Planning on boarding a taxi ?,whether its the “local” ones or one of the services springing up from all nook and crannies.Your safety is of utmost importance.

So what safety procedures should you take ?.

In no particular order, lets find out  !.

1.Make Use Of Parks

If you are going the “local” or regular way ,I mean the “kabu kabu” ,make sure you make use of parks .Its easy to identify them,look out for logos and sign boards designated to an association of taxi drivers .

2.Use Trusted Services

If you have to go the other way and make use of modern services that are springing up everyday,be careful to use the genuine ones .There are quite a lot of ride sharing and taxi services springing up nowadays,so be careful.

3.Always Sit At The Back

We Africans love respect ,and we have this notion that when you sit at the back of a car while an elderly man drives ,its disrespectful.Bear in mind that its a professional service being rendered and your safety comes first.

When you sit at the front its easy to gain access to you if any harm is intended.

4.Try Not To Travel At Night

I know this seems too pushy ,but its best if you can just avoid night travels .

Its easy for harm to come to you when you travel at night ,not just from the taxi driver ,but from other factors such as armed robbery.

5.Send The Plate Number To Someone Close

Just as an extra line of defense and safety,take a picture of the car and the plate number and send it to a family or friend .

6.Share Your Location At All Times

Sending the car information is not enough , he could have placed a decoy plate number .

So at all times share your location ,there are apps that can help you share your real time location with a loved one .

7.Always Have A Decoy ATM Card

Don’t carry your ‘real’ ATM card with you,move around with another with very little cash meant for emergency.

When you need more cash you can always do a transfer .

8.Be Polite

The rate at which taxi drivers are beating people up, especially women is getting alarming .

I am in no way supporting violence,but cases like this can be averted if passengers are polite .Passengers,mostly Nigerians like behaving like kings when they board a taxi.

So be polite always and avoid confrontation .

9.Maintain Eye Contact

When negotiating with the driver before boarding ,maintain eye contact with him/her.

Most times when they have ulterior motives they would get jittery and try to avoid eye contact.

10.Surrender

I hope it doesn’t happen,but if everything goes bad and he turns out to be a robber .Just give up all your items,don’t struggle .Your life is more valuable than all what you own.

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