And how did someone become a driver? Were these people also informants who had to 'keep an eye' on customers or report suspicious activities? As a cabbie myself I'm just curious to learn more about my Soviet counterparts...
Adam Curtis' documentary Pandora's Box has an interview with a Soviet cab driver. It seems that the number of miles a taxi drove in a month was set by the central planning apparatus. The driver interviewed goes on to say that people would tamper with the meters as a way of getting around the five year plan.