WORLDWIDE TAXI FOCUS from Russia
RUSSIAN PASSENGER THREATENS TAXI DRIVER WITH MACHETE OVER MUSIC
A terrifying inci- dent in Samara City, Russia, has been caught on camera, showing a female passenger threatening her taxi driver with a “massive machete” because she disliked the music playing in his cab. The shocking footage, which has since gone viral, shows the woman pulling the blade from her bag and thrusting the “lethal blade” between the front seats at the driver. The petrified cabbie was forced to change the radio station after the woman angrily demanded “chanson” songs instead of the dance music. She told him: “I don’t like this kind of [dance] music.” The driver, wincing and edging away from the blade’s edge, stuttered: “I understand, I understand. I’ll turn it off.” The woman then demanded: “Couldn’t you understand the first time?” The driver eventually complied, with the woman ordering: “When you turn on [my favourite chanson], I’ll put [the machete] away.” The footage shows the driver slipping off his seat belt, appearing “ready to exit the car” if the threats continued. The “ride from hell” eventually ended without physical violence and despite the driver not making a formal complaint, local law enforcement has launched a search to trace the “mystery, headscarf-wearing woman and her machete”.
from South Korea
SEOUL CABBIE JAILED FOR MULTI-MILLION ‘FAKE VOMIT’ SCAM
A 68-year-old taxi driver in Seoul has been sentenced to four years and six months in prison after admitting to an elaborate scheme that extorted over 150 million won (c. £78,000) from intoxicated passengers. The driver targeted 160 unsuspecting victims who
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had fallen asleep in his cab. According to the verdict from the Seoul Northern District Court, the man would mix “rice porridge, soda and coffee to create ‘fake vomit’”. He would then smear this concoction on the passenger, himself, and the car seats to stage a chaotic scene. Upon waking the victims, he would demand a hefty settlement, far exceeding the fee set by the Seoul Taxi Association. To strengthen his fraudulent claims, the driver went further, planting broken spectacles on the car floor to suggest the passenger had assaulted him. He would then falsely claim to his victims that “the fine for beating a taxi driver could amount to 10 million won.” The driver was convicted on charges of extortion, attempted extortion and false accusation on November 7. He had reportedly “previously served one year for similar crimes.” The scam was finally foiled when he was arrested by a police officer who posed as a passenger in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province.
from Spain
THOUSANDS OF VALENCIA TAXIS STRIKE TO CURB UBER AND CABIFY
Up to 3,000 taxi drivers in Valencia staged a massive, city-wide strike on 4 November, demanding tougher regulations and stricter inspections on ride-hailing services such as Uber and Cabify, which they accuse of unfair competition and market saturation. The action, organised by the city’s most repres- entative taxi associations, resulted in an almost total strike from 8am to 12pm. The protest consisted of two slow-moving columns that “significantly affected the city’s traffic,” according to local police. The drivers are protesting the “intrusion” of VTC (PHV) licences, which they argue threaten their livelihood - the number of active VTC vehicles has more than doubled in just four years. The drivers’ routes led to Valencia City Hall to present a letter to the mayor, followed by a rally outside the regional Directorate of Transport. They called on Cllr Vicente Martínez Mus to “do his job” to enforce stricter controls, with some drivers displaying signs accusing the politician of “choking” the sector. This mirrors an escalating national dispute across Spain, where traditional taxi services - are battling the rapid, flexible expansion of VTC platforms.
DECEMBER 2025 PHTM
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