I just got a call from my father asking me that one. Is there a term used in England for a taxi? A quick Google search doesn’t reveal anything.
Oh, somebody with my father said they thought the word started with a ‘t’. Any ideas?
cab.
‘flat’ is ‘apartment’ you need a british dictionary.
Nothing widely used in my experience. 99.9% of the time it will be called a “taxi” or a “cab”. I can’t think of any term that would dominate that 0.1%.
You can call it a basket, or a porty, or a Basil-hopper. Those may not actualy be term that Brits use, but say 'em just right and they’ll know what you’re talking about
Some older folks (like, my grandparents’ age) used to refer to a “hackney” when they meant a traditional British black cab. I don’t think anyone younger than 80 would use the term, though, and it might be a Scottishism.
A hansom, if you’re in the 19th century.
Hackney carriage (aka the black cab)? Everyone will know what you mean if you say taxi or cab though.
Puzzled by this- what does this have to do with taxi? Am I missing something in the OP?
They may be confused with trolley, but that’s a shopping cart, I think.
Yeah the flat thing has thrown me for a loop as well.
Thanks for the replies tho.
A friend would say he’s getting a ‘Back-see’, I think the back seat was a part of that slang.
Joe Baxi. It’s Cockney rhyming slang.
This might not be British, but in Ireland it’s Joe Maxi, or joey for short.
well do update us. did your dad get a cab or not?
Thankfully, dad was in the airport headed from somewhere in Florida to Dallas. But the confusion remains for him and his friends.
The dogcart was sometimes known as a “tumtum” in India. Perhaps your father’s friend had been reading Kipling.
I’ve been seeing several posts by sentrix which look barely related to the subject at hand - and look at the join date (reported it already).
There’s also the ‘tuk tuk’ popular in south-east Asia, but I’ve never seen one in the UK.
ETA; apparently they do exist over here, although I don’t think the black cab is in any immediate danger of losing its market share.
I think you mean an English dictionary. 
Spot on, that man.
Pretty sure it originates in the London Borough of the same name. I also recently saw an advert by a local (midlands) taxi firm looking to recruit drivers, for immediate start if they had a hackney licence. So it may also be used in officious circles.