Uber - the 4th emergency service?
I am not actually a huge fan of Uber as a company – their culture seems ridiculously macho, and I am not impressed at how they had to be forced kicking and screaming to actually give their workers some rights. However, like it or not ‘getting an Uber’ is the standard phrase we use for taking a cab booked and paid for via an app. I still hoover my floors, even though I use a Dyson to do it, and I still talk about getting an Uber even though apps such as Ola or Bolt do the same job.
On demand cab booking apps have revolutionised our carfree living. Not because we actually use them that much – we don’t – but because the fact of their existence is our emergency back up and gives me a feeling of security.
A few years ago when Uber started to get big, I was chatting with a friend from uni who is single and childfree, and he was joking about how easy Uber made doing a pub crawl and then getting drunkenly home afterwards. I realised at that point that I had only ever used Uber to get to/from A&E or the feline equivalent – our lives had gone in somewhat different directions!
A&E trips
Our youngest daughter started having episodes of seizures and unconsciousness when she was about 9 months old. Thankfully they turned out to be something called Reflex Anoxic Seizures, which are not serious, but we didn’t know that for the first few times, and a baby who has turned blue and lost consciousness pretty much always requires a trip to hospital!
Once this had to be by ambulance because she was unconscious for much longer than usual, but normally she came round within a couple of minutes but then still needed to be taken to hospital to be checked over. That was where Uber came into its own. Several times I was on my own with both children when an episode happened, and I was able to book the cab with one hand, while cradling the poorly baby with the other. I directed the driver via my friend’s house to drop my older daughter off and then we whizzed straight to hospital. When she had been examined and we were ready to come home then I could just book the return journey and have a cab there in minutes.
Sleeping like a baby…who has just aged her mother 10 years in a single afternoon
One of the most common reasons people give me for why they couldn’t manage without a car is that if there was an emergency they need to be able to get their child to hospital. I can honestly say that I don’t think our carlessness caused any delays with this, and I actually think it made my life easier. We live in a narrow street of Victorian terraces with no off-street parking. Just manouvering a car out of its space takes longer than the 2 mins it normally takes an Uber to arrive, and that’s assuming you managed to bag a space right outside your house in the first place! I also know that I would have found trying to concentrate on my driving whilst also keeping an eye on my sick child intensely stressful, whereas going by Uber meant she was right next to me the whole time so I could reassure her and check she was still ok. And of course when we got to hospital we were dropped off right outside A&E instead of having to drive round for ages trying to find a parking space and eventually securing one a 10 minute walk away, then realising you don’t have any money for the meter.
As she got older and didn’t fit into her Maxi-Cosi car seat (which can be fastened into any car using the seatbelt) it was easier to book a black cab via an app like Gett, and then she could be securely fastened in her pram and put in the wheelchair space in the cab. This wouldn’t be ideal for long journeys, but we don’t live very far from the hospital and the traffic speeds are not high. You are in fact allowed, in an emergency, to travel in any car or taxi without a car seat.
Pet emergencies
Henry Cat
I can also confirm that on demand cabs work equally well for feline patients. Our regular vets is just round the corner, an easy walk even with 5kg of irate cat writhing in his carrying box. But of course the day he mysteriously injured his paw and was obviously in pain was a Sunday, when our vets is closed, and so we had to go to the local veterinary hospital, which is about 1 ½ miles away – far too far to carry a cross cat. But my driver didn’t bat an eyelid as I loaded the miaowing bundle onto the backseat, and we were there in minutes. Again, no worries about parking.
Family crises
In two minutes I could be on my way home to Liverpool if I needed to
Another worry people have is getting to family who don’t live locally if there was an emergency – something we all probably feel even more acutely after living through the last year. This had always niggled at me too. My parents live 200 miles away in Liverpool. For a planned visit I can get door-to-door in about 3 ½ hours, less time than it takes to drive. But what gave me a sick feeling in my stomach when I thought about it was a middle-of-the-night phone call to say that someone had been taken suddenly ill. Not nice to think about anyway, but really panic-inducing to think that you couldn’t get there if you had to. But now I know I could. I don’t want to spend £370 on a taxi ride, but I absolutely could if I had to.
We save enough by not running and insuring a car to have an emergency fund, an Uber fund if you like, for any situations that may arise. And if the emergencies don’t arise then maybe I could spend some of the money on an Uber pub crawl…
