Scruffy taxi drivers to be given written warnings

Richard Evans, local democracy reporter

Scruffy hackney carriage and private hire taxi drivers – such as those wearing faded clothing, baseball caps, or vest tops – could face written warnings under new licensing laws proposed by the Welsh Government.

At a meeting on Tuesday (18 March? Conwy’s licensing committee noted and adopted the Welsh Government recommendations regarding drivers’ code of conduct and dress code.

Councillors were briefed on the new code of conduct, which included rules on drivers’ behaviour and vehicles being clean and tidy.

Committee members were also informed that, under the new proposed legislation, the authority could discipline drivers found to be wearing dirty clothes, shorts above the knee, or flip flops.

Warning

Glan Conwy councillor Sharon Doleman asked: “Regarding the written warning, if the dress code is not adhered to, would that be given to the individual taxi driver or to the proprietor of the taxi company?

“How is this going to be enforced? Some of this is subjective, I guess. Is it going to be in forced proactively or reactively?”

She added: “So are there going to be spot checks, or is it up to a customer who has noticed that a taxi driver isn’t very tidy or who has got the wrong footwear on to make a complaint? Because I would imagine, just looking at this, it is quite difficult to enforce.”

Licensing officer John Donnelly said: “With regards to enforcement, a written warning would go to the driver that is the offender. We wouldn’t necessarily inform their employer unless we deemed it appropriate.

“As is now, if a driver is offending in any way, we deal with the driver first, particularly with hackney carriages because they may be the sole proprietor. They may not work for anybody else.”

He added: “Private hire drivers may work for themselves but also be sub-contracted to a private hire operator. If it was a consistent problem, we would go to the next step and probably involve the operator or employer.”

Checks

He then said the council already carried out random checks to vehicles and drivers under the existing legislation.

He added: “We do random checks of an evening, daytime. We also work with school transport, so we are active on the ground, and we do inspect every vehicle and every driver within that vehicle at least twice a year.”

According to the new dress code:

All clothing must be clean, in good condition, and free from damage
Shorts and skirts must be no shorter than knee length
Footwear must fit around the heel of the foot
Hoods should not be worn over the head whilst driving
According to the dress code, unacceptable clothing includes:

Clothing bearing slogans or graphics that are of an offensive/suggestive nature
Clothing that is dirty, smelly, faded, or damaged
Footwear such as flip flops or sliders that do not have heel straps
Pronounced heels
Baseball caps or other headwear that obscures the face
Clothing that leaves the shoulders and top of the arms uncovered such as vest tops
Clothing that does not cover the chest, stomach/midriff, such as low-cut tops or crop tops.
Examples of acceptable clothing include:

Trousers/smart jeans
Shirt
Smart T-shirt
Smart shorts
Polo shirts
Jumpers

A draft policy including the new proposed rules is set to be presented to the licensing committee in September.