60 per cent of York’s taxis have been vomited in

Have you ever got a taxi home from a night out when you were absolutely car-parked? Did you feel bad for the driver who had to put up with your drunken messiness? Well now there are statistics detailing just how awful we are when we get a taxi home from a night out.

A survey has found that 74 per cent of York taxi drivers have picked up passengers who could not remember or communicate where they were going because they were so drunk.

Additionally, half of the drivers surveyed have had passengers pass out completely in the back seat and nearly 60 per cent of drivers have dealt with passengers vomiting in their cabs and 64 per cent have had to take passengers to hospital.

The survey was conducted by insurance broker insureTAXI, who have issued a warning to students to be extra careful as the university year begins.

Tim Crighton, marketing director of insureTAXI, said: “We know that taxi drivers regularly have to deal with passengers who have drunk too much and while we don’t want to sound like a killjoy, it’s important for young people to be sensible and savvy when going on nights out, especially if they’re in an unfamiliar place.

“During Welcome Week, we’re urging students to familiarise themselves with where the approved taxi ranks are in the town and near their students union, as well as save the details of a couple of local taxi firms in their phone. Remember, you can only hail down public hire cabs, such as Hackney black cabs, and you must pre-book private hire cabs. Alternatively, if Uber operates in your area the app can be a good solution.”

Max Palfreman, a third year Maths and Economics student, told The Tab: “Taxi drivers have to put up with a lot of hassle from drunk students. If you can’t compete at the top level like boozy legends such as myself, you should switch to a soft drink halfway through the night so that taxi drivers don’t have to put up with you when your steaming carcass flops into his car in the early hours.”