Taxi Federation backs crack down on criminals

The Taxi Federation has welcomed proposed law changes that mean taxi drivers will have to give up their licences if they have a conviction carrying a sentence of seven years or more.

Under the Land Transport Amendment Bill, reported back to Parliament this week, all convicted murderers and serious sex offenders would be banned from driving taxis.

The transport and industrial relations committee changed the bill to make the changes retrospective rather than just for new applicants and also widened the scope to include people convicted of similar offences overseas.

Taxi Federation's executive director Tim Reddish said he was suprised but pleased the changes were made.

"I'm encouraged they have taken the hard line, it's something the industry had argued for years. The previous system was too easy," he told National Radio.

Mr Reddish said that companies hired people with serious convictions unwittingly.

"It's up to the gate keeper which was the Land Transport Safety Authority but is now Land Transport New Zealand -- they make the decision, it's nothing to do with the taxi company."

He understood about 20 drivers were set to lose their licences.

Mr Reddish said checking immigrants criminal records was a difficult problem as it was difficult to check what applicants said.

Several taxi drivers have faced charges for sex attacks on passengers in recent years. Three Wellington drivers arrested within a month of each other in the middle of last year are before the courts.

The Green Party were concerned the change would unfairly discriminate against drivers who held a serious conviction, but had safely operated a taxi for the past 20 or 30 years.

They thought the director of land transport should be able to grant exemptions where they believed the person was no longer a risk to the public.

The committee believed that those forced out of the industry would be able to get other driving jobs that did not involve carrying passengers.

Drivers of courtesy vehicles would be excluded from the definition of "passenger transport service" which covered taxis in the bill.

The committee also recommended the director of Land Transport be given greater discretion in handing down bans, when a driver was disqualified or suspended.

Under the proposed amendment the director would be able to ban drivers from operating a particular service instead of issuing a blanket ban.

The committee also recommended an increase to the maximum fine for professional drivers not keeping a log book from $25,000 to $100,000.

It also recommended a clause be added to the bill to ensure taxi company logos were sufficiently different. National MPs opposed the amendment, saying competition law already covered this area.

The bill will now go on Parliament's order paper to face its second reading.

- NZPA