With the festive season in full swing, many across the UK will be relying on rideshare services like Uber and Lyft to get home from parties and gatherings. A safety professional has now issued a vital set of guidelines to ensure passengers, particularly those travelling alone, stay protected during their journeys.
Essential In-Car Precautions
The advice comes from TikTok content creator @17tag, known as Lifestyle with TAG, who boasts a background in law enforcement and shares safety strategies with her 31,000 followers. In a recent video, she focused specifically on rideshare safety for the busy holiday period.
Her first, and perhaps most critical, tip is to check that the child safety locks on the car doors are disengaged. "The rideshare driver is a stranger," she emphasised, "you do not want to be locked in the back of a stranger's vehicle."
She also strongly advises passengers to always sit in the seat directly behind the front passenger, not behind the driver. "You want to always make sure you can see the driver, what they're doing with their hands," she explained. This position offers a better view of the driver's actions and the vehicle's navigation system.
Vigilance and Technology Use
Maintaining awareness through technology forms the core of her other recommendations. She instructs riders to keep the rideshare app open on their phone throughout the trip and to share their live location with a trusted family member or friend.
Furthermore, she recommends actively following the route on your own app's navigation to ensure the driver is sticking to the correct path. "If they're supposed to make a left, that they're not making a right," she said. "If the driver veers off course, it should raise red flags."
A particularly shrewd warning involved monitoring the app to confirm the driver has not prematurely ended the trip. If the ride is ended before you are dropped off, the app can no longer track your location, severing a crucial safety link, though it will record the point where the driver stopped the journey.
Community Response and Further Advice
In the comments section, many viewers expressed gratitude for the practical tips, with one writing, "I did not think of some of these tips thank you so much." Another user highlighted a relevant feature, noting, "Female riders and drivers can now select their preference to be a female riders and drivers only. This is a great new feature on both Uber and Lyft."
In a separate clip, the safety expert also shed light on criminal patterns, claiming that burglars tend to operate most actively between 10 am and 1 pm when homes are likely empty, while robbers and carjackers are more prevalent at night. "They do have a schedule," she stated, advising extra vigilance during these times.
By combining simple in-car habits with smart use of technology, passengers can significantly enhance their personal security while using these convenient services during the holidays and beyond.
