CREDANT Technologies today announced survey results that indicate passengers in New York’s Yellow Taxicabs have left behind a staggering 31,544 mobile phones and 2,752 other handheld devices such as laptops, iPods and memory sticks over the last six months.

The survey was carried out at the same time in both London and New York and highlights that New Yorkers and Londoners are both as work-obsessed as one another. Cab drivers reported that passengers spend almost half their time (44%) catching up on work, either by being on the phone or email. Unfortunately too many of these mobile devices are left behind in the back seat of the cab.

The survey figures were based on 300 New York yellow licensed taxi drivers and extrapolated amongst 13,087 yellow licensed taxi cabs in Manhattan New York. In London the figures were based on interviews with 300 London licensed taxi drivers and then extrapolated amongst the number of licensed taxi cabs in London which is 21,729 (according to the Public Carriage Office September 2008).

“We’ve become too complacent about losing personal information. This is a warning to the business community and individuals to be vigilant when travelling with mobile devices especially as more people are using the latest range of “must have” mobile smartphones to store large amounts of sensitive personal and business information,” stated Michael Callahan, Chief Marketing Officer at CREDANT Technologies.

Nearly two-thirds of cab drivers reported that mobile phone owners were reunited with devices found at the back of cabs. In London the chance of getting a mobile device back was much better than NY with 80% of cab drivers handing them into their depots or personally contacting the owners themselves.