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The Conversation: Taxi Drivers: Iris Javed and Karin Holmström

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Iris Javed (Left) and Karin Holmström (Right)

16/11/2015 GMT

Taxi Drivers: Iris Javed and Karin Holmström

BBC World Service - The Conversation, Taxi Drivers: Iris Javed and Karin Holmström

Taxi drivers discuss life behind the wheel in New York and Stockholm

Taxi drivers from New York and Stockholm discuss listening to the lonely and how to deal with a naked passenger

'You can never tell what type of person is getting into your car' says Iris Javed who has been driving a taxi in New York City for over twenty-two years, 'and once they're in your car you have to deal with it'. Iris, who drove an 18-wheel truck before scaling down to a taxi, has had her fair share of drunk and troublesome passengers - and even one who got into her car completely naked. 

Karin Holmström has been driving a taxi in Stockholm for twenty years. She says driving is only a tiny part of the job - 'you more or less have to be a mother, a priest and a psychologist'. She's doled out relationship advice and consoled the lonely and although she welcomes all kinds of passengers, Karin has one hard and fast rule about fast food - 'they will never eat hamburgers and hotdogs in my car. I'm not a restaurant!'

(Picture: Iris Javed (Left) and Karin Holmström (Right - Credit: Stockholm Taxis)

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