KJELL IVERSEN SELLS GRAVENHURST TAXI, AFTER 37 YEARS, TO MUSKOKA TAXI

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

GRAVENHURST — Kjell Iversen knows this town like the back of his hands.

And he should.

The 90-year-old cabbie has travelled every street, road and highway in town hundreds of times — likely more — metering millions of miles in dozens of sedans.

His hands on top of the wheel, staring out the windshield, steering one of his half dozen Gravenhurst Taxi cabs 24/7 365 days of the year.

Chauffeuring residents young and old from one home to another, and regularly to work, school, the grocery store, medical appointments, the hospital ….

And acting as designated driver for tens of thousands of imbibers out-on-the -own at bars, restaurants and community events.

Not to speak of ferrying cab customers and visitors back in the bush to summer camps, cottages, prisons, the fire college, the casino and anywhere you wanted to go or be picked up from.

And who knows where else he’s taken you.

There are few residents, cottagers or visitors to town who haven’t dialled 705-687-2246 and been picked up by Iversen or ridden in one of his cabs or had a pick-up or delivery from one of his drivers.

But not any more.

Iversen’s off the road after 37 years behind the wheel.

As of two weeks ago he sold his business and his six municipal taxi licenses to Mark Sethi, of Muskoka Taxi, who has his own seven licenses.

Sethi said Saturday it’s still business as usual and the two companies will continue to operate separately as he modernizes and upgrades his friendly old competitor’s small fleet based the past decade at the former Train Station.

“Everybody knows me,” Iversen tells MuskokaTODAY.com.

“But I can’t remember all of them now,” he says with a laugh over the phone.

He admits 2020 was tough year for the quiet Norwegian navy veteran, immigrant and former banker.

Least of all due to COVID and its resulting drop in ridership.

His own health started to go downhill the past year and his doctor threatened to pull his driver’s licence if he didn’t stop transporting passengers.

Reluctantly, Iversen resorted to just taking calls, operating the office and running the odd pick-up and delivery without a member of the public as co-pilot beside him or as a back seat driver.

Then on the eve of his Dec. 7 birthday, his wife of 66 years, Gerda, died of a heart attack. She was 88. The couple had immigrated to Canada in 1955, where they had a daughter and son.

Iversen worked for the Bank of Montreal for many years before the couple moved to town in 1984 and began another era of Gravenhurst transportation.

Their son Dave, one of his drivers for more than a decade, has also decided not to continue driving hack or to take over the business.

“I hoped he would,” says his dad.

While customers has slowed a bit over the past few years, diminishing Iversen down to a couple of cabs in winter now, it was once “fairly busy.”

And a somewhat profitable business that helped him raise his family.

At one time he’d log 100 calls a day, which kept dozens of drivers busy over the decades — usually with at least four of them taking calls night and day on short and long hauls, along with a couple of valued dispatchers who for a few years even handled some emergency fire and ambulance calls as part of a 911 emergency call centre.

It’s been quite a ride he said, with not too many accidents along the way, and just one niggling legal matter involving an unlicensed driver and an unresolved suit.

Still, Iversen said he “enjoyed driving and had lots of fun.”

“When the doctor threatened to pull my licence I had to let it go.

“I said enough is enough. I decided to call it a day and say that’s it.”

So what’s next for him — pleasure driving?

A pleasant drive north, east or west when COVID allows?

A sleep all through the night? A crossword puzzle he can finish?

“I’m not sure. I was too busy for hobbies.”

Maybe the chamber of commerce or town can hire him to give directions to tourists about where to go and how to get there.

Because he’s been there and done that.

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