Cabbies' stories

Sunil*, 58, Chiswick, west London "It would be shameful for my family to know that one of their sons drives a minicab. I come from a wealthy -family in Sri Lanka – doctors, teachers, lawyers. Important people. My God! They would be humiliated. I’ve had prostitutes, transvestites, transsexuals, even a hermaphrodite in my car. You know what they do for a living because you pick them up from their home, take them to a hotel, wait for 40 minutes, take them home again. It doesn’t bother me particularly, not unless they have young children at home." *Not his real name Photograph: Steve Schofield

Sam Smee, 63, Sheringham, Norfolk. "I’ve never had anyone be sick in my car. Touch wood. Drunks don’t bother me – I was a sailor. The worst people you have are very young, drunk boys, 12- or 13-year-olds. If they’ve had a few pops on carnival night, they can be a problem" Photograph: Steve Schofield

Bill Mallett, 74, Brighton. "I picked up Rex Harrison once, and Charlton Heston’s wife. In the 80s I picked up a nice Arab gentleman at the Grand hotel one Christmas night and stayed with him for years. I went to -America with him, as a friend, all expenses paid" Photograph: Steve Schofield

Eimtiaz ‘Taz’ Hussain, 30, Newport, south Wales. "I’m earning only about £350 a week at the -moment. Newport council are putting pressure on us to buy new taxis ahead of the Ryder Cup [in October 2010], and we just can’t afford it, so we’re planning to take them to court. I’m still paying for the vehicle they said we had to buy in 2006, and now they’re telling us we have to get something else – all for an event that will last three days" Photograph: Steve Schofield

Brian Donahue, 68, Macclesfield. "A girl had a baby in my cab. I didn’t deliver the baby. The girl did it nearly all by herself in the back seat. I picked her up off the Moss -estate to take her to the hospital. She was doing the moaning of a woman in labour, but her boyfriend kept saying, 'You’ve got an hour, you’re all right.' I said, 'You haven’t, she’s having a baby'" Photograph: Steve Schofield

Frank Jarvie, 61, Inverness "I picked up a pregnant woman at 5am. She said, 'Get us to the hospital!' I drove fast, running red lights. As we got there she shouted, 'Stop! Stop!' I said, 'Are you having the baby now?' She said, 'No, I want a cigarette before I go in.'" Photograph: Martin Hunter

Jay Goodarzi, 50, Milton Keynes. "My favourite jobs are the country roads. You can blame Norman Wisdom for that. I grew up in Iran watching Norman Wisdom films. All my school-mates wanted to go to America, but for me it was always England. Tehran is extremely overcrowded – everywhere you look it’s just houses and cars – so when I see nice scenery, I really enjoy it" Photograph: Steve Schofield

Jeegisha Dinnall, 35, Nottingham. "Last October I set up Mums Taxis, a women-only cab company.I employ seven other women and we all work around our families, juggling driving with school hours. I was working for a voluntary organisation before this, helping vulnerable women who were victims of crime and domestic violence, so I knew there must be a lot of women out there who could benefit from a business like mine. We also get lots of parents on account who feel safer knowing their children are being picked up by women. I was able to comfort one women recently about her PMT – how many male cabbies could do that?" Photograph: Steve Schofield

Jim Curran, 48, Belfast. "During the Troubles the worst experience was taking a reporter to the scene of the Omagh bomb in August 1998. We got there within an hour of the explosion. I will never forget the scenes of devastation, and the pub tables lying in the street near the bomb, which I later found out had been used as make-shift stretchers for the dead and wounded. I’m so glad the Troubles seem over for good." Photograph: Kelvin Boyes/Press Eye

Emily-Jo Sedgwick, 40, Veryan, Cornwall. "Most of my customers are locals, so I get to hear a lot of the gossip. People see me as a confidante. They know they can trust me. Once somebody’s husband turned up on my doorstep and began asking -questions: “You took my wife to the airport, didn’t you? Who else did you pick up?” I’d taken this woman to the airport to pick up her lover. I told her husband that under the data -protection act I couldn’t reveal anything" Photograph: Steve Schofield

Martin Holloway, 45, Hull "Last time I did a job on Preston Road, I picked up five girls and they got out in town. They didn’t have any money and four of them had gone into the club and the other one was trying to get cash out of the machine. They knew what they were doing. She said, “I can’t give you any money cos it won’t give me none.” So I took her phone off her, then she gave me grief. So I put her phone on the floor and ran it over with my two-tonne van" Photograph: Steve Schofield

Mohammed Fazal, 50, Birmingham. "I picked up four men in Birmingham city centre at two in the morning. Looking back, I can see they were trying to go to a quiet place where they could rob me. They had hoods up and their faces were mostly -covered. I drove them to an address in Highgate and pulled over. One of them had a knife and he reached through the partition and stabbed me in the left shoulder. Then he cut the wire to my walkie-talkie, grabbed some money and ran off. After that, I decided I’d never work nights again" Photograph: Steve Schofield

Ashraf Hussain, 37, Leeds. "The initial thrill of driving all over the place has gone, but I like the life. You let a stranger into your life for, say, a trip to London, and they open up. You learn a lot – I’ve had some long drives to the Lake District with a philosophy of science professor, and you take it all in" Photograph: Christopher Thomond

Barkat Hussain, 39, Banbury "They’re nice people around here – 99% are good customers. But I did once have a bad customer – well, two. I picked them up at Banbury station, they were -really nice to me. It was late, about 11, and they said they wanted to go to Oxford. We drove past a police van – if I’d had any feeling about them I’d have stopped. When we got to their destination, which was in a dead end, the one in the back seat put a knife to my throat. Mugged me – took my takings and my phone. It didn’t put me off driving, though" Photograph: Steve Schofield