The Covid lockdown may have forced a lot of taxi drivers out of the trade, but Mo explains in the film that this was exactly the stimulus he needed to become one himself. With time on his hands, aged 17, he knuckled down to learning the Knowledge. Two years later, he’d passed all the tests but had to wait until he was 21 to get his licence.
“I’m having the best time,” he says. Even the taxi driver who took me to Taxi House admits that, despite everything, he “loves” the job. Will McNamara be as sanguine? “We’ve had taxis since Cromwell’s day and London will always have them,” he tells me in the back of a taxi he’s magically summoned from nowhere.
“I’m optimistic about that because we’re sitting in the cleanest and 100% wheelchair accessible taxi in the world, driven by the most highly regulated and trained cab drivers in the world. But the driver you spoke to is right: TfL’s war on motorists is also being waged on taxis. On top of that, you’ve got a taxi which, by the time you’ve financed it, can cost up to £100,000. It’s tough.”
In spite of these challenges, McNamara reckons the green shoots of a recovery are emerging. “Demand for taxi rides is growing as workers begin returning to their offices,” he says.
