Safe taxi campaign gathers pace

A national campaign to stamp out bogus taxi drivers is having an increasing impact around the country.

Taxiwise was launched in 2003 as a reaction to the growing number of attacks on passengers who unsuspectingly got into vehicles where the unlicensed driver was posing as a legitimate cabbie.

Since then, its cry has been picked up by organisations all over the country and there are now calls for all the individual campaigns to unite under one banner.

The latest edition of the Taxiwise newsletter highlights the growing success of the campaign and other issues surrounding the use of taxis by people across the UK to ensure they get to their destination safely.

It also gives tips on the safest way to use a taxi or minicab, highlights the need for the police to keep statistics on the number of attacks by unlicensed drivers, carries a story about the increasing number of tuk-tuk style vehicles being licensed to operate as taxis and looks at the situation in cities like Coventry and Norwich where drivers are fighting back to stop cabbies from surrounding authority areas stealing trade from their streets.

“In London alone, an average10 women a month are sexually attacked by illegal minicab drivers, “said Celeste Clarke, spokesperson for Taxiwise.

“There are an estimated 30,000 unlicensed cab drivers operating across the UK and it’s thought that 5,000 women are attacked by them every year.

“But these statistics are too vague. We have no clear picture of the scale of the problem. We hear about the particularly nasty incidents, but it could be that there are hundreds of other cases each week. Knowing exactly what is happening could also give new insights into how the problem can be tackled.

“We want police forces to start keep statistics on attacks by unlicensed taxi drivers. Currently, only the Metropolitan Police do this.

“Our investigations show that these figures can be extracted from existing crime statistics but because forces are under no obligation to provide them, despite requests through the Freedom of Information Act, they are unwilling to do so.

“Taxiwise and the other local campaigns which are increasingly starting up around the country are doing what they can to cut into these figures but we need everyone to unite behind the cause.”

Taxiwise wants to see a national standard brought in to govern all vehicles used as taxis rather than each council setting its own rules. This would dictate certain safety requirements a cab needs to adhere to and ensure it was instantly recognisable and distinguishable from other vehicles on the road.