Do not use Safecab! They've been liquidated. #notsosafecab

DO NOT USE SAFECABs!

We were in a branded Nissan Safecab last night after the company Xmas jol and on the way home, we almost got ripped off. Another car cut us off on the highway, they tried to push us off the road. The two drivers had planned the scam and only when I faked a call to the Bedforview police station, asking the cops to send help to the Van Buuren off-ramp, did the cab driver jump on the radio and tell his mate to back off. He dropped us off at the Sasol and pushed off, we’re fine.

Turns out the Safecab taxi service has been liquidated and the drivers are hanging onto the cars and ripping folks off. Also, some of drivers who were retrenched/fired still have the radio receivers in their cars, so they are listening in where there are pick-ups needed and preying on the fact that dronkies see the Safecab branding and jump in. Their website doesn't even work anymore: www.safecabs.co.za

I’ve contacted radio and online media contacts, so hopefully the news gets out and folks keep their guard up. Please watch out and pass onto mates who you know use the service!

The following is a full statement of events that took place on the morning of the 28^th of November 2009.

As part of my work’s end of year function, I had been given a business card with a Safecab driver’s number on it. This was to ensure I could arrange a pick up for the drive home, at the end of the evening. We had been driven to Fourways (Buzz Centre, Kong Roast) for the dinner, by Safecab early in the evening. The Safecab picked us up on time (18:30) in Primrose East and the drive through to Fourways was great. We paid R380 for the one way trip, a 35km drive (I guess that's another crime, another story, another post).

It was pre arranged that the Safecab driver we were going to use was to be contacted after the jol. At 3:30, we decided to go home and so I called for a pick up. The driver was unavailable, so I called the Safecab contact centre number (0861 66 55 66) and arranged for another cab. About 5 minutes later, we were being called by a Safecab driver , advising us that he was on his way to collect us. At 3:38 he arrived to pick us up at Billy the Bums (Fourways). The Safecab car (XCC 456 GP, cab number 244, I recorded the details on my mobile with a video) pulled up in front of our venue. It was branded Safecab and had the sign on the roof, so we jumped in and thought nothing of it.

Once we were in the car, the original driver from Safecab called again and warned us that we should not just jump into any cab, alerting us to the fact that it could be a scam. As we had jumped into a branded Safecab, I thought nothing of it and just thought we might as well keep going and the other cab driver (072 884 9881) could just pick someone else up. The driver initially called himself Eric and then Sipho later and this made me suspicious. I chatted with him throughout the drive, just to show that I was over the limit, but always in control of where we were and what was happening.

We drove down Witkoppen road and got on the highway at Rivonia road. As we passed the London road off ramp on the N3, another white car (XBX 596 GP) cut in front of us and slammed on brakes. The driver of our cab did well to avoid him. We were now in the slow lane, when the driver of the white car now attempted to push us off the road, into the emergency lane. When we were being cut off, the driver of our Safecab did not flinch, he was very calm and this all added to my suspicion that he was in on the scam. I asked our driver not to stop the car, but to rather apply the brakes and go round the white car on the right. As we approached the Linksfield off ramp, I asked our driver to go to the Edenvale police station, which is just up the hill, about 1km from the off ramp. I reasoned that the white car would not follow us into the Edenvale police station. He didn’t take the off ramp and this is when I was sure that he was in on the scam. I immediately got on my phone and faked a call to Sergeant du Toit (fictitious) of the Bedfordview police station, which was now the next off ramp. I asked the police to meet us in between the Gilooleys interchange and the Van Buuren off ramp, as I said I would pull up the handbrake and make sure the cab stopped. At this point, our cab driver picked up the two way radio and I heard him panic and mention the words ‘mfeto and polisie’ and he was tipping off his accomplice to back off. The other white car did in fact back off and took the turn off to the airport highway and we proceeded straight on the N3, towards Bedforview. I then told the cab driver to take the next off ramp (Van Buuren) and drop us off at the Sasol petrol station, otherwise, I’d pull up the brake and make the car stop. He took the off ramp and dropped us off at the petrol station, but didn’t leave. He still wanted to be paid. Wanting to avoid any further complications or conflict, I drew R250, threw it on the floor and went to film his car registration number. The armed response company of the petrol station was there in minutes and made sure the Safecab driver got in his car and left. A friend of mine, who I had called, came through to the petrol station and gave us a lift home.

The armed response guard told me that the Safecab driver tried to explain the incident by saying that it was one driver fighting against another driver for the customer. This doesn’t make sense, because why would another driver try to push another vehicle off the road? Also, the second white car was not Safecab branded. This is simply a cover, or attempt, to have an explanation at what might have happened, had he not heard I was on the phone with the Bedfordview police.