'Tank Taxi': Man Buys Former British Army Tank To Use It As Taxi

A British man named Merlin Batchelor has splashed out ?20,000 (Rs 20 lakh) on a former British Army tank and is planning on using it as a taxi.

Merlin owns an FV 432 armoured personnel carrier, which isn't technically a tank, but the 17-foot beast that can take just as much damage as its more heavily-armed carriers, Daily Star reported.

Tank Taxi/Mega

"Technically it isn't ¡ª it's an armored personnel carrier," Batchelor told CBS News. But "tank taxi" just rolls off the tongue better and they look similar.

Merlin said that the 1967 military machine had been sitting in someone's yard for four decades before he purchased it last year.

"I just wanted a tank. I always wanted to build a castle one day and it seemed to go with the whole defensive theme," he said.

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Merlin says that he is currently waiting for approval to run the armoured personnel carrier as a taxi. Currently, he is only licensed to carry passengers for events like weddings and funerals.

For about ?750 (Rs 75,000) a trip, he chauffeurs for weddings and even funerals.

"First, I had neighbors, then friends asking, then friends of friends, and then people I didn't even know asking me can I take them to, mainly asking about proms," he told CBS News.

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He has been using the former military vehicle to take his weekly trips to the supermarket and even take his four daughters to their local park in Norwich, Norfolk.

"My three youngest girls love it,¡± he added. ¡°they want to go to school in it¡±.

"My eldest daughter was a fan up until I ordered it. Now she's at secondary school and thinking 'I don't want my friends to know.'"

With all mod cons including comfy upholstered, TV, and stove, the carrier has room for nine passengers to sit at a time.

While Merlin Batchelor is only licensed to carry passengers for weddings and funerals, he is hoping to get another permit to do more events like proms and birthday parties.

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