As the Christmas party season approaches, Welwyn Hatfield residents can rest assured that when they get into a taxi, they know it’s safe. The new web-based application ‘Am I Safe?’, which is being launched in the borough on 1 December, will help passengers to identify registered taxis or private hire vehicles at the click of a button.

The Am I Safe web, application can be accessed by visiting www.amisafe.co.uk via any mobile smartphone. Passengers simply need to register with Am I Safe? for free, enter the vehicle registration number into the application, and ‘Am I Safe?’ tells you whether the vehicle is licensed or not. It also tells you the type of licence it holds, the make and model of the vehicle and the licensing area it is permitted to operate within. Like a traditional app, you can add a button or bookmark to the app on your mobile phone navigation screen.

Additionally, ‘Am I Safe?’ then creates a ‘footprint’ of the search, storing the time, location, car registration, and the passenger’s username, making them traceable quickly if something was to happen. It also sends a copy of this information to the passenger’s nominated friends and family by email. At the same time, the licensed driver (assuming that he/she is one) will get an email with the passenger’s username only, so they too know that if anything happens, the journey is traceable.

Councillor Bernard Sarson, Executive Member for Governance and Public Health, said: “This application can bring assurance to both passengers and registered drivers that they are safe, because as well as verifying that a vehicle is licensed, the stored information provides a traceable system. It brings transparency and accountability to those operating or using a hired vehicle on a journey home.”

Anthony Price-Thomson, the founder of ‘Am I Safe?’, said: “Over the past 12 months, we have been working very closely with passengers, operators, Police forces and Councils to understand the challenges they face in ensuring the safety of passengers and drivers of taxis and private hire vehicles alike. I am delighted to say that we have built a web application that aims to meet those challenges.”