TWENTY Twenty – that’s plenty! In a year during which so much has been so hard to believe, it’s now simply hard to believe we are already at the end of it.

I’d be surprised if anyone reading this column will be anything but glad to see the back of 2020. It has been an absolute stinker.

While we all head into 2021 mindful of the new strain and rising levels of cases again, we cannot take our eyes off the distant light at the end of the tunnel created by the vaccine – rather, vaccines.

Make no mistake, 2021 will provide further tests, but we are at least looking towards a road to some form of recovery, no matter how long and what shape that recovery may take.

Almost all trades and industries have suffered this year and your average Glasgow Taxi driver is no different.

Yet, I must pay tribute to my peers; for their endurance, their ability to recover from setbacks and for their ongoing commitment to help others.

Yes, even when the chips are down, the spirit of a Glasgow Taxi driver cannot be broken.

A perfect example of this came on Christmas Day last week when two selfless drivers gave up their own free time and fuel to take a Glasgow mum to see her seriously ill child at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Not only did they sacrifice an hour of their own Christmas Days, they also completely waived any fee to at least take one small worry away from the mum in question.

Such gestures happen all the time, we just don’t see them and drivers don’t boast about them. That’s not why they do it.

This year there has been free time given, support offered to our NHS, donations delivered and journeys here, there and everywhere volunteered for the greater good.

I was proud to be a Glasgow Taxi driver before 2020 and I’m even prouder now.

To all my fellow drivers, to Glasgow Taxis members and to all our staff, I salute you – may 2020 be kind and healthy for you and yours.

To the Glasgow Times for providing us with this platform – thank you. Lang may yer lum reek!

Finally, to every single customer who has travelled with us in 2020, through the bad and the good, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We appreciate each and every one of you.

Happy Hogmanay when it comes and here’s to a brighter 2021 for one and all.

Stay safe!