He chooses to be an evening driver, when criminals and illicit activity can take cover under the blanket of night. He works the entertainment district on weekend nights, when customers are most prone to lying semi-conscious in the backseat of his cab in drunken stupors, or sometimes spewing vomit uncontrollably in his car.
Why has he elected to drive the riskiest hours for the past 32 years?
"There's less traffic at night."
Adediran is waiting outside of his Beck cab at Union Station on a Friday night, scanning the crowd for customers. He has a husky voice and a guttural, contagious laugh.
The Nigerian-born man worked as a clerical officer in his country before coming to Canada 35 years ago. While studying sociology at York University for three years, he drove nights to pay his way through school. Unable to find a job in his field, Adediran decided to make a career out of his moonlighting job.
"Bad guys come out at night. When you pick up a stranger, you don't know what's in his pocket."
Adediran's been held up at knifepoint three times, but says, stoically, "You just have to take it like a man." He says he has never been hurt.
Prostitutes have also used his cars for drug runs in the past, asking him to wait while they get their crack in seedy alleyways. He's learned to be more discerning when picking up fares, saying that after three decades of driving, he knows the faces of "street guys."
Amorous passengers and queasy partygoers are common pickups for night drivers. For Adediran, it's the women he worries about most.
"I'm telling you, as soon as they get in the cab, the first thing they say ask is to open the window and once the fresh air hits them, they vomit."
He says he has to clean his car out at least once every two weeks. Even so, after all this time he feels he's settled nicely into the job.
"I feel comfortable with this now. I love it, the fact that you meet so many different people."
Adediran is a magnet for celebrities. He's chauffeured Janet Jackson and her two bodyguards from the Four Seasons Hotel in Yorkville to a health store at Spadina and Bloor.
"The fare was maybe $7 or $8 and she gave me a $20 U.S. She was really nice."
Then there was also the time he was hired out for the day to drive Julia Roberts and her entourage all around the GTA in search of an elusive perfume. He picked her up at the Four Seasons and drove to every major shopping mall between Markham and Oakville looking for it.
"Everywhere we went, they were expecting us," he marvels. "We pulled into the basement and they knew we were coming."
He got $260 for his labour that day, but never did find out what perfume brand it was or if she found it.
