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Rest In Peace.

- Daniel, London

As a london cabbie for the past 17yrs i agree with one of the previous blogs,you must try to keep expenses to the minimum,otherwise you find your sitting in that cab seat for far to long.But we do not know what was going on in this poor fellows mind,we must not judge or make assumptions,but wish his family and friends well. R.I.P Dave A London.

- David Allen, London

No lets not assume the reasons,however most of the comments i aggree with.
driving a taxi is stressful so i would give some sound advice to all potential drivers.do not assume you will become rich,do not get things on tick,save and pay cash(except mortgage taxi finance)always keep your head above water,many cab drivers fall into the same trap when the goings good,what ya gonna do when things get bad.long serving drivers paid for their homes when they were cheap (30 years ago 35k average 3 bed house) cab trade was good,(now average 3 bed 300k) cab trade not so good)
im divorsed as a result of this trade and had many thoughts due to the night shifts having to work when others are having the fun,its the way this industry works.
keep your overheads to a minimum and your free time to a maximum, dont try and remember what your family look like or have to display a picture of your wife kids in the cab to remember,get some quality time with them.
work the week and have the weekends off.
you used your brain when you done your knowledge now use it to sort your finances out before its to late.

20 years still sane and driving 8hrs a day

- Kevin, epping essex

Gone but will never be forgotten - especially at the Cabdriver's canteen at Heathrow Airport. You were a young shining light to all of us old drivers. May you now rest in peace and in the knowlege you will always be in our thoughts. God bless you and thanks for all the sunshine you bought into the lives of people who know you.

Colin - Essex

- Colin, Nazeing Essex

taxi drivers commiting suicide,more common than you think.this is the eleventh in 22 years & there have been many overdoses of illegal drugs too!sadly the industry is obsessed with greed & public image & many good men are wasted & forgotten.many drivers can't live up to the hype that surrounds an otherwise "nothing" job.RIP

- Alan Ridgley, London

RIP mate its become a hard job now days and its a shame its come to this . What you have been driven to shows how hard it really is driving a cab around this town and costs going up day by day .May your family be proud of you for sheding a bright light on this trade .

- Mark, london

We should just sympathise with the dead man's family and offer them our condolences, only they will have any real idea as to why he thought his life was so bad he could not continue living.
Please do not increase their pain by blaming taxes, minicabs, rules and regulations and even Ken Livingstone and arguing about the amount of money cab drivers earn. No money can replace the life of this troubled soul and no petty real or imagined grievances of black cab drivers should be allowed to cloud the issue. A troubled man, who we believe was a cab driver, was so desperately miserable and tormented that he has taken his own life, we should be grateful for the good in our lives and hope and pray that his family will get all the help they need to cope with such an horrendous episode. I wish the family well and may the deceased rest in peace.

- David London, London

what on earth is our goverment doing,constant charges for this and that,all so the mp`s can live a good life and the working class suffer in the end. they have blood on their hands so many hard working ending taking their own lives,clearly not knowing which way to turn,ending up in thousands of pounds of debt,tragic.my heart goes out to his family.RIP.

- Samantha, sussex

Re an article earlier this year from one of your reporters about how cheap American Taxis cost !! Please review all comments made by Americans on these posts regarding the Professional London Taxi Trade compared to the American Cabs !!!
London Taxis would love to be as cheap and have fuel prices the same as American Cab drivers, and have cab's that cost as little as $20,000 new !! Unfortunately this cannot happen because we are nearly as cheap as the train service and in most cases cheaper !! when two or three passengers travel i.e. Heathrow express.....

Most people that travel in my Taxi are Solicitors and accountants that Study for the same amount of time as a knowledge student.... We Charge at a max £25 per our !! a qualifed Lawyer of Forensic accountant can charge up to
£1000 per hour....!!! So who's jealous now !!

Example !! two Lawyers came out of a club on the Highway at 1.00am Thurs 09 09 and were being ushered to an illegal MINI-CAB
God knows why but one of them came to his senses and asked me to take them !! the fair was £9.80p they were quoted £30........
London is the best City in the world.... Use the people it employes to look after you properly..YOUR NOT STUPID
IAN ....

