Taxi app 'Free Now' can't identify creepy taxi driver

Joe Duffy heard from caller Katie who ordered a taxi using the Free Now taxi app when she arrived home in Dublin from her holiday in Spain. The taxi driver asked to use her phone as there was a problem with the "job confirmation".

Once Katie was alone, the driver suggested she move into the front seat of the car and started acting inappropriately by making comments about her appearance and asking her personal questions. When stopped at lights, he would turn around and leer at her "like a piece of meat". Katie said she never wanted to get out of taxi so much in her life. Katie asked the driver to pull in at a spar to get money. She then told the taxi-driver, she would make her own way home.

Katie then discovered that unbeknown to her the driver had cancelled the job before handing her back the phone, leaving her with no record of the trip or his details to report him.

Katie contacted Free Now and gave them the man's initials, the three digits of his taxi number and the make and model of his car but Free Now told Katie that they had no record of the trip and couldn't provide her with the driver's details due to GDPR regulations. They told Katie to talk to the guards but the guards told her to make a formal complaint to the NTI who regulate taxi drivers. The NTI subsequently told Katie that they couldn't move forward with the complaint with so little information.

Broadcast: Liveline | RTÉ Radio One | 01 Aug 2019