Last month I posted a slightly tongue-in-cheek post about Grumpy, London’s Cabbies? This Grumpytutters list prompted Mark from America to suggest I compile 50 things ‘I love about being a cabbie’. There are many and various reasons to extol the benefits of being a cabbie here’s some of them:
1. A feeling of superiority in The Knowledge that you know London better than almost anyone else
2. Self-employed with no employer breathing down your neck
3. An ability to choose your hours
4. Stop work at a time of your choosing
5. Access to Green Shelters to eat
6. Americans (including Mark) love London’s cabbies
7. Access to private spaces (for me Downing Street)
8. Get to talk to interesting people (see back of my cab)
9. Giving Chelsea Pensioners free lifts
10. Join the Magical Taxi Tour on its annual journey carrying children suffering from a range of chronic illnesses and life-limiting conditions to Disneyland Resort Paris
11. Being waived through police roadblocks
12. Being let out of side roads by fellow cabbies
13. Staying in bed instead of rushing to work on time
14. A panoramic view of the world’s best cities from the window of your ‘office’
15. Talk to interesting people every day
16. The ability to work part-time in early retirement
17. You rarely encounter the same difficult customer
18. Working outside whilst keeping dry and warm
19. The comradery of other London cabbies
20. Your golf clubs fit in the boot of a London cab
21. Dress (within reason) how you like at work
22. You don’t have to justify and reapply for your job every year
23. You can bore anyone who’ll listen about ‘famous people in the back’
24. You earn enough to pay for a private osteopath to help your back (an occupational hazard)
25. Being told by an old cabbie “The game’s dead”, to find it’s not
26. Friendly hotel doormen allowing the use of the facilities
27. Meeting like-minded students at Knowledge Schools – and remaining friends
28. Just knowing where the best chippies are in London
29. Being able to turn up at a garage and have the cab fixed without making an appointment
30. You go to places you otherwise couldn’t and see people you would never have met
31. Get to conduct tourist tours
32. The profession is open to everyone, so you’ll always meet a cabbie with an interesting life story
33. You can usually pick your customers and ignore the drunks
34. Not needing an organisation like Uber to survive
35. The opportunity to harangue a politician with the doors locked in your cab
36. When the train/bus/tram drivers strike you can still get to work (and earn a lot more)
37. People are genuinely interested in your profession, asking questions even while on holiday
38. You work in a safe environment, thanks to the driver’s partition
39. There’s always something new to discover in London
40. The public is always interested in The Knowledge
41. Driving the iconic London cab (TXI) is a privilege it’s so well-designed
42. You have the satisfaction of being the only one responsible for your income
43. Our profession seems to be the go-to for the opinion of Londoners
44. If you’re prepared to put in the hours a decent living can be earned
45. Your vehicle can be driven for personal use without having to pay Sadiq Khan’s penalties
46. A cab is a great people carrier
47. The cab’s spacious interior can be used to transport large items, including Christmas trees
48. When we protest on-mass we always get on the local TV news
49. We can use bus lanes to avoid the traffic
50. You can get to write a blog (and a book!)

London’s cabbies are renowned for having forthright opinions, many of which are just moans about the job/passengers/mayor or as diamondgeezer has given its unique title: Grumpytutters. Here are 50 top cabbie grumps:
1. Eating food in the cab
2. Lack of civility when stating the destination
3. Putting feet on the seats
4. Kamikaze cyclists
5. Telling the driver they’ve missed the destination when they could have mentioned it earlier
6. Being asked, “How long have you been a cabbie?”
7. Potholes
8. When TV interviews drivers in their cabs they’ll always broadcast the one who talks like the late Len Goodman
9. Pedestrians crossing the road just yards from a crossing
10. “Do you go Sarf of The River?”, Yes!
11. Boris Bikes riders wobbling down the road
12. Idiots who cross the street whilst watching videos on their phones
13. LTNs
14. Drop off charge at airports
15. Other drivers sounding their horns as the traffic lights change, look we’re not in the Middle East!
16. Drivers who won’t indicate
17. TfL – naturally
18. Unregulated Uber
19. Pedicabs blaring music, or just pedicabs period
20. Passengers who only use a cab occasionally who ‘just know’ the driver took the wrong route
21. Festive passengers emanating fluids
22. “Who have you had in your cab?” Are you really interested?
23. Banning cabs from Bank Junction
24. “Do you know my bestfriend’s/brother’s/son, he’s a cabbie? No, but with the number giving up the profession, I’ll soon know them all by name
25. Worrying you’re travelling at 20.1 mph
26. Bilkers
27. Confusing signage. Are cabs allowed or not?
28. The BBC conflating private hire with black cabs
29. Poor editing in a drama, when the protagonists jump in a cab and the driver goes the wrong way or covers the distance in impossibly record time
30. Cabbies whose vehicle is filthy
31. When ITV’s London Today does a piece about pollution, they use for an establishing shot, cabs – usually electric ones
32. Roadworks lasting ages to complete
33. Lack of toilets
34. Hotels banning cabbies from entering their foyer
35. Being told condescendingly that The Knowledge is just a memorisation test, inferior to a bachelor’s degree
36. Not finding a charger that doesn’t charge charging an extortionate price
37. Cabbies who ‘broom a job’, refusing to take a passenger and telling them to get the next cab in the rank
38. Being told you’re just a minicab driver
39. Punters who ask for Suffolk Street, near Trafalgar Square when they mean Great Suffolk Street, Southwark
40. Fare £4.80 “Do you have change of £50?” If my name was Lloyds I would
41. Leaving litter in the back of the cab, or the half-eaten fish and chips once left in my cab
42. Being told before getting in that private hire charge less
43. Having an old cabbie prefacing a conversation with “Back in the day…”
44. Hire light not showing in daylight on the LEVC TX
45. Speed humps, especially in Islington
46. Being asked to go faster to catch a train
47. Scruffy cabbies
48. Being told the address of a hotel, and the Ritz is in Arlington Street, not Piccadilly
49. BMW drivers, don’t we all?
50. Oh! And did I mention Sadiq Khan? Thought not