As the end of 2025 approaches, we are providing tips to help drivers navigate the complexities of serving customers on New Year’s Eve, along with general advice on customer relations and avoiding aggressive driving behaviors.
Making the Most of New Year’s Eve
On a night that is notorious for extreme traffic and intoxicated passengers, it’s important to plan ahead if you’re going to be working on New Year’s Eve.
- Check multiple newspapers and online sources to learn – ahead of time – about any street closings or detours you may face, thanks to special New Year’s Eve events.
- Be patient with passengers who may be intoxicated. It is infinitely better that they are using your service, rather than driving while intoxicated.
- Make sure you are familiar with local police precincts. If you are being abused or threatened by an intoxicated passenger, do not take the law into your own hands. This is another reason to have an in-vehicle camera.
- Make sure everyone wears their seatbelts. Large crowds tend to jaywalk on New Year’s Eve, often causing sudden stops.
- Try to use local streets instead of highways. It is easier to drive defensively on a street than a highway, where speeding drivers – who may be intoxicated – will be traveling.
- Be pleasant to your passengers. On New Year’s Eve you will be pleasantly surprised by generous gratuities from passengers who appreciate your service on a difficult and dangerous evening to work.
Guidelines for Passenger Relations
By learning how to better serve your passengers, you will improve your chances of earning larger gratuities, so please consider the following advice:
- Try to obtain advanced knowledge of your passenger’s destination and discuss your planned route with them, if necessary.
- Be diplomatic when representing yourself and your base or management company.
- Avoid controversy; never argue with passengers. If an issue arises, allow them to vent. Apologize when necessary.
- Be professional, tactful and polite at all times. Say “please” when asking for something and thank them when it is appropriate.
- Ask permission if you are going to play the radio or adjust the vehicle’s temperature.
- Let the passenger choose the topic of conversation or respect their right not to have one. Learn to listen and listen to learn.
- Remember that your actions affect other drivers. In addition to transporting passengers, you are a salesperson representing an entire industry. If you make a good impression, you improve the chances that your passengers will use services like yours again.
Avoid Aggressive Driving
Aggressive driving is a factor in more than half of all fatal motor vehicle crashes, according to a report released by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. It may also lead to unnecessary instances of road rage, which can also be highly dangerous.
- Do not tailgate.
- Do not make frequent or unnecessary lane changes.
- Do not turn or change lanes without using your turn signals.
- Yield the right-of-way, when necessary. Treat others the way you would want to be treated.
- Remember: Almost all collisions are preventable.
