Being a driver that is always in your vehicle, you are guaranteed to get constant phone calls, how do you handle this when it comes to your taxi insurance cover?

We all know we aren’t allowed to use mobile phones when driving, but in your situation where you are constantly on the road you can’t exactly pull over to the side of the road to take a call when the meter is ticking, you’re going to have very upset customers on your hands.

Basically your cover will cover you against your vehicle being stolen or damaged in an accident, it protects you if you are injured during an accident and it protects your customers, but what happens if all of this happens while you were busy holding your phone to your ear?

This is not a question you must ask yourself.  You should never be in that position, it will not only give you a bad name with the customers, but may injure your business if you actually were the cause of the accident because you were more concerned about the telephone call than your actual driving.

That being said, there are three ways you can handle mobile calls in your line of business.  Of course you’re going to get calls from clients wanting to be picked up at certain areas, so you can’t really afford to ignore them, though as I said before, you cannot pull over and charge your current client for the call.

The first way to handle the situation and ensure that you are not breaching your policy is to ignore the call until you have dropped your current customer and then call back.  This is a risky decision as the caller may turn to another cab company when they don’t get a response from you.

The second option is to take the call by pulling over to the side of the road; take note of the metre reading and again once the call is finished and discount your current caller accordingly.  This way you reduce the risk of missing an important pickup and keep your current customer happy, they will definitely not want to pay for your call.

The final option is to get a hands free kit that fits into the vehicle, either with a blue tooth headset, which is a small device which sits neatly around your ear. It’s not that noticeable and you can easily accept a call without taking your eyes off the road or your hands off the wheel, this way you can keep both customers happy and ensure your driving isn’t affected in any way.

Bear in mind your taxi insurance cover is there to protect you, but if you decide to take a call and forget the rules of the road causing an accident, you may lose out on that cover, leaving you in severe financial trouble.