Taxi tales: St. John's cab driver publishes his best stories

Taxi drivers in St. John's get to experience all the characters the city has to offer on a regular basis.

Some of those encounters lead to laughs, some could make you cry, and others would turn your stomach, according to Joe White.

White has been a cab driver since the early 1980s. He now works for Jiffy Cabs, and after years of people suggesting it, he's compiled dozens of his best yarns into a book called St. John's Taxi Chronicles.

One of his tales, called "Two Bucks Can Sometimes Get You 300," describes a belligerent passenger managing to turn his quick $2 fare into a $300 trip.

"This guy jumped in my car, or fell in my car. I should say. He was loaded drunk and he hadn't shaved in about a week," White said.

This guy jumped in my car, or fell in my car, I should say. He was loaded drunk and he hadn't shaved in about a week.- Joe White

"He took out a wad of cash from his pocket. There was at least $10,000 there," White said.

At their destination, White's drunken passenger continued hurling four-letter words and even threw a handful of change at him.

"Most of the change he threw at me went out the window because I had the window down because he stunk ... there's another story in there about body odour," White said.

Even though the rude passenger didn't pay his fare, the trip still ended up costing him a bundle.

"I looked on the seat that he just vacated, and there was three $100 bills laid on the seat," White said. "So I did the right thing. I put them in my pocket and went home."

You never know what to expect

Another story has White recounting the time he was asked to deliver food to a business downtown, and was met at the door by a barely dressed woman.

It turned out she was a stripper, White said. They argued over the fare and it resulted in an angry call by the woman to the dispatcher.

But not all of White's stories are light-hearted. 

In "Please Don't Tell Anybody I'm Home," he describes reconnecting with a man who had recently returned home from Alberta after getting a large settlement from his time at the Mount Cashel orphanage.

"He didn't want his family to know he was home," White said. "I guess they fell out over the years."  

St. John's Taxi Chronicles is available everywhere books are sold, and also in a more unconventional location: White has already sold 50 copies straight from his Jiffy Cab.