Coventry Connections president Hanif Patni said drivers are able to ask dispatchers to call homes so the drivers don't have to leave their vehicle. (CBC)

An Ottawa taxi driver was robbed at gunpoint in what city cabbies say is a new trick by thieves to avoid vehicle surveillance cameras.

Ottawa police said the Blue Line driver was robbed outside his cab at about 10:35 p.m. on Tuesday on Wilson Street, in the city's east end near Montreal Rd. and the Aviation Parkway.

The driver left his cab to ring the bell of a residence where his cab had been directed when two men — one armed with a handgun — robbed him before fleeing on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash, police said.

The driver was not physically injured, police said.

Emile Chahine, a Capital Taxi driver who has been driving in the city for 12 years, said the danger is a new one for cab drivers.

Cabs working longer hours

"They call from the cellphone by the bush, they give an address [to the dispatcher], they dispatch the driver and [the robbers] jump him. They do that to avoid being caught because they are not inside the car so the camera can't take the picture," said Chahine. "Unfortunately we are in a business where we are at risk of these sorts of thing."

Police said this is the first crime of this nature they've seen in Ottawa this year.

Hanif Patni, president of Coventry Connections, which owns three taxi-lines, including Blue Line, said incidents of violence against taxi drivers are on the rise. He said this is largely because more cabs are working longer hours, exposing drivers to a greater chance of incidents during vulnerable hours like late night and early morning.

Patni said his companies have implemented a system where taxi drivers can request that dispatch call their destination to advise the customer their cab is waiting, so drivers do not have to get out of their vehicle.