In British English, a minicab is a taxi you cannot just wave down in the street. You have to order it — by telephone, and now often with an app. In London the famous black cabs may pick you up from the kerb; a minicab is private hire, and it should be booked first. The car itself is often an ordinary car, not a special high taxi. That is the messy truth: the “mini” does not really tell you the car is tiny. Students hear mini- and think “small taxi”. Native speakers are talking about the kind of service, not the size. The word is strongly British. American English uses cab or taxi for the vehicle, and private hire or a booked car for this kind of ride. In Taiwan you already live this split: waving down a 小黃 versus calling a fleet. Minicab is the called-ahead kind in the UK. It can also be a verb there (to minicab = to drive that kind of taxi for a living), but the noun is what learners meet.

電話預約計程車（英式；不能路邊攔，要先叫車。不是「很小的計程車」）