- Ian, London

It was no surprise to me the problem was when Ken Livingstone took over the trade people like myself had had enough of the way he ran it.He simply drove the trade into the ground with hes silly ideas that never worked i have to say the future for London and this service is bleak to say the least,any trade where you have to pay £300-£400 pounds a week before you earn anything is a joke.he wanted a cheap service but failed to understand that cheap means a bad service London will see this in the future when good drivers leave to be replaced by a second rate service and a second rate knowledge dont forget Ken your kids will have to travel in cabs will they be safe?God i pray they will.RIP my friend.

- Neville Watson, Canvey Island Essex

I have spoken to at least twenty Taxi Driver today and not one of them are surprised by this unfortunate incident.....

Love and best wishes to his family R.I.P

- Ian, London

We dont know the state of this guys mind or what had happened in his life to make him do such a terrible thing. Lets not blame the recession and licencing authorities, its too soon to know. God bless him and his loved ones

- Stephen Barker, essex

I would not do this job for all the tea in china, the drunks and riff raff you have to put up, no thanks.

- Richard Edmunds, Rayleigh Essex

It's true, we don't know the true reason behind this tragic incident, but London cabbies have been taking a hell of a beating in the past few years. The public perception that we are all on the golf course by mid day with our pockets full of cash is a complete myth!

On some weeks as little as 10% of takings actually ends up in the pockets of cab drivers after "the vested interests" deduct their pound of flesh from us.I know cabbies that are working 90 hours a week just to make ends meet. God bless my friend.

- Steve, London

I'm moved by the compassion and intelligence of these posts. It's nice to read people w/ heart. in my experience, sometimes a persons pain is so great, so inescapable, they are so tormented in ways that another cannot reach or help or remove, that they cannot live in that pain any longer. I respect a persons choice as i do not live in their torment nor do I know that I or anyone else could eleviate them from it to the extent that they would no longer consider such an extreme action as a solution. rip.

- Julie Gregory, Sickened, US

We are the buffer between the hard day @ work,un-trained psychologists,easing & bearing lifes slings & arrows-even more so in current times!! Making observations offering ,hope,soaking up the emotions,spitting out pills of guidance & trying to put a perspective on things. God Bless RIP

- John The Cabby, london England

How can anyone presume the reasons for his suicide? Let's leave blame out of this because none of us will know why he did it. It's very very unattractive to start blaming the recession etc. Leave the poor bloke alone and stop trying to add politics to this awful story.

- Joe Tivy, Walthamstow, London

It is not doing the image of cab drivers any good reading the various tirades about how hard done by they are barely earning a crust, the powers that be not wanting working class men to earn good money, mini cabs stealing their trade when one of their number has just killed himself and it may have nothing to do with his economic circumstances at all. It was a horrible way to go and I have nothing but sympathy for the poor sod.

- Squiz, Islington

35k for a new taxi, tax bill twice a year, insurance stamp payments, overhaul,taxi insurance,repairs,severe traffic, cameras, wardens,touts, pedi cabs,stop notes, no toilets,rip off taxi garages, mortgage payments, wife and kids, late nights working,over 1hr a day waiting at red traffic lights, high fuel costs and rising again, bilkers, no 5 pound notes,etc, may his surving family cope through these hard times,RIP

- Ben, london

The hardest job in the world. Very few people understand the harsh pressures placed upon our cabbies. Say no to the freeze on taxi rates.

- Vic, London

My thoughts go out to all who knew him. May he rest in peace. When in London I enjoy the London black cabs - they are part of London's history. The Cabbies should never moan about competition - there is competition in every business. They should be proud of the service they provide and the rules and regulations they have to obey - it keeps them apart from their 'competition'. I have spoken to many Cabbies during my visits to London, and the general consensus of their individual opinions is that to all those who constantly moan about their profession - get out of it and do another job. To the other professional Cabbies, I say keep up the good work - London would not be the same without you.

