They're out there carting around sloppy bar patrons and whizzing kids off to school while most of us slumber, but chances are you've met a member of the fleet.

Some don't leave their cars for most of the day, and considering how many hurdles they deal with on the roads, these social (and literal) animal tamers have more than just fares on their minds. Cabbies are the eyes and ears of the road -- noting every new pothole, speed limit change and crappy driver.

"I have no problem with someone who speeds, but what burns me is people that don't signal or they signal and don't turn," says Mark Hobsen who's been driving a Paipa taxi in Iqaluit for seven years. "Also people on cellular phones that aren't looking where they're going."

Hobsen has the utmost faith and respect for other cab drivers -- it's just those non-cabbies who are troubling.

"I'd say 98.9 per cent of taxi drivers are very good drivers ... we're out there 12 to 15 hours a day, seven days a week and our eyes have to be open all the time."

Where clogged street corners and gridlock are big city taxi woes, wandering animals and gaping potholes take precedence in Northern towns.

"It's incredible the animals that are on the road," says Hobsen. "It's a big problem up here."

Hobsen laughs observing that sometimes animals show more street sense than humans.

"Some will look both ways before they cross," he says. "Some pedestrians don't even do that."

Funnily enough, roads in Iqaluit improve in the winter since holes somewhat fill with snow and ice. But, on the other hand, slicker roads mean, no matter how hefty your vehicle, you might not make it up a steep hill. And don't bother with speed limits since they seem to mean little.

"Speed limits are out of date and have been obsolete for such a long time up here," says Hobsen.

Hobsen says because of dismal Iqlauit roads, last year he spent about $45,000 on car repairs -- mostly suspension and alignment problems.

But, people depend on you. When the temperature dips into the deep minuses, cabbing in the North becomes an urgency.

"If there's a blizzard, we are the people who shut the town down, says Hobsen. "We are the last resort."