We’ve all been there…

Losing a phone in a taxi is one of life’s great annoyances, but if you misplaced yours in the back of a taxi recently, take heart that you are not alone Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has just released a list of all the items that were reported lost in Dubai taxis from January to September this year.

Together, we’ve been responsible for losing 31,073 possessions in Dubai taxis, including phones, laptops, wallets, jewellery, passports and cold hard cash.

According to the RTA, collectively we dropped 1,201 electronic devices, 7,836 mobile phones, 453 passports, 254 laptops, 53 pieces of jewellery, 41 iPads and a whopping Dhs618,000 in cash.

In many other places, what’s left in the taxi, stays in the taxi – trying to recoup lost items in most parts of the world is an exercise in frustration. But here in Dubai, we can count ourselves lucky, with the vast majority of items reunited with their owners. In fact, the RTA quotes a resolution rate of 99.9 per cent.

“We return the lost items to their owners once we receive reports from them,” said Mehailah Al Zahmi, director of the RTA’s Customer Happiness Department. “This achievement is [thanks to] our taxi drivers who have integrity and honesty.”

One a taxi driver hands over a lost item, the RTA’s Lost and Found Unit sets about tracking the passenger – once the customer files a report, the item is returned.

The RTA has a good track record of speedy returns, with most cases resolved within three working days, and urgent cases dealt with on the same day, even within a few hours.

If you do leave something behind in a Dubai taxi, contact the RTA Customer Happiness Department on 800 90 90 or via rta.ae