Taxis range from BMWs to bangers, and must be capable of running 24 hours a day, putting up 65,000 miles a year in city traffic. So what are the taximen's favourite motors? Brian Byrne investigates.
WANTED: Qualified receptionist with friendly personality to work 72-hour week in a cubicle 2x2 metres, with 8cm of headroom; working environment noisy and stressful at best but mostly closer to cacophonous; air quality frequently less than permitted EU levels.
Most people would contact the health and safety authorities before replying to this advert. Add the fact that customers sit no more than a metre away, are always in a hurry, often abusive, sometimes drunk and even dangerous. And when nature calls, it means leaving the "office" and nipping into the nearest hotel or pub.
Yet this is the working environment of the average taxi-driver. And they don't have much choice about it. Except perhaps the choice of cars they use for their work.
In Ireland the choice is a rather mixed bunch, partly for financial reasons, partly because regulation has been somewhat hit and miss historically.
Stroll along any taxi rank and you'll see anything from a Mercedes to a Toyota Corolla, or a variety of Japanese second-hand imports with unfamiliar model names. Then there are variations on the wheelchair-accessible taxis converted from a number of commercial vehicle or MPV bases.
What you will not see is a single pervasive taxi make, such as Britain's ubiquitous "black taxi", or any attempt at paint-job specialisation to make taxis stand out from ordinary cars, as is common throughout the rest of Europe.
But owners of these cars are professional drivers of small public service vehicles driving anything from 30,000 to 65,000 miles a year, mostly in city stop-go traffic. They're all effectively running small mobile businesses, with reliable mobility being the key service.
Their choices are made on a mixture of personal economic situation, vehicle capacity, reliability and comfort. In many cases the end result is a pool of cars reflecting some of the top sellers in the domestic market.
Many use the Toyota Avensis, and its predecessor, the Carina, consistently the best seller in its segment over the past decade. I've sat in the back of some of these and heard their operators complain loudly about tyre wear and suspension shortcomings. But never about reliability.
And I've ridden in imported Nissan Sentras which, it was painfully clear, needed new suspension components, but the owners were extremely happy with the purchase price value, and the relatively new benefits of air-conditioning systems, not yet so common in domestically-sold cars of a similar size.
At any taxi rank, there will be a definite preponderance of Japanese cars, new or secondhand. It's that perceived reliability factor, so important to taxi operators because days off the road cost money.
Reliability also made the Volkswagen Jetta (succeeded by the Bora which doesn't seem to have made the same impact in the business) one of the most popular Dublin taxis for a number of years. Diesel versions often did 24-hour 7-day duty under a pair of shared owners - and would often be booked in for a regular service and oil change on a Sunday morning once a month.
"They had a big boot and plenty of room and they were really tough diesels," said Paddy Doe, the only driver who preferred his real name not to be mentioned. He's been 23 years in the business, and currently has a 1998 Primera. He's unhappy with it because it's on its second timing belt replacement in six weeks.
He really hankers after the five or so Ford Granadas he drove for many of those years. "At one time, they were used by nearly every taximan. They were reliable and big - and you could always get parts. There were even full engines always around.
"I had a Mercedes after that and sometimes, if you needed a part, you had to wait three or four days for one to be flown in from Germany. This meant you were off the road too long."
One of the next drivers I met, Nigel McCarthy, was actually driving a 1991 Granada. It's only in his second year in the business, and he's doing around 60,000 miles a year.
"I went for the Granada because I used to have one as a private car a few years ago and liked it a lot," he says. "When I decided I was going to be spending a lot of time in a car, I went looking for this one. It's big inside - plenty of room for the passengers. Anyway, it was all I could afford."
Sometimes a taxi operator figures he can afford a new car, and it works fine, no trouble, but there's a real kick in the teeth when it comes to replacement time. The problem is the high mileage: usually three times the average for private motorists.
Ray Murtagh has been on the road for six years. "I bought a new 1997 Primera for £17,100," he says, "and when I sold it four years later with 160,000 on the clock it was worth only £3,000."
Ray now has a Toyota Camry import. "It cost me £8,000. It's gone through two tests. At the most recent one the engineer said it was in such good nick that I must have spent an awful lot of money on it. So I'm not going down the new car road again."
