Taxi the Kids

£170,000 to Taxi the Kids.

(17 March 2006)

Parents often complain their children treat them as a free taxi service and new research out today from internet insurer, esure car insurance , shows they’re right*. If kids – and their friends - paid for the free rides they get from parents at current licensed taxi rates, they would hand out around £8,000 to mums and £2,000 to dads - clocking up £10,000 on the meter every year**.

The average round trip for a parent acting as a children’s cab service is 12 miles, which equates to a taxi fare of approximately £35. And the average child gets driven 3,500 miles a year to school, parties, and leisure activities - with other people’s children joining in as passengers for 1,600 of these miles***. That’s equivalent to nearly £170,000 in taxi fares in total until they reach the minimum driving age of 17. ....cont/

esure.com’s “Social Taxi” poll, carried out by ICM, also reveals how mothers act as the family’s ‘chief cabby’, spending double the amount of time behind the wheel supporting their children’s social lives than they do for their own. In fact, 40% of their driving time is dedicated to taking or picking up children. By comparison, just 10% of a man’s mileage involves taxiing children.

Nearly half of all trips that parents make ferrying around their kids also include other people’s children. This niggles one in five parents (21%) who admit they get annoyed when they have to drive other people’s children around too.

Despite this only one in twenty five parents (4%) have ever asked other parents for money towards petrol costs when they drive their children around. Three quarters of parents (76%) would ‘never consider’ asking for any petrol money, regardless of the ....cont/

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mileage involved.

Mike Pickard, Head of Risk and Underwriting at esure.com, said: “Parents really do get the run around by their kids when it comes to giving them free lifts. And considering the frequency and mileage involved, it’s fortunate for children that they don’t have to fork out taxi prices.

“Parents may not ask other parents for money towards petrol costs as they have a reciprocal agreement or are embarrassed to ask for cash. There are no issues - insurance wise - for asking for money toward petrol costs as you can carry passengers in return for a mileage payment as long as there is no element of profit.”

The survey also reveals the school run is only a fraction of the free taxi service (42%). The dominant destination for taxiing parents is now shopping trips. Two thirds (68%) of parents drive children to the shops compared with 67% to friends’ houses, 61% to parties and discos, 48% to...cont/

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sports clubs and just 36% for leisure classes or Cubs, Scouts and Brownies.

Mike Pickard added: “The average round trip for ferrying kids is 12 miles but parents need to be particularly wary on short journeys - accidents are statistically far more likely to occur within a five mile radius of your home.”

Sources:

* ICM Research interviewed a random selection of 1009 adults aged 18+, by telephone between 22 nd-23 rd February 2006.

** Based on estimated average fare of a 12-mile journey in a licensed black Hackney carriage , Dial-a-Cab, 2006.

*** Based on extrapolation from the percentage of mileage for children and average journey length based on esure’s ICM figures; the proportion of average annual mileage - from Department of Transport, Transport Trends, 2005.

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