Padser Duffy in conversation with Sandra O'Connell
I'VE BEEN taxi driving for the past 14 years, working off Dublin airport. You have to have a permit to work here. It costs €400 a year, so really I'm paying them to work.
I start my shift at around 7.30am, coming in from Poppintree, Co Dublin. When we come in we go to the Kesh, named after Long Kesh, which is a holding area for 140 taxis. There's an overflow holding area, which holds another 200 and winds right around the car park.
At any stage there could be 350 taxis queuing for work in the airport. The average turnaround is one hour and 20 minutes, so it's usually 8.30am or 8.45am before I'd get my first fare, which could be a short job worth €6 or €10. After that I come back and queue again.
Since deregulation it's difficult to make a living from it. It's really a part-time job. I feel sorry for the young guys with big mortgages. They have to spend day and night on the road, trying to make a living. I'm lucky: my mortgage is low.
In the morning you tend to get the business-class guys going down to the financial districts or the business parks. Most of them are English and are great. You see the same faces a lot, so you get to know them a bit and have a laugh. Very often they're in a hurry because someone in the office set up their meeting at 9am when their plane only gets in at 8.45am. They'll try and offload their stress on to me, but, really, if you're going to be late you might as well chill out and enjoy the ride.
I like meeting people. You can do the job and not be a people person, but you're making it very hard for yourself. The only thing I have a major problem with is snobby people who get in the car and tell me where to go in an "off, James" way. Then they pick up their laptops and start working, in my back-seat office. Half the time I bet they're only playing computer games. The way I see it, not talking is a waste of a journey.
Lots of couples will have been here before with their mates, and now they want to go somewhere other than Temple Bar, so I make a few suggestions. I get families, too, which I like. They're always keen to get in a diddly-diddly night, but I have to tell them that kids have to be off the premises early. They're always amazed at that. If I get them on the return journey, the one thing they always say is that there's nothing for children to do in Dublin. I tell them to bring them to the zoo like the rest of us.
Luckily I've never had a problem with being robbed or anything. Criminals give me money when they see how poverty stricken I am.
I wouldn't say I like what I do, but what else am I going to do? I'm 56 now. I'm not going back to school, and who would employ me if I did? The best I can do is stick with taxiing and try to have a laugh.
I am blessed with my wife, however, so I finish at 4pm and go home.