A day in the life of an Edinburgh black cab driver: 'I’m a sociable person and I just love talking to people'

Black cab driver Norrie Lewis, 55, recalls his time plying the taxi trade in the Capital. Here’s a day in his life:
Black cab driver Norrie Lewis, 55, recalls his time plying the taxi trade in the Capital.Black cab driver Norrie Lewis, 55, recalls his time plying the taxi trade in the Capital.
Black cab driver Norrie Lewis, 55, recalls his time plying the taxi trade in the Capital.

“It was a Saturday night after Scotland vs England in the Six Nations and I got flagged down at the lights by Craigmillar Park. One boy swung open the door and pointed to four of his pals on the other side of the road. As they battled through the traffic towards the taxi, I realised they are built like fridges, the taxi almost starts scraping on the ground as they try to get in. There was an almighty struggle and as I look into my rear view mirror, I’m thinking these boys are taking the mickey, and I then see a leg flash across the mirror.. I said in disbelief what is going on here?! One of the lads, in fits of laughter, then explains they’ve just pulled the fake leg off of one of their pals whilst trying to get him to fit into the taxi. I guess you could say that the lads were legless in both meanings of the word.

“I started with the taxis because I wanted to come off the lorries. On the lorries I would spend six weeks away from home and only four or five days at home. I’d travelled all across Europe but it was really tough being away from home especially since we had a young family.

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“When at home I attended the night classes at Boroughmuir High School which is where most folk used to go to become a cabbie in Edinburgh.

“As well as studying you had to practice driving the Edinburgh routes and getting the hours in. Edinburgh is a notoriously difficult test to sit as it has the knowledge test and most folk say London is the only city in the UK that is more challenging.

“When I first got into it I was working very hard and was making a decent living to support my family. But driving the taxis is not a license to print money like people think. When I started off I had to spend around £50,000 to get licenses, insurance and the taxi amongst other things.

“Everything has changed so much since when I first started. There were no private hires or night busses, barely any tour busses and so we were doing all those types of things. The market nowadays is just so saturated and even the changes made to taxi ranks or our ability to go into the station has impacted how we do our job and the fact we get charged for dropping off at the airport.

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“But I do love life as a cabbie. You can meet the beggar on the street one minute and then a CEO of a bank the next. I’m a sociable person and I just love talking to people. I genuinely love the people side of the job and it is not a hassle for me to talk when working.

“The job has allowed me the freedom to spend time with family and it meant that if say my son was playing then I could stop and watch his game or get the time off for a holiday. With five kids and three grandkids you can have a busy schedule. But the thing is, you always have to make up those hours after it is all said and done.

“It has also allowed me to pursue coaching football at the youth level which all began with Coerver coaching. It then led to me coaching at Hutchison Vale for years which was a great experience and especially considering we were quite successful during my time there. I also spent several years working in the youth set up at Hearts.

“Coaching allowed for me to travel to various academies across Europe where I visited the academies of Roma, Atalanta, Inter, Valencia, Levante and Liverpool as well as many more to learn the trade. It was also a great pleasure to broaden the kids horizons when they were away with us. I always made sure that they could experience foreign foods and culture through football.

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“I loved giving young players new experiences and not only helping them grow as a player but also as a person. It was all about making them successful individuals whether in football or not. My motto was always that hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.

“The honest truth is that it is getting harder to make money. We have big issues to overcome and that was before the Coronavirus. We are all being forced to get new taxis which will cost me around £60,000 for the electrical models. I would absolutely love to be able to afford that but at the moment I am having to contemplate the future. In the end many drivers may be forced to hand back their license plate and lose everything they have worked for.”