The man asks that his name not be used. And cautions he will only be doing this once.

What the union has to say about his comments, or what the company has to say -- what the city has to say, for that matter -- is of no interest to him. Don't bother telling him.

They will all say something different, he is sure -- some variation on "it's not our fault" -- and it will all be bogus. Or at least some half-truth. So he would prefer not to waste his time.

Like much in life, the truth is somewhere in the middle, where neither side can see it.

So he will talk about it only once -- what it is like to drive a cab in Ottawa today.

"It used to be a fun job," he starts.

"I've driven cab for a long time. It used to be no problem surviving as a cab driver in Ottawa, in making a good living and raising a family.

"Today, you can't really do that. And I can't think of anything that is going right anymore."

If you're expecting a rant against Uber to break out right now, you're going to be disappointed.

This cabbie -- a 20-plus-year veteran of the industry -- does indeed see Uber as a problem, as unfair competition for "legitimate cabbies."

And he thinks the city should do more to crack down on the company. Perhaps try to have the insurance cancelled, or the driver's licence suspended, for anyone caught driving a car for Uber.

But he doesn't think Uber is the biggest problem facing the taxi industry.

"Let's be honest," he says.

"If we were offering a great service, Uber would never be a problem. Why would anyone use a bandit cab when they could get a real cab? Doesn't make sense. So why are people using Uber?

"It's because most taxi drivers don't care about customer service. No one wants to admit it, but that's the reason."

As for why that is -- this abandonment of the old-fashioned customer-service ethic -- this driver says it's the union's fault. Plain and simple. End of story.

That's the reason he has asked for anonymity.

He is certain there could be reprisals for what he is saying. The taxi union in this city wants to blame Uber for everything going wrong right now, and doesn't take kindly to drivers who don't toe the official line.

Which is: The death star has arrived. Please kill the death star. This may be our final transmission ...

BS is his short assessment of that argument.

"Some of the recent (news) stories, about the missing guitar, about the driver who lost it in front of the Rideau Centre, every driver should be embarrassed by those stories. But they're not," he says.

"The union isn't embarrassed either. The union will probably grieve all of it.

"I remember a time when every cabbie had to have his car washed and cleaned by 10 in the morning. There were three inspectors who made sure it was done. But as soon as we had a union and a collective agreement, we grieved that. Now, it's pretty much up to you if you do it. Or anything at all, really."

He goes on to list other examples of poor customer service -- cabbies who don't take credit cards; cabbies who talk on their blue tooth with customers in the cab; cabbies who makes excuses, to get out of short fares.

While he blames the union for much of this attitude, he says the city is partially to blame.

It's the city that created the black-market taxi-plate system. The city that allows scores of potential new drivers to graduate from the taxi course at Algonquin College every year.

Even though there is not enough work. Even though these graduates will almost certainly never have a taxi licence, and so they will work as un-plated drivers, for someone else, which is about one step up from indentured servitude.

So yes, plenty of blame to go around. Although the death of customer service -- the opening of that window of opportunity for Uber -- he says the union owns that one.

"It was night and day, what happened after this became a unionized shop," he says.

"All of a sudden, you were allowed not to care about the customer. You were the one that mattered. The only one. It's never been the same since."

ron.corbett@sunmedia.ca