For his money, Ray's import is also a 2.2-litre diesel, with automatic transmission, all of which he finds "brilliant" for city work. It's a specification which has not even been available for years in the model as sold here.
Some taxi operators are all for buying new, and buying the same make every time, simply because it works for them. Barbara Quigley's husband bought his first Mitsubishi Lancer from Joe Duffy Motors a dozen years ago, and they've stuck with the brand ever since.
"The service is good, and none of the cars ever let us down," says Barbara, who began taxi driving herself six years ago.
Their current car, a Mitsubishi Carisma, is just over two years old with 130,000 miles up. It's an automatic, a mode they shifted to last time they bought because Barbara has back trouble.
"My husband figures the fuel consumption penalty for choosing automatic is no more than €5 in a tankful, and that's well worth the comfort," she says. "With the way it is driving around this city, the number of times you'd have to change gear is unreal."
Another man well pleased with his vehicle, bought new, is Ray Dungan. He started as a hackney two years ago with his Toyota Picnic MPV-type car and converted last year to a taxi plate. "It's brilliant" - a diesel, comfortable to drive and well up to the economy levels he needs.
"I've had absolutely no trouble with it," he says. "There's also lots of room, though the funny thing is, while I could use it as a six-seater when I was hackneying, I'm only licensed as a four-seater now - they say I have to leave the back for luggage. That's a bit daft, because I have to turn down larger numbers, when all I'd need to do if six people with luggage came would be to say no, I can't."
Wheelchair-accessible taxis which have come out on Dublin's roads in recent years are mainly converted from commercial vehicles such as Mercedes-Benz Vitos or Fiat Scudos. They're as close as we get to the "black taxi" and have all the folding seats and the straps and trappings required for dual use. There's even a plan that all new plate-holders will have to move to such vehicles in a process due to start next year.
Matt Whelan, who runs a Scudo and has been eight years in the business, doesn't think this is a sensible idea.
"On balance now, I'd prefer to use a car," he says. "For the few people who need a wheelchair-accessible vehicle, making all taxis this way is no sense at all. They take more rank space, and a lot of people don't like them, particularly older people who feel more vulnerable to being thrown around in all that open space. Besides, the insurance on this costs me €3,300 a year, while a car would cost €1,200 or so."
Pat Daly has found that size does matter. Formerly in the distribution business, with a couple of vans on the road, he shifted gear to taxiing nine months ago.
His personal car was a Ford Scorpio, the last of the Granada line. He thought it would be too expensive to run, so he bought a Ford Focus. A mistake, though not the smaller Ford's fault.
"I just found the Focus too small for this kind of work," he says. "Apart from the passengers, it was too small for me to spend a long day in."
Now he's moved to a 1997 Mercedes E230 automatic, which he finds "very, very good" for the job. "It's the right size, there's plenty of legroom for the passengers and there's width.
"Maybe there's a fuel penalty with the automatic, but what would I be doing with a manual the length of O'Connell Street but first/second/neutral, first/second/neutral anyway? So there's probably no real difference."
Pat is actually driving the brand to which most of the people I spoke to aspired. The Mercedes would be the taxi vehicle of choice IF it were attainable in price terms. Which it could be if there was a special VRT waiver for taxis.
The guys on the rank point to the fact that the Mercedes is the universal taxi vehicle on much of Continental Europe. "I was down in Lanzarote a while ago, and ALL the taxis there are Mercedes," says Ray Murtagh. "You could see that the driver was doing his job in a very relaxed environment. That makes it safer for him and for his passengers."
Joe Brandstatter, a new arrival to the business, took out his plate just six weeks ago on his Renault Laguna. He finds the car pretty good for the job, and gets comments from his passengers about "the room in the back."
His car features some innovative technology, reflecting his background in engineering. In order to keep customers from misbehaving, Joe decided to install his own CCTV system. CCTV has grown very popular as a defence system in other jurisdictions, such as the US, and they have been credited with saving cabbies' lives.
In Dublin, taxi-drivers are looking at Joe's system and considering his offer to install similar units for them. "The Carriage Office thinks it's a good idea too," he says.Which might mean that Joe won't be staying in the business too long. He already has a name for this latest Big Brother incarnation: TAXICAM.