she’s been driving cabs just on 30 years too.”
Over the decades he’s managed to avoid serious taxi accidents or threatening situations.
“The only ones getting dangerous are probably the ones with big mouths, yap, yap,” he said. “They want a bit of a chat, but don’t get involved in their private life or their own personal problems, just say, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’m sorry about that’. I just survive, and as I got older I got better, I think, at it.
“Shut your mouth and drive the cab, simple as that.”
