No criminal background check, no worries: How I became a City Wide Taxi driver

I am not a great driver. I don't know my way around this city. I haveno papers to prove I'm not a criminal.

But none of that matters.

Earlier this month, I was hired to work nights asa City Wide Taxi driver.

Becoming a taxi driver in St. John's

This project started with a question: How easy is it to become a taxi driver in St. John's?

• CBC INVESTIGATES | Who's driving your cab? St. John's taxi trade put to the test

I took to the internet, searching "driver wanted" ads on Kijiji. I made three phone calls that day Bugden's, Jiffy and City Wide.

A woman from Bugden's told me to get my Class 4 licence, produce a clean driver's abstract and call back in a couple weeks when my police check returned.

A man from Jiffy gave me the same information, before quizzing me on a few obscure city streets a test I failed miserably.

At first, the man from City Wide gave me the same information, before offering an alternative for the criminal check from the RNC.

"Do you know how long that usually takes?" I asked.

"I think it takes a couple weeks but they will give you a receipt for that," he said. "I think a receipt should be fine."

Meeting set up about job ad

Over the next few weeks, I waited painstakinglyat the DMV, and picked up the documents I needed.

With everything in hand, I called City Wide back and set up a meeting at a downtown gas station for the next day.

I waited for about 10 minutes in the pouring rain before an orange van pulled up. It's the man from the phone, his high-pitched and friendly voice matched by a round, friendly face.

After getting in the van, we pull ahead a little ways and stop. He asks to see my papers.

We've got a problem.

I left them in the car, 20 feet away where two colleagues are watchingthe entire encounter.

Knowing I can't very well get out and fetch the documents, I tell him we can pick them up at the end of our meeting while I covertly text my coworkers to drop them in my mailbox nearby.

"And it's clean?" he asks about my abstract and criminal check.

"Yeah. A seatbelt ticket from 2010. But that's all."

He laughs, puts the van in drive and leaves the parking lot.

"I think I need to show you around. You've never done taxiing before, right?"

On-the-job training

Despite him knowing nothing other than my name, it's clear from the start that this isn't a job interview. This is job training.

He brings me around to the different taxi stands, points out popular pickup spots and shows me how the radio and debit machine work.

I ask him if I can start on Sunday four days from now and he agrees.

He takes me to the airport and shows me my car,an orange Toyota Matrix, before bringing me home.

I have him drop me off down the street from my house, prepared to fetch the documents from my mailbox if he asks me.

He doesn't ask for the driver's abstract.

He doesn't ask for the criminal background check.

This all seems so surreal as I'm getting out of the passenger seat, so I ask again to be sure.

"It's not a problem to start, like, before the (criminal) background check comes back?"

"Should be all right, yeah."

He tells me to bring the driver's abstract and the receipt for the RNC check when I startmy first shift.

Instead of taking my documents, he advises me about the dress code for the airportcollared shirt, no sneakers and no jeansand says he'll be in touch with the phone number for the daytime driver. I can pick up the keys from him.

On Saturday, the day before my first shift, he texts me the number and I let him down easy, saying I won't be able to drive on Sunday night after all.

"OK," the man from City Wide says. "No worries."

• CBC News first left messages seeking comment from City Wide owner Peter Gulliver on Nov. 14.
  
• On Tuesday night, Gulliver left a cell phone message saying the story was wrong, but did not leave a call-back number.
  
• On Wednesday morning, he called to reiterate that the story was wrong, saying thatall of his drivers have background checks and a clean driver's abstract.
  
• He declined interview requests.