News

They are convenient, sometimes necessary, and always costly. We’re not talking about a fuck buddy, but the Dunedin taxi service. Whether you jump in them on the cold, cold nights, or when you don’t want to be seen with whoever you’ve pulled from the increasingly scummy Metro Bar, taking a taxi in Dunedin is often a liberty that we students take for granted.

But increasingly, taxi drivers are becoming too scared to work at nights due to the abusive and even violent behaviour of drunk students. One taxi driver is predicting that soon a ‘war’ will take place between students and drivers, with drivers taking matters into their own hands.
   The driver, who wouldn’t speak with Critic directly, and who wanted his name and company to remain secret, has been telling the more placid students he picks up about his concerns for student-driver relations. 
   “He told us that taxi drivers are going to start defending themselves from the aggressive students, and the ones who think it’s okay to refuse to pay,” one student told Critic.
    “He also told us of the toll it was taking on taxi drivers. Many are getting increasingly stressed, and can’t work at nights because of the stories about their colleagues getting threatened or attacked. They also cop heaps of verbal abuse during the rides, especially from chicks.”
   More and more frequently, stories are surfacing of students refusing to pay for their rides, and trying to do runners. There are even cases of taxi drivers getting beaten up when trying to retrieve the fare. 
   “He said that one taxi driver got jumped by two students, who were angry about having to pay for their ride home. The driver couldn’t work, and hasn’t got any other means of income.”
   Reports of drivers who have already snapped have also been filtering in all year. One report suggested a driver had burnt his own house down, while another dispatch said a taxi driver had recently cut his wife’s ear off.
   The notion that taxi drivers are going to start ‘defending’ themselves is worrying, especially since the case at the start of this year when an Auckland driver was stabbed to death by his passenger. If taxi drivers are feeling physically threatened they may resort to extreme measures to defend themselves. 
   It is already rumored that one taxi driver deliberately ran down a student who was playing ‘chicken’ with his car. 
   Whether a ‘war’ is around the corner or not, with the exam period upon us and the typical post exam blow-out scheduled, a potential flashpoint between drunk students and defensive taxi drivers might be just on the horizon.