How To Stay Safe When Calling Cabs & Taxis?

What if your car breaks down? 

Or you are too drunk to drive home?

Photo of and by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

In Singapore, I like to use the trains. In the USA, distances are greater.

US flag.

USA Fatal Outcome

A student in the USA, Samantha Josephson, called for a ride, got into the wrong vehicle, was found dead. (March 2019)
The Daily Mail had 12 pages of comments and suggestions of how to avoid such tragedy in future.

Singapore Flag.

Singapore
In Singapore, the big hotels have doormen who will hail a taxi for you, and check the driver understands the destination.

Passenger's Name
In Singapore I have used Grab and noticed the driver sometimes gives me my name. I didn't think of asking or waiting to learn if the driver knows the name of the passenger. I thought it was to be sure he was picking up the right person, because otherwise two drivers and one group of passengers or two could be in confusion.

Protecting The Driver
For example, my tracking system shows my driver is approaching. But there are many blocks of apartments in a circle. You often have two drivers arriving within the same minute, and siling past your block whilst you run out trying to flag them down.

Supposing you have been waiting ten minutes for a taxi to the airport. The driver asks, "Mr Brown?" "Yes," you mutter.
It would be easy for group one to take the first taxi to appear. They get driven to the wrong place, argue with the driver.

It could be a habit. Kiasu. Being one up. Getting ahead in a queue. I have often heard of customers trying to claim restaurant tables by nodding when asked," is this your name?"

Both drivers are aggrieved. One gets passengers wanting a shorter journey, paying less. The other driver gets passengers wanting a longer journey in the opposite direction, when he was about ti go off duty.

If they mistake is discovered. bother passengers jump out, and blame the taxi company. Both drivers lose money.

Is it Your Cab?
To go back to the problem of ascertaining that you are being picked up by the right cab.
First, when  waiting for a cab, you should watch its direction.

When it gets near, you should know the number plate of the vehicle.

What if he makes an excuse?

The driver can make all sorts of claims, such as, "They muddle my car up with my mother's / father's / brother's".

One solution is to take the number plate of the car (which could be stolen). Better still, photograph it. Also photograph the driver before getting in. Drivers don't like this. They think you are about to report them to the government for wrongdoing.

I find it easier to blame my husband. "My husband wants to know I'm going where I said I am going, in a taxi, not sneaking off shopping."

Oops - there's a passenger maybe telling a white lie.

Stay On The Phone
Other suggestions are:
Make sure your phone is charged in case you need help
Stay on the phone to somebody.
Pretend to be on the phone to somebody
If the driver locks the door, phone home or phone the police and tell them
If the driver locks the doors at traffic lights, saying it's to stop robbers jumping in, ask the driver to unlock the doors as you dive, so that you are not trapped in the case of an accident
Carry a glass breaker to get out in case of kidnapping or the door being jammed in an accident
If the driver tries to lock the car doors, object or wind down the windows and start waving and shouting or hold up a sign saying help!
If the journey is delayed by traffic and rain and the increasing fare is too high for you to pay, check somebody at home has enough money, or tell the driver to drop you at a nearby railway station and explain why.
Stay on main roads. Have a map to check directions.

If Locked In!
If all else fails, try to stop your self being driven off main roads. I would steer the car into another vehicle or object (ideally without injuring my nor anybody else.

If kidnapped, trapped, and in danger, block traffic and make others run to your vehicle to try to get you out.

Some readers suggested that taxi companies should give driver and passenger a code.

Others suggest that people should travel in pairs.

On New Year's Eve, in one US city, taxis offered people free rides home. The bar would call the taxi to be sure the passengers, if inebriated, got into a car whose number plate and driver was known to the bar.

Another system is to book one taxi to the restaurant, and arrange for the same one to collect you. We tried that in Cambodia, where the early evening driver always wanted to get the return fare. What if somebody else turns up and claims, "My friend is busy, so he sent me?"

What if your driver appears on foot and walk you down an alley towards where he claims to have parked the vehicle?

My preference is to have a cab booked by your hotel or your restaurant, using a cab company whose name and number you know. Ask the name of the driver.
I like to have a map from both the hotel and the restaurant. I mark the route, or ask my hotel to do so, and ask if any alternative route is possible and would not cost much more.
Then I watch the driver's route. I know I am not being taken on a long journey, nor being kidnapped to an unknown destination.

What is somebody else jumps in the car? In some countries there is a shared cab system. Check with your hotel and the cab company that nobody else will be in the car with you.

Stay Safe
Read the safety pages for your country's cab and taxi services and those of countries you are visiting. install the aps so that in an emergency you are not relying on other people.
For example, Grab in Singapore has a website page describing its emergency button.

Safe Travels!

Useful Websites
News
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6868023/University-South-Carolina-student-Samantha-Josephson-confirmed-dead.html#reader-comments

Taxis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_taxicab_operation

Sharing Rides
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Share_taxi

Lyft
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyft
https://www.lyft.com/

Uber
https://www.uber.com/
https://www.uber.com/en-SG/safety/
https://www.uber.com/newsroom/checkyourride/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber

Grab
https://help.grab.com/passenger/en-sg/360000002827-What-is-the-Emergency-button

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have a later update on Monday April 1st 2019. Please share links to your favourite posts.