Barney Rubble

John, aka Barney Rubble, is a real character of the Canberra taxi industry.  He owns a couple of Sydney taxi plates, which he leases out for $700 a week each.  He could live off that income but I reckon he truly likes taxi driving so he continues to work.

John also has a law degree and he knows all the rules and regulations surrounding the taxi industry.  His great love is to get fellow taxi drivers off parking and speeding fines, and he is very good at doing it. We were told that we couldn't leave our taxis unattended  after we had passed the boom gates at the Airport.  One fellow got a fine for leaving his taxi unattended but John got him off, because he knew the rules.  The Airport tried to say it was a security requirement, but John said that it needed to be directly within legislation or the fine wouldn't stand.  John won, and as you can tell by these next stories, he always wins.

One night John picked up these four indigenous fellows from the Kingston bottlo.  They loaded four cases of VB and three bottles of Jim Beam into the back of the Ford Falcon station wagon.  They asked to be driven to Queanbeyan but John's suspicions grew when they wouldn't give him a direct address.  "We'll direct you brother." One of the indigenous said.  John drove out to Queanbeyan and the indigenous asked him to pull over on a side street near the Railway station.  John pulled over and the four indigenous blokes bolted.  "Hang on," John thought, "They've left their grog behind." John looked over his shoulder and sure enough, there were four cases of VB and three bottles of Jim Beam in the back.  John looked around, the indigenous were nowhere to be seen.  John didn't drink so he sat there for a moment wondering what he was going to do with the grog.  He remembered that the manager of the Kingston bottlo had helped him load the grog in the back.  He thought if he went back there and explained the situation, he could resell it to him.  John drove back to the Kingston bottlo and explained the situation to the manager.  John initially asked for the full value of the grog, $250, but the manager was having none of that.  After a bit of haggling, they settled on $200.  John was happy: $200 for a fare from Kingston to Queanbeyan.  A win to John.

Another night John picked up a young fellow from the city who asked to be driven to Deakin.  John didn't like the look of him so he asked for money up front.  The young fellow reluctantly gave John a $100 note and they drove to Deakin.  When they got to Deakin the young fellow bolted, leaving behind his $100 note.  Another win to John.