“I’m more than just a taxi driver”

Sep 04, 2017 News

– single parent Amanda McNichol works the risky night shift

We heard the gunshots at around 2.00 a.m. while passing through Albouystown. Amanda wanted us to make a detour to investigate.
“I like to do daring things,” she said.
Amanda Mc Nichol has been doing a ‘daring thing’, practically every day, for the past two and a half years. She’s a single-parent, who works the risky night shift as a taxi driver, to provide for herself and her ten-year-old daughter.
Amanda had resided overseas for eight years, and when she returned home there was “not much out there” to offer in terms of employment. Fortunately, she owned a vehicle, and had a driver’s licence, so she got employment at a taxi service.
She prefers to work the early morning hours, which is possibly the riskiest time for a taxi driver; but that shift helps her to spend more time with her daughter.
“I would come out early in the morning, up to around 12.00 p.m., possibly 2.00.p.m, go home and relax, then come out later. I don’t go at it all day.”
She‘s well aware of the dangers she faces, and takes no unnecessary risks.
“I am always aware of my environment. If you flag me down, I look at you; If I see you have a cap down in your face, and bags in your hand, I would ask where you are heading, and if you tell me you are heading to Diamond, I would calculate that Diamond has a lot of carjacking, and I would say, ‘no I not working’.
“No matter the distance and how much money, I am not working, because my spirit doesn’t give me the ‘okay’ to do the journey. And it is very rare that I would stop for someone on the road. I would risk it in the day with females and elderly people, or kids between the ages of a 12 and 13, because they do catch cabs.
But even with school-age children she would sometimes draw the line.
“Some look very unmannerly, two pairs of earrings, pants to their knees, I don’t want you in my vehicle, you look like problems, and you might want to carry on an inappropriate conversation.”
It’s these precautions that have kept her safe, unlike some of her colleagues.
She recalled one night when a male passenger went to her base and entered a colleague’s car. That colleague took the passenger to an area in West Ruimveldt.
“The man exited and said that he was coming back, and he (the driver) switched off the engine (which is something you should never do) and ‘threw back’ in the seat. The next thing he knew, was that there was a metal (gun) to his neck. He never got back his vehicle.
“One man came to our base at four in morning, while I was the only driver who was working. His eyes were wide, like he had just ‘shot’ (smoked) something. He wanted to go at the back of Sophia, and I said I was not working.”
But Amanda sees herself as being more than “just a taxi driver.”
“This job is not just about taking people from one area to another. I am a social worker, a mother, a father, a sister or brother to all my customers, because some of them come in very unpleasant and you, as a driver should make them feel comfortable. Some of them come in your vehicle, don’t want to say ‘morning’, you make them say ‘morning’, so I use this work to do other things…good things.
“I am a psychologist as well, because the females (passengers) would come with male problems, the males would come with female problems, and luckily I can relate to both, because I like to study humans…I would joke with them, give them experiences about myself; most times, I can relate to it, I have been through it. I even had to be doctor once. A lady took in (with labour pains) in my cab, on a rainy day, the place was flooded, so you had to take your time (driving). Unfortunately, the baby didn’t live.”
Amanda admits she prays a lot for protection as she works her night shift.
“Each and every day I ask God for guidance, wisdom and understanding. Those things (robberies) but that little voice, says ‘I got you.”
“You can’t have a discontented mind (as a taxi driver); picking up everybody, going after every $300. If you going home with a lil $15,000 you must be content, give thanks and praises.”

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