KEY POINTS:
Some festive revellers face a long walk home this Christmas with frightened taxi drivers refusing to work late at night.
Cab companies across the country are struggling to find nightshift drivers because of fears about drunken violence, particularly in the run-up to the festive period.
Last month, a Christchurch driver was slashed in the face with a knife after picking up two men in the early hours of the morning. The injury required 20 stitches.
An Auckland driver vowed to quit the industry after being attacked by three young women early on a Saturday morning in August.
He was injured after being punched repeatedly in the face.
"We are having difficulty attracting drivers to work at night," said New Zealand Taxi Federation executive director Tim Reddish.
He said that on some nights taxi dispatchers had to turn off their phones because they did not have enough drivers to meet demand.
"It's a problem, particularly on the big nights with Christmas functions and people overdoing it.
"There are certain areas taxi drivers just won't go to - some suburbs in all major cities - because of the type of behaviour they get out there.
"There have been a number of incidents, some quite serious, some even involving murder. At the end of the day it's not worth the money."
Reddish admitted there had also been problems with drivers' behaviour towards passengers.
Last month, a Wellington taxi driver was jailed for 11 years for raping a woman he picked up in the early hours of the morning.
Reddish said new operator licensing rules introduced in October had weeded out some offenders.
"It's causing some of the more dodgy operators to close, making operators move to larger and more professional companies. It's having an effect on cleaning up the bottom end of the market."
Julie Gane, from the federation's Canterbury branch, said several groups in the city were working on a "taxi accord" to improve safety for drivers and passengers.
Discussions between the council, police, Land Transport New Zealand and others had identified the need for better placed taxi stands to prevent drunk people walking long distances in the early hours of the morning.
Gane said drivers were also being trained to defuse potentially violent situations. But she agreed it was becoming increasingly difficult to recruit drivers to work late at night.
"Right across the board there's a shortage of night drivers, simply because they don't feel safe enough. They have families to consider."
'These days the violence has got harder'
After driving taxis around Auckland for 23 years, Ian Graham has seen just about everything.
Now president of the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Taxi Federation, Graham (pictured above) is still driving - but only during daylight hours.
He reckons violence on the streets has increased steadily during his years on the job.
He recounted one story of a driver earlier this year who stopped to rescue a colleague being "dealt to" beside the motorway, only to have his own taxi stolen.
Just last week, he said a female driver on the North Shore was set upon by two young women who tried to throttle her with a seatbelt while grabbing the steering wheel and pulling on the handbrake.
"These days the violence has got harder," said Graham. "There used to be a fair bit of verbal abuse, but with drugs and everything you don't know what they are into when they get in the car."
He said drivers developed a "sixth sense" about call-outs, which he credited for saving him from serious injury a few years back.
"There was a job out south which I didn't take. The guy who did was found later thrown over a fence somewhere. He hasn't driven since, he ended up with brain damage. When I heard that, the next day I changed to day work."
