IN THE NEWS
SCOTTISH PH ASSOCIATION LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN WITH POLICE TO IMPROVE SAFETY FOR DRIVERS
The Scottish Private Hire Association (SPHA) has launched a campaign focused on improving on-the-job safety for private hire drivers which will include lobbying the Scottish Govern- ment for the creation of deterrents against violence to drivers and the delivery of a safety seminar in partner- ship with Police Scotland. The SPHA and Police Scotland are now in the planning stages of developing and delivering a driver safety seminar where private hire and taxi drivers will be taught skills such as body language reading, incident de-escalation and conflict resolution as well as being given information on how to generally keep themselves safe while working. A series of safety pamphlets are also being designed for distribution to drivers ahead of the seminar which will take place later in 2022. Eddie Grice, the SPHA’s General Secretary, said: “Initially, we are work- ing with the licensing team within Police Scotland in Glasgow to deliver this course fairly locally in the Greater Glasgow area, but we have already discussed the possibility of building upon this pilot and delivering similar seminars nationally by working with the national licensing teams of Police Scotland at a later stage”. The seminar will be focused on educat- ing drivers on dangerous situations that could occur while working and how to deal with them in a safe manner while teaching skills to de-escalate situations. The SPHA is also asking local authori- ties to take part in the development of the seminar. Mr Grice continued, “We are asking local authorities to engage with us on this and to discuss how councils can help with our campaign. We are hopeful that they will commit time and resources into helping make the seminar a major success. “We’ve spoken with Councillor Wilson,
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The offence can result in a fine, with penalties escalat- ing to a a prison sentence, and with aggravating factors adding the poten- tial for a more significant fine or sentence. Mr Grice continued: “We are calling on the Scottish Government to widen the scope of the protection of workers legislation to include taxi and private hire drivers and to make it a specific criminal offence to
the Convenor of Glasgow City Council’s Licensing Committee, and he has indicated that this SPHA led initiative would have his support.” “The SPHA has been, and will continue to meet with Members of the Scottish Parliament to discuss issues of driver safety. As an association for private hire drivers, issues of driver safety are, of course, paramount to us and to that end we wish to see stronger legislative deterrents put in place as well as Zseeing stronger punishments and greater justice when incidents of violence and abuse against drivers take place. “We have already held meetings with politicians from the Conservative Party, the Labour Party and the SNP, and these meetings have been very promis- ing. We are hopeful that we can soon secure meetings with Scottish Ministers on this topic so that we can have governmental support for our cam- paign and goals”. The SPHA is calling on the Scottish Government to expand the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021 to include private hire and taxi drivers. This particular law created a new offence for situations where a retail worker is assaulted, threatened or abused while engaged in their work.
threaten, abuse or attack a private hire driver or taxi while they are at work and to also class the offence as aggravated when such incidents happen whilst the driver is enforcing licensing or opera- tional conditions. “While we understand the rationale behind why licensing authorities have a priority towards public safety, our argument is that this cannot come at the cost of ignoring the safety of drivers. Drivers are out there providing a valuable service to the general public while playing a real life game of ‘stranger, danger’. Protections and safeguards must be in place and in place at all times. “We will continue calling on authorities to do more until we are satisfied that the levels of protection are satisfactory, but in the meantime we, as a drivers’ association, will be proactive in the development and delivery of resources to help keep drivers, and our paying passengers, as safe as possible. “This includes encouraging drivers to install CCTV in their vehicles, lobbying local authorities to allow the use of safety partitions in private hire cars for the purposes of driver safety, calling on the the Scottish Government to put in place legislative protections, and work- ing with Police Scotland on our new partnership in devising our planned driver safety seminars”.
JULY 2022
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