5 days Ago By [email protected] (Joe Crossley)
She’s only been a cabbie for 12 months, but Charisse Adamaszek says she’s had a lifetime’s worth of experiences already. From brawls, drunks and ‘runners’, to people vomiting in her car and being chased by the police. The job is rarely dull, as reporter Joe Crossley found out.
It’s ironic that one of Charisse’s worst fares so far was from the Stumble Inn, a well-known pub in the Milton area of Sittingbourne. That’s because the customer not just stumbled out of there, he was practically “falling all over the place”. Picking up drunks is not uncommon for the 38-year-old, who drives for Let’s Go Green Cabs, especially as she works the Friday and Saturday night shifts.
But this man left his mark - literally. She said: “His girlfriend was with him, and she said, ‘I’m really, really sorry, he is very drunk, but I promise he won’t be sick we just need to get to Travelodge’. “It was only a five-minute drive, so I decided to take them.
But when we got there, he had already fallen asleep. “Me and his girlfriend tried to wake him up, but we could not get him out for love nor money. “So, she’s shouting at him to get out the car, which woke him up.
But he’s then decided to be sick in the car. “She’s trying to catch it in her hands and then wiped it down herself, put her hands on the seat so got it all over the seats. “Between the two of us, we sort of pushed him out of the car, at which point he just fell on the floor, and that’s where he stayed.
“I had to drive back to base to clean it, which took around 20 minutes or so, and I had to get my next passengers to sit in the front or the other side.” The mum-of-one, who has lived in Swale all her life, started cabbing after previously driving for Amazon and DPD. She heard there was a real shortage of cab drivers, so thought she’d give it a bash.
Let’s Go Green Cabs is one of the town’s best-known taxi companies, making on average 280 journeys a day, with a fleet of 18 vehicles and 30 drivers. Before she was able to get behind the wheel, however, she had to pass the firm’s ‘knowledge test’ - similar to what black cab drivers do in London. Comprising understanding of local routes and council regulations, it’s not easy - 70% of drivers fail first time.
Charisse was one of those who passed on her second attempt, with the hardest part working out what the shortest routes would be. Although she says the vast majority of customers are fine and friendly, she does have more than her fair share of horror stories, including ‘runners’ - people who don’t pay. She said: “There was this time I was taking a customer to their house in the Murston area, and when I pulled up, there was a police car outside.
“He said his wallet was in the house, so he left a bag in the back of the car. “But he never came back. I saw the police leaving and asked them if he had gone in.
“They told me he was the man they were looking for, but he had done a runner.” She never saw him again and he owed her £12, which the company had to take on the chin. A lot of women - and men for the matter - would be reluctant to do the jobs on Friday and Saturday nights, but Charisse isn’t phased.
She volunteered for them as they’re the busiest times, meaning more money. She’s witnessed fights spilling out of pubs, drunks being unable to stay awake and many an awkward moment when customers have heated arguments. One such time involved a couple from Iwade who had a shouting match in the back of the cab, which saw objects thrown during their trip home from Sittingbourne town centre.
She added: “I’m sat at a give-way point and as I was about to pull away the guy decides to open the door and get out, so ends up falling out the car. “I’ve braked and he slammed the door [and walked off]. Meanwhile she’s shouting ‘he’s got my phone, he’s got my money, he’s got this, he’s got that’.
“I was like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing, what’s going on here’?” “[In the end] she said to carry on as she had money on her and I took her home. “The guy actually later rung the office to apologise for his behaviour.” But it’s not just in the back of the cab where there’s often bother, Charisse witnesses Sittingbourne’s nightlife at its worst too.
More often than not she parks ups in West Street which boasts The Vineyard, Golden Hope Wetherspoon’s and Ypres Bar and Lounge. “I’ve seen the police turn up and throw people out the pubs,” she said. “You do see some fights, you see bouncers trying to sort of keep people away from each other and calm it down.
“I see anti-social behaviour every night that I work. You’ll see kids having a go at elderly people in the town and starting on younger kids too. “We also get a lot of kids throwing stones at our cars.
” However, despite the headaches some customers give her, the worst part of the job is actually dealing with the town’s notoriously bad traffic. Not only sitting in gridlock but also knowing customers are in the back watching their fare go up while going nowhere. She said: “You sit there and watch the meter clocking up.
It feels like it should only be £7 to the station, for example, and it’s getting nearer £10. “But with the traffic, unfortunately, we have to charge the waiting fees as well, otherwise, we’d never make any money.” Notwithstanding the drawbacks, the cabbie says she loves the job, especially the human interaction every day brings.
She said: “I feel like you need to be chatty but at the same time, you get people who don’t want to talk, that’s fine. “But it’s very social and most people do have a good conversation with you. They are always asking how busy we are.
“I reckon around eight in 10 ask the question. It is the worst question to ask a taxi driver as we hear it so often. “But at the same time it’s a conversation breaker, and even as a cabbie myself I come into work or I get into another cab and I go, so you’ve been busy?” As a woman driver, Charisse is also asked whether or not she worries about her safety - she has cameras in the car - especially working late on a weekend.
But she thinks on average people are more respectful to her as a woman than to her male colleagues. “Some drunk men do get into arguments with each other or with the cabbie, whereas with me they tend to sit there quietly or they start normal conversations,” she added. “However, that said, women are more likely to argue with me about the fare.
The sexes tend to feel like they can have at a go at the same sex. “I do feel happy driving on the Friday and Saturday nights though with most of my customers being lovely – but you do get the odd ones..
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