Taxi And Mini Cab Safety
Safety Issues for People Using Mini Cabs and Taxis in London and the UK
The firm ‘Hail-Safe’ has developed a system that allows passengers to register details of the mini cab or taxi they are travelling in and the licence number of the driver. Whilst sitting in the back of the cab, the passenger either texts the word SAFE plus their cab licence number to 88800, or calls an automated telephone line - 0905 080 0103 - to enter details of their journey which are accepted and stored on the firm’s server.
" We believe the act of texting us will work in three ways", says the founder and Managing Director of Hail-Safe, Ceri Allen. "Firstly, if a driver was planning an assault, he would be deterred by the fact that the passenger has texted details which would be able to clearly identify him. Secondly, it will give women back their confidence in licensed taxi cab travel, which is being systematically undermined by all these attacks. Finally, as women start using Hail-Safe widely, it may lead to more successful prosecutions because the police will have far more information to go on."
Last year in the London alone, police estimate that there may have been over 2,000 assaults against women being driven home in taxi cabs; most of these were carried out by 'illegal touts', but many women naturally feel vulnerable when getting into a stranger’s car and asking to be taken home.
More details of the scheme can be found on Taxi and mini cab safety
