American comedian George Burns once said: "Too bad the only people who know how to run the country are busy driving cabs and cutting hair." If that were so then bickering Blair and Brown should make way for taxi driver Ian Freebrey. James Davis hailed down the popular cabbie to talk shop and put the world to rights.

DURING two-and-a-half years as a cabbie Freebs, as he is best known, has driven around 140,000 miles - half the distance from Earth to the moon.

Coming from a family with a history in the taxi business, he finally made the switch from factory work in 2004.

And despite the job's downsides, 41-year-old Freebs, who lives in Forest Green, has not looked back .

"I wanted a bit of freedom and to be my own boss and it has given me that," he says. "I enjoy it but have to be flexible.

"I can get a call at any time which can be a bind, especially if I want to go out on a Friday or Saturday night."

He has been forced to make several other sacrifices for the job he loves.

One of which is to Shortwood United - the football club he can see from his window across the Nailsworth valley - where he served for many years as a player and more recently as manager.

"That was a hard decision because football has been my life," says Freebs, a father-of-three and grandfather-of-one.

The unpredictability of the job was highlighted just before midnight one Thursday night.

Freebs had just dropped off a passenger and was heading home when he received a call from a regular customer with a request for a lift home from Stringfellows nightclub in London.

"He asked for a lift and I thought he was having a laugh," says Freebs.

"I got down there just as he was getting thrown out by the bouncers.

"He'd had a few to drink and we almost got arrested on the way back as he knocked over a huge box of lollipops in a service station right in front of a couple of policemen."

Freebs has been known to go beyond the call of duty for a customer on a number of occasions.

He once delivered an older couple to their home to find they had locked themselves out.

Ten minutes later, having scurried up a rickety old ladder to get in through an open upstairs window, Freebs was confronted the owners' enormous, growling dog.

Because Freebs builds good relationships with customers, his job often entails more than just driving people from A to B.

One customer, whose children were visiting from the Middle East, asked Freebs to take his son fishing and his daughter horse riding.

"He basically booked me to look after his kids for five days," says Freebs, who has a DVD player and mini-screen to entertain passengers on longer journeys.

Although all customers are VIPs to Freebs, he once gave a lift to British actress, Juliet Stevenson, who appeared in Bend it Like Beckham and Mona Lisa Smile.

Freebs, who is renowned for his jovial and friendly nature, laughs at the stereotype of the opinionated cabbie, saying he is more than happy to sit back and listen.

"You have to be able to talk about all sorts of things, like what's in the paper or the footy results. Within a few questions you find out what people are interested in," he says.

"Obviously some people don't want to talk and that is fine.

"Sometimes you act a bit like an agony aunt though.

"I've had people crying in the back seat of my cab.

"They often tell you things that a lot of people close to them don't know and sometimes you try and help them out."

While most passengers are polite and friendly, Freebs says every taxi driver will run into trouble from time to time.

"Most people today are pretty well behaved, but I have had a couple of runners," he says.

"I chased one but had to let him go because I'd left the cab open with all the cash in.

"Had I locked the door there's no doubt I would have had him," he says.

He added that people, especially young revellers, are a lot more responsible these days when it comes to taking a taxi rather than driving having had a few drinks.

"They are brought up not to drink and drive," he says.

"Twenty years ago people would have had a few drinks and taken a gamble."

There is a flip side to picking up individuals who have had one too many to drink, adds Freebs, who has to clean out his car thoroughly every Saturday and Sunday morning.

He says: "It can turn into a right pigsty sometimes."