Advice required if anyone can help please.

My dear old mum has been told she can no longer drive because of her failing health. She’s done well to get this far to be honest.

We still want her to be able to get around, maintain her independence as long as possible.

I was hoping to use Uber (she’s no chance, mobile phones are witchcraft  to her), but I’m not sure if you can “remote” order? Am I right?

If not, which Bolton based taxi firm is the most trustworthy. Ideally I’d like to pay them £100 a month up front and let her just order a taxi as and when she needs without worrying about cash.

Could do with knowing which are least likely to mug me off.

Failing that, any services (paid) out there that I may be missing?

Thanks thugs.

Is your mum ok with cash?

You could give her £100 month, and let her pay the driver, that way, you don't have to worry about giving it to a taxi firm up front.

7 minutes ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

Is your mum ok with cash?

You could give her £100 month, and let her pay the driver, that way, you don't have to worry about giving it to a taxi firm up front.

Don’t really want her messing about with cash. She’s getting really confused these days and it’s a worry.

would rather pay it forward

Just now, Spider said:

Don’t really want her messing about with cash. She’s getting really confused these days and it’s a worry.

would rather pay it forward

The only worry there mate is if the taxi firm charges more than they normally would.

401 (Westhoughton) & First Line (used to be Ace) have proven worthy of my business.

I have an Uber account but often order them on my app for the Mrs to use. I’ve not had any issue with her doing that, even though a woman gets into a cab booked in a bloke’s name. 
 

If you open an account for your mum (in her name) presumably they would expect a woman to be getting in. Link it to her bank card (or yours) and the money is taken directly with no need for her to carry cash.

So long as you’re around and able to book Ubers when she needs one, should be fine. Using the app you can also let her know how far away the car is, what the licence plate and model is etc. Even the name of the driver! Plus, you can follow her journey live on the app, to track the progress (if you’re concerned).

A few caveats:

1. I don’t know how trustworthy local Ubers are compared to minicab firms. They’re ok round my way, but I live in that there London.

2. Not sure what the Uber coverage is like round your way - could get a better service from a local cab firm?

3. Worth checking the receipt emails from Uber to make sure they haven’t gone the long way round, to try and dupe a customer they may perceive to be more oblivious to being ripped off. I’ve had it done to me when I’ve been out for a night out and fallen asleep on the way home.

 

Cheers

Id prefer Uber as I use it and it’s well priced and trustworthy.

wasnt sure if I can order one for her even if I’m on the other side of the country?

17 minutes ago, Spider said:

Cheers

Id prefer Uber as I use it and it’s well priced and trustworthy.

wasnt sure if I can order one for her even if I’m on the other side of the country?

I’ve only done it from the other side of London. I’m in London now and I just tried to see if I could order one from Chorlton to the Unibol and it was showing me wait times etc from the M21 postcode i used. So, it seems it would work from a quick glance. 

 

Uber will automatically try and pick you up from where you are, but you can change the pick up point to a different place. I've done this plenty of times, but never from somewhere miles away.

Probably worth doing a dry run by seeing if you can do it and then cancel it straight away.

Uber are a piece of piss to use and I use them all the time, in fact I opened the app in Abufeira when I was pissed up last year and an uber driver came and picked me up within a couple of minutes, fancy that. In Wigan I couldn't get an uber driver at all

Personally think you would be better with a local firm. Go see them and they will sort it do drivers know the score. Old woman opposite us does this with our local firm. 

After the morning I’ve just had Spider I’ll do it for free.

I’ve seen Driving Miss Daisy, it’ll be reet.

1 hour ago, Widnes Two Hats said:

Uber are a piece of piss to use and I use them all the time, in fact I opened the app in Abufeira when I was pissed up last year and an uber driver came and picked me up within a couple of minutes, fancy that. In Wigan I couldn't get an uber driver at all

Last time in Lisbon, plane got in at 12am, last train to Cascais is at 1... Ended up at a random metro station, called an Uber, arrived in 2 mins, 20 Euro straight to hotel. Superb.

I use a local firm to pick Junior up from school twice a week. She gets same driver 9 times out of 10 and they invoice my business me once a month.

On 02/02/2020 at 13:45, Spider said:

Advice required if anyone can help please.

My dear old mum has been told she can no longer drive because of her failing health. She’s done well to get this far to be honest.

We still want her to be able to get around, maintain her independence as long as possible.

I was hoping to use Uber (she’s no chance, mobile phones are witchcraft  to her), but I’m not sure if you can “remote” order? Am I right?

If not, which Bolton based taxi firm is the most trustworthy. Ideally I’d like to pay them £100 a month up front and let her just order a taxi as and when she needs without worrying about cash.

Could do with knowing which are least likely to mug me off.

Failing that, any services (paid) out there that I may be missing?

Thanks thugs.

If she's Horwich, Private Hire have always been reliable, we use them all the time. If she can manage using a mobile phone for phones and texts, but not an app, You can phone them then you get a text to confirm the booking, one to say the driver is a few minutes away, and one when the driver has arrived. They've just moved to Winter Hey lane where Rivington Ski was, and recently changed the name to Vincent Private hire (Owner's surname), the number is the same though - 690096