Why journalists should always talk to their taxi drivers

Everybody has a story to tell. Just listen, writes Andrew Buncombe

Yes, working as a taxi driver involved long hours for not a lot of money, and the threat of abuse. Yet it was nothing to what he had endured in Kenya (Getty)

There is something of a rule for journalists, that you do not quote your taxi driver when covering a story.

The idea has at its core the experience of being dispatched somewhere to cover a breaking news event, and then scrambling not only to get there, but to find out what is going on, and locate somebody to quote for your story. The cab driver could do all three.

There are several downsides to this: the taxi driver might not actually know what is going on, be biased one way or another, and no matter how hard one seeks to disguise them – “Mr or Ms So-and-So, a taxi driver” – it is always obvious to the trained eye that it is your taxi driver you are quoting. Colleagues accuse you of being lazy.