‘Most of my passengers are surprised to see me pick them up’ — young Dublin taxi driver on her unusual career choice

Abi Marr (21) started out driving a taxi when she was still only 19, citing her father, who worked in the same field, as a major influence.

She has now also started sharing embarrassing, annoying and funny stories from her time behind the wheel through videos on TikTok.

“I was doing food deliveries for a while, and it was my dad who encouraged me to give it a chance because he thought I’d like it,” she said.

“I did have some concerns about it at the start, but my dad reassured me that if I only took bookings through the apps and was careful about who I picked up, I’d be fine.

“I realised with the apps everything is tracked and traceable, and most people just want to get from A to B.”

Securing her licence at the age of just 17, Abi began working as a taxi driver while she was still a teenager and will have been doing it for two years come December.

According to Abi, having flexibility is one of the big perks of the job.

“I can pick my own hours, I don’t need to give notice, and I can book my holidays whenever I want,” she said.

Following a particular schedule, she’s managed to avoid trouble by steering clear of certain areas, not working night shifts, and only picking up people who flag her that appear to be in a family or a couple.

“Most of my passengers are surprised to see me pick them up,” she said, adding that she’s now used to the usual questions about her age, and how long she’s been doing it.

After receiving some encouragement from her friends, she has also begun sharing stories about her career on TikTok.

Some of the videos include stories about drunken passengers, sweet moments shared with elderly people, and the general day-to-day annoyances that come with being a taxi driver.

“I was self-conscious at the beginning, so it’s only been a couple of weeks since I started sharing videos where I talk about what I do,” she said.

With over 200,000 likes on her videos so far, she guesses that people enjoy them because “it’s something different”.

“I feel it’s not something everyone else is doing, and at this point I’ve probably done about 3,000 jobs, so I have plenty of stories to tell,” she added.

When asked if there were many bad or good stories, she said, “there’s a mix of both”.

“Sometimes I do get lads asking if I’m coming to meet them in the pub later, but I just laugh it off,” Abi said.

“I’ve always been a very confident person, maybe sometimes too confident, but I also just think I know how to deal with situations when they arise.”

Looking forward to the future, Abi said she can see herself sticking with the role as she enjoys it a lot.