A Wellington woman is launching her own taxi service where all the drivers - and all the passengers - are women.
Twenty-two-year-old Sophie Denman's setting up the business to give women a safer lift home at night.
It takes courage to set up a business but Ms Denman's found a gap in the market that combines ingenuity and necessity.
"I found a lot of girls were having trouble with male drivers and they seemed extremely comfortable just from the moment of seeing me," she says.
Ms Denman's worked as a driver in the passenger transport industry for over a year now. It's given her insights into her own safety - and that of her passengers.
So, she's set up Sophie's Angels - a service where all the drivers, and all the passengers, are women.
"It's a massive shame that it's had to get to this stage where females prefer the choice of a female driver over a male because in the past males haven't been massively reliable," she says.
After offering to get her friend Eilish Dwyer home from a situation where she didn't feel safe, Ms Dwyer encouraged Ms Denman to set up the business.
"There's so many women out there who put themselves into risky situations so it's nice to have a nice female driver take you home at night, rather than someone you don't feel comfortable with or some random person," Ms Dwyer says.
Ms Denman says it showed there was need,
Sophie's Angels is, at the moment, just Ms Denman. To help fund all this she's set up a crowdfunding page on Indiegogo.
With some backing she'll be able to get an app, more cars, and more drivers.
Newshub.
