Posted By John Packer Sounds like your employer has more money than sense! What business are you in? and have you got any vacancies?

Posted By Raymond Rapp It sounds like your employer is going OTT to me. Road usage has its risks, as does public transport, it is a fact of life and other than reasonable precautions it is a matter of getting on with it. Personally, I would feel no safer using a taxi than driving myself. I cannot find an objective reason why you should not use a taxi over your own car, but then I doubt the employer can either. Ray

Posted By Francis E S Hone Use A taxi In the UK . I am am a qualified driving instructor every time I use a taxi I practice my fault finding skills. Needless to say i only put myself at that sort of risk if i intend to consume alcohol. I have never used a taxi that i felt safe in. I have quite often asked them to slow down and stop cutting corners. They are supposed to be tested as safe drivers but my guess is most of them drive safely only once (ON THE TEST)to get the licence. To all those safe Taxi drivers that I have never met Please don't take Offence this is just my experience of Taxi drivers. Regards Frank

Posted By John Richards You need to differentiate between TAXI drivers and PRIVATE HIRE cars. And whether your "professional driver" has had enough (or any) sleep. You should also wear your safety belt, as a lot of injuries in hire vehicle accidents are made worse by the passenger not wearing the restraints. http://www.rospa.com/roa...ivate_hire_licensing.pdf

Posted By Crim I very rarely take a taxi anywhere. My wife does not drink so if we go anywhere and I drink she drives. My father in law is a retired taxi driver. He worked nights in Liverpool for many years and has loads of taxi driving experience. He drove us to the airport in May this year in our car. What a terrible journey that was, my wife was continually telling him to "brake, slow down, stop talking, and concentrate on the road ahead etc. etc. I felt ill on arrival - and felt even worse when I realised he was picking us up when we arrived back in the UK.

Posted By steve e ashton According to a report from the DoT (see at : http://www.orsa.org.uk/g...lated_road_accidents.pdf ) Taxi Drivers are far more likely than other 'professional' drivers to be involved in RTAs where their own poor observation or deliberate recklessness was to blame. In other words - if you are a reasonably good driver yourself, and are not reckless - then you should be safer driving your own car. (Loads of caveats here about other things being equal - properly maintained, alert, route knowledge etc etc.) But for a ten mile trip from home... I would feel much safer driving myself. I've been in four RTAs over the past ten years or so. Three of them were in taxis. Maybe it doesn't concern my employer ('cos it's not MY accident, so they don't need to be told, and it doesn't go in their stats!).... But it sure worries me! I don't think you could refuse to take a taxi -but you would be well within your rights to demand that the driver stops and lets you out as soon as he does something stupid or when the seat belt refuses to extend or to latch properly (Been there done that...). Report him to the taxi licensing authority, refuse to pay, get beaten up by the driver, and left by the side of a deserted dual carriageway, miss your client appointment... I don't think your employer would be terribly happy! Sympathies. Some employers just have rules. Others have common sense. Steve

Posted By Crim In his experience driving taxi's my father in law had lots of accidents, mostly with green vehicles. His theory now is avoid travelling in a green car, or even wearing anything green!

Posted By John Howells I've always been a big fan of training. Couldnt you suggest for the high mileage users an advanced driving course? Ive always thought it wrong that to be a taxi driver you need a Hackney license and no training, even though the driver is responsible for his/her passengers.