EDITORIAL: Rein in rogue taxi drivers operating without insurance

What you need to know:

NTSA must expeditiously verify these claims and rid our roads of these rogue operators.
This is because operating without insurance in our chaotic and dangerous roads does significantly increase the users’ exposure to harm and with no chance of compensation.
What these rogue drivers have done is to throw caution to the wind and continue to operate in complete disregard of the regulations governing the sector.

Reports that some of the drivers affiliated to online taxi-hailing apps are operating without public service vehicle (PSV) insurance deserve immediate action.

The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA), which is tasked with issuing PSV licences to taxis upon compliance with legal requirements such as insurance, must expeditiously verify these claims and rid our roads of these rogue operators.

This is because operating without insurance in our chaotic and dangerous roads does significantly increase the users’ exposure to harm and with no chance of compensation.

What these rogue drivers have done is to throw caution to the wind and continue to operate in complete disregard of the regulations governing the sector.

Their aim is simply to make money at all costs, save money by all means – including refusing to buy insurance.

This kind of slovenliness must not be tolerated and the NTSA and other law enforcement agencies must crackdown on these hoodlums for the sake of the thousands of passengers, whose use their services every day. To deal with menace once and for all, the clampdown must be extended to owners of the online taxi-hailing apps, who have allowed the drivers to operate illegally.

Having the right type of insurance is a cardinal requirement in the PSV business and there can be no exemption to the rule. Those who want to do the business must comply with all the provision of the laws and regulations governing the sector or ship out. There can be no middle ground to this. Operators of the taxi-hailing apps must tighten their vetting of drivers for registration or be themselves thrown out of the marketplace for non-compliance with the applicable regulations.

Ordinarily, insurance covers have definite dates within which one stands covered and the app owners cannot therefore suggest that they have a difficulty in tracking drivers, whose insurances have expired.

The same is applicable to other documents such as certificate of good conduct and a driver’s licence. Besides, there are reports that some of the taxi-hailing apps operators are doing a splendid job at vetting drivers and blocking non-compliant ones from accessing the platforms until they are fully compliant.