Yellowknife (May 19/06) - Lured to Yellowknife with promises of striking it rich in the gold mines, Yusuf Hashi didn't get his pot of gold, but found himself driving a taxi instead.

City Cab driver Yusuf Hashi shows off a collection of chauffeur's licences he has collected during his 16-year career as a taxi driver in Yellowknife. - Jason Unrau/NNSL photo

"I'm still waiting for my ticket out of here," he says with a laugh, while driving a fare to Weledeh school on Wednesday afternoon. "But this is a good job, you have freedom to make your own hours and you get to meet new people."

After working as a kitchen hand at a mining camp, Hashi moved from the pantry to the driver's seat in 1990, where he's been ever since.

In his 16 years driving, Hashi has worked for several companies and started his own cab company before coming to work for City Cabs.

After he drops off the fare, he talks about the stranger side of his line of work.

"Nothing bothers me. I've seen everything," Hashi replies when asked about notable events in his cab career. "You see lovers (in the back), violent people, crazy people."

One such "crazy person" was a fare Hashi picked up several years ago.

"This guy says take me here, take me there and he was acting up," Hashi recalls of the man, who left a butcher knife in the backseat before he disappeared into a local watering hole. "After 10 minutes I figured the guy wasn't coming out, and I looked in the back and saw this huge knife."

Hashi decided to drive to the RCMP detachment to report the incident, where he identified the man from a set of photographs police provided.

"I guess they were looking for him."

On another occasion when Hashi was first starting out, he was punched by a fare while driving down the highway.

"I was young, so I said let's get out. We fought for a while, and after we got back in the car and I dropped him off where he wanted to go," he says. "I wasn't going to leave him at the side of the road. Now we've become good friends."

Some days are better than others, admits Hashi of the wage he earns. Between gas, insurance and a $200 a week dispatch fee, Hashi says it costs him between $80 and $90 a day to keep his cab on the road. Add to that people who skip out on paying and one begins to understand that this line of work is not an easy money maker.

Fares generally are in the neighbourhood of $8 to $15 and hiring a car for an hour goes for $40 to $60. Those drivers willing to go to Fort Providence or Rae charge $400 and $150 respectively.

"One time these three guys wanted to go to Edmonton, so we negotiated $2,500," Hashi says of his largest-ever fare... almost. "I offered it to my friend, though, because I didn't have my own car yet."

So what does he think of his job? "It has its ups and downs. You make your own hours, take your holidays when you want if you can afford it, and you see all kinds of people."