- E. Clark, Los Angeles

i feel deeply sorry for the relatives...from experiance..ive lost loved ones through money...lifes worth more than a pound note ..as time goes by it becomes more obvious........rip..cabby

- Lee Simpson, london

No one know why he did it so you cant blame the receession or the job. What I do know is that when driving all day & night, on your own - you certainly have alot of time to think, often needlessly. This guy bottled it all up and when you do that - one day, eventually it all explodes. My thoughts to his family, RIP.

- Hackney Carriage Driver 8, London, England

Let's not assume what may or may not have led to the terrible circumstances of today, and lets not turn it into a dig at anyone in the taxi trade. Let's just be thankful we do not find ourselves in the terrible position this man must have found himself in. My thoughts go out to this mans family and friends.

- Danny, london

I worked for nearly forty years driving a licensed taxi, and at the end of that I was still as skint as the first day I actually started that job; it is very over-rated, and few know what the real truth of taxi driving is all about, until you actually do it yourself.

It is a marriage breaker for many; it is a constant expense trying to keep up with the changes in laws and regulation that are inflicted on them over the years, from different departments of government etc; all this has to be paid for out of taxi drivers earnings, even before he has any left to live on etc; I quit after the GLA took over, they just increased all the expenses to stupid levels, even their forms have to be filled in with black ink pens only; the wheel-chair laws meant the owner had to finance that as well on his own back, I never bothered after the GLA took over; it was a job of the past after that as far as I personally was concerned etc.

Don’t get me wrong here; I had my good times, and lots of fun when I was young; it’s a good job for a single man who likes a little freedom etc, it’s a good job if you want to work 22 hours a day – seven days a week; but if you want a five day, 40 hour a week job, then you will starve to death driving a taxi on those hours etc.

This driver must have reached the end of his tether to do what he did; but it could have nothing at all to do with driving a taxi; like many others, in many other jobs, or even those even without jobs; life can deal them hard blows

- Mickinlondon, london.

That is awful, my condolences to all who knew him.

- Ls, Twickenham

i know someone who has been a cab driver for 30 years and is not short of money we dont know that this person did this because he was a taxidriver

- J Windsor, LONDON ENGLAND

Suicides also rose significantly during the Miner's strike. Taxi drivers have to realise that the authorities would like to see their trade finshed. There is a common misconception that taxi Drivers are very well paid. Middle class people resent working class people earning more than the minimum wage. This was one of the reasons they supported Thatcher in the Miner's strike.

- Ted, London

This is a direct result of the way Taxi drivers have been treated by a licensing authority that wants to see us merged with an inferior service. They are trying to do away with the "Best Taxi Service in the World" and replace it with a cheap copy....I don't know how these people sleep at night. This mans death, is blood on their hands. I just hope its not the first of many.

- Thomasthetaxi, London

No one can ever know or imagine the pain and suffering this poor man must have endured in his last days. My thoughts are with his family and friends.

- Nowan King, London

may he rest in peace.

- Adam,, sussex

It's not the £1000 a week job people think it is and it certainly can be tough for all sorts of reasons. When you've done the knowledge you are out of one long dark tunnel into another (no pun intended). Driving a cab leaves you too much time to contemplate your problems. The slightest thing can seem awful especially late at night. His problems must have been many. R.I.P.

- Bill, Welling

He was clearly very, very ill. Nothing to do with the recession at all - just a very, very disturbed man.

- Jentry, London UK

Without a note who can say. I feel for his family.

- Richard G, London

Terrible, Black cab drivers get lambasted day in day out by the press media etc....When do you see rich Bankers taking sick children to Disney Or Under privileged children to the seaside for the day? The recession took I think 4 cab drivers life in 1991, lets hope this is a one off and My thoughts are with his family.

- Dann, Sussex

Richard, London: I don't think you should jump to the conclusion this had anything to do with the recession. None of us knows the reason why he felt the need to end his life, and in such a violent way.

- Alan, London

Reccesion does terrible things, cab drivers have seen their taking fall ,It takes 4-5 years to do the London knowledge and now the Public carrige office let mini cabs rank up and ply for hire outside clubs it has killed their trade R.I.P brother .

- Richard, LONDON

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