By simply dialling 08700 700 700 from your mobile you will be able to hail the nearest available black cab who will come sailing along to your rescue. If you register on their website you'll get £5 off your first ride in a Zingo cab, and you can also pay with your credit card, which is great to know when it's late and you don't want to hang around with cash in your pocket.

The good news, particularly for the girls perhaps, is that the technology can only be used by licensed Hackney Cabs so you won't be climbing into an entirely unknown vehicle. However, do remember that not all black cabs are able to do this at the moment although they have plans to build this up to a fleet of 3,000.

I can't be too specific about how it works but it's something to do with your mobile phone and GPS. (The base transceiver system measures your radio emission, TOA and AOA to triangulate your geophysical coordinates using a time-difference algorithm technique or an RF multipath fingerprint, just as you probably supposed).

But who cares about the details if it means your shoes/hair/jacket/day or night is saved by some wonderful cabbie in his shiny black cab!

Zingo Taxi, www.zingotaxi.com, 08700 700 700
£1.60 service charge added to taxi fare
Available on o2, Vodafone and T-Mobile. Orange and 3 to be added soon.

HH