He needs a taxi just to go about half a mile (5)
I believe the answer is:
caleb
'he' is the definition.
'a taxi just to go about half a mile' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'a' is found in the answer.
'about' could be 'c' (abbreviation for circa) and 'c' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'leb' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'needs' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for caleb that I've seen is " Chap".)