Child-seats and taxis - how do you manage?

[micra]

We are conditioned to strapping our children securely into car-seats everywhere we go. But the minute we need to go by taxi - and this always hits us when we go on holiday, eg on way to airport or rail station - suddenly we're at a loss. Nothing to secure the children. And we're probably breaking the law. We feel very vulnerable. Best we can do is take an extra belt, sit the kids on our knees and strap them to our seatbelts airline style.
what does everyone else do when they need a taxi?
No firms seem to have child-seats.

a taxi driver told me the other day that you don't need a car seat in a taxi.

You don't have to have them in taxis legally but each passenger should have their own seat and seat belt. Most airport based firms have car seats available or have vehicles with integral seats.

LIZS - Don't know where you live but NONE of my friends have found a single firm serving Manchester Airport that say they have child-seats. I'm baffled by your success!
Twinset - Suspect you might not legally need one in a taxi otherwise more taxis would usrely have them. What about the new rules that came into force this week though?

Gatwick ones do if you ask.

Even with the new laws, taxis are exempt.

Thanks for info on new laws Hulababy. From my point of view, it's a shame they don't insist on child-seats in taxis as it'd solve my problem!
Lizs - your comments are very interesting - I'm going to be much more insistent next time I need to get a taxi - suspect it might be too much hassle for them to admit to... though personally think it's a gap in the market and any firm that advertised availability of child-seats would surely do rather well.

In meantime, what DO the rest of you do when faced with a taxi with no child-seats? Sit there worrying with fingers-crossed, or like us, come up with some method of securing your child yourself? I REALLY WANT TO KNOW!!

Drives me mad, catch the bus mostly (we waiting for new car after accident) or sometimes lug carseat around if not on bus route or bus is on sunday service etc. but to be honest i dont know if i would trust taxi firms seats, the drivers always tell me not to bother strapping the seat in but to 'just hold it' instead and after our accident it was only after atripping cover and polysterene off our seat to dispose of it the stress marks in the plastic were obvious. All firms near us serve Heathrow but arent based there.

Addison Lee have integral car seats in taxi's in London. You have to ask when you book. 020 7387 8888.

The only time they let us down was the day of our wedding

What a day to let you down!
Still, that's 2 of you that's mentioned these integral car-seats - they must exist all over the UK mustn't they? Perhaps they're relatively new and I should ring round all the firms I originally tried quite some time ago. Thanks.

a friend told me that you can strap a pushchair into a black cab using the straps that they would use to strap in a wheelchair. apparently you have to be pretty insistent about it though. i have never dared try it... the law should be changed though - either it's dangerous to ride unrestrained in a motorised vehicle or it isn't. doesn't matter who's driving. and i would suggest that i drive a lot more carefully with my precious baby in the car than a taxi driver would, because i have so much more to lose.

and what about coaches? we used to travel with national express a fair bit, but i wouldn't do that now we have a baby. i am dreading the day that my train is cancelled and we are forced to travel in a 'rail replacement service'...

What do we do?

1. We use Addison Lee - they have VW Sharons (I think they're called?) which have integral car seats. No good for rearfacing babies, but great for everyone else. We use them for all airport trips.

1. Some newish black cabs have integral car seats - well, one integral car seat per taxi. No good for rearfacing babies, but fine for any other size. (BTW, rearfacing is safer than forward, I suspect a 4-year-old would be better rear facing than facing forwards in a black cab.)

1. We have a Baby B'air Air Vest thing, that we use when stuck. (i.e. when using taxis in other countries). Good for the toddler.

NQC, I've never heard of your Baby B'air Vest thing, where did you get it from? What is it?

notquiteC

• the airvest seems a great idea - came across this though on their website

"Can I use the Baby B'Air in my car?

NO! The Baby B'Air was designed ONLY for use during air travel to prevent injuries due to severe turbulence and should NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE BE USED IN AN AUTOMOBILE. "

It's absolutely not a suitable replacement for a carseat - but it's better than nothing. It is a vest the kid wears, with a loop that goes through your seatbelt. So, at worst, they will (hopefully) not go through the winshield.

We've only used it for taxi travel in other countries, on trips where taking a carseat was pointless (as we had two taxi trips planned for the whole trip).

(There's no way they're going to say "yeah, use this instead of a carseat", I bet it's not been tested, and a child in one of those vests would certainly get bashed around in an emergency stop. But they wouldn't go flying, hopefully.)

Gosh, this is the first thread I've ever started on Mumsnet and it's been SO useful. Will keep looking in case anyone else adds any good ideas. Thanks all!

Our local taxi firm said they would take us in one of their cars with our car seats to the airport, keep the car seats for however long and bring them when they came to pick us up.

The one thing that concerned me was whether they would be sitting in one of those smoky taxi offices for 2 weeks... I presume if you have a nice non-smoking taxi driver you could persuade them to keep them in their garage.

We drove in the end and parked.