He's got real drive

IN his working life, Tony Baker reckons he's travelled more than a million miles. And he's not even a frequent flyer.

Every inch of that epic distance was covered in his York taxi, licence plate Cab 1. During 26 years with city firm Fleetways he reckons he's been around York 175,000 times. He's picked up thousands of fares, delivered countless drunks home safely, been in danger of being mugged a few times and been bought a drink by TV star Anneka Rice once.

Like most taxi drivers, who can calculate the quickest route between any two points without a second thought, Tony has an excellent memory. But he has more than road maps stored up top - he has stories.

Now, thanks to his friendship with retired professor Peter Birchenall, these have been written up in a book: Cab 1 - tales from the life of a York taxi driver.

"I used to say to people, 'It's all going in the black book'," Tony said. "Some people might just recognise themselves. We had to be careful, we don't want to offend anybody."

Peter has protected the identity of all Tony's fares in the book. That will be a relief to the woman "from one of York's leading families" who booked a return trip to London 29 years ago for a tryst with a married man.

And Tony is careful not to name the Bradford City player who displayed typical footballer perspicacity on the trip from the railway station to York City's Bootham Crescent ground.

"This bloke said to me, ''Ere, John, what's the name of that castle, then?'," recalled Tony. "I said, 'It's not a castle it's York Minster'."

The best thing about the job of a taxi driver is the people, he said. "The worst thing - drink and drugs: certainly drink."

From merry widows to roaring racegoers, he's delivered every sort of reveller safely home. One New Year's Eve he had to fend off first a volley of obscenities then a huge bear hug from his front seat passenger.

That was not the only time Tony has found himself declining amorous advances. One night he was asked for help by a man whose car had left the road and slipped into a ditch.

Even after Tony's taxi had towed the car back onto the highway, it wouldn't start. So he was asked to take the man's girlfriend home to Heslington Lane.

On arrival, she paid the fare and then said, with a twinkle in her eye: "Do you want to come in for a bit?"

"A bit of what?" asked Tony. "Use your imagination," he was told. The happily married taxi driver made his excuses and left.

Then there was the time he went to pick up a fare from the Grand Opera House which was hosting the musical Five Guys Called Mo.

"I went in and shouted, 'Has anyone seen five gays called Mo?'"

Luckily, they saw the funny side.

There are other risks associated with the isolation of the cabbie. They are an easy target for the mugger. He once escaped a gang of thieves in Leeds only because he overheard their plan to rob him.

Tony still lives with the pain caused by his most violent fare. He picked up the man - wearing a suit but no shoes - from outside the accident and emergency department of York Hospital.

On the way to the railway station the man grabbed Tony's left arm, dragging it back over the driver's seat. "He took hold of his hair with the other hand, pulling his head back, causing the taxi to swerve violently into the kerb, stalling the engine," writes Peter in Cab 1.

Only the assistance of another driver prevented Tony sustaining a worse injury than a wrenched shoulder. Giving a statement at York police station later, he learnt his assailant had a long record for violence and armed robbery.

There are happier recollections in the book to contrast with this dark tale. Many involve unusual deliveries - such as a crate of live chickens - or Tony's unofficial occupation as tourist guide. On one occasion, he drove a woman around all the abbeys of North Yorkshire.

And he regularly wangled fully-paid day-trips across the moors. "I have talked them into it, mate," he said with a grin. "One Saturday morning, I went to a hotel and picked up this American couple.

"They were going to a car hire place in Layerthorpe. He told me, 'We're going off on a drive over the Moors to Whitby', so I said, 'How much is that going to cost you?'"

Within seconds, he'd done the deal: ninety quid for the day, with him as chauffeur and unofficial tour guide.

His long and mostly happy journey with Fleetways ended with retirement in 2000. Before it began, he had worked in factories and sold insurance door-to-door in London.

His brother David was a cabbie in York, where their mother was from, and he persuaded Tony to leave the capital and do the same.

It took him months to learn the local knowledge, but once Fleetways assigned him the call sign Jet his adventures began.

Now retired, Tony, 67, says he does not miss the driving. He wouldn't go back even if you bought him his favourite motor, a Maxi - "a good reliable car, apart from the fact it was made of British racing rust".

"I think the traffic's doubled," he said. "It's fair to say you could do roughly three jobs an hour when I joined. When I finished, if you were doing two you were doing well."

He met Peter, 60, in the swimming pool at Courtney's gym. Peter had also retired, from a career which had taken him from Ripon and York St John college to be professor of nursing and health studies at Lincoln University.

They got talking and Peter found himself fascinated by the taxi tales. Soon he had arranged to record them. "Tony's a natural story-teller," he said. "He talked into this tape recorder and never stopped."

It took hours to transcribe the ten sides of cassette tape, and then Peter used his editing skills, honed on academic journals and volumes, to produce a very different book.

"I have seen the inside of the taxi driver's world," Peter said. "It's certainly different. I have got a terrific respect for them."

He is now working on the follow up, called Cab 2, naturally, which will take in other drivers' tales and "give the female perspective".

Tony, meanwhile, is still full of stories. "I have made 175,000 journeys around the city of York in 26 years. I have seen people get married, have children, and then seen their children get married.

"And, I have met some really interesting people."

Cab 1: tales from the life of a York taxi driver by Peter Birchenall is published by Reading Room Books, price £5.95. It is available at the Barbican Bookshop, Fossgate, York, Towler's Newsagents, Easingwold, or from the website: www.readingroompublishing.com

Updated: 10:35 Thursday, March 06, 2003