Have you been the victim of verbal or even physical abuse from passengers? I know I have! Fortunately the physical ones I can count on one hand, but the verbal ones I have lost count of (I’m local therefore I have license to scream and cuss at you), hence one of the reasons why I have CCTV. Did you get paid?
You know the phrase ‘go home and kick the dog’, well it can often be a case of ‘go out have a few drinks and kick the cabbie’ – and I am not just talking about the public either. CCTV in the vehicle seems to be a fundamental requirement now, both forward facing for accident or vandalism evidence, and inward facing for driver protection, as it is all to easy for a passenger to launch a completely spiteful complaint to the council about you because you refused to accept the way they were treating you, and without CCTV evidence to prove otherwise, you are stuffed!
With the current national standards debate under way on public protection, where the focus seems to be on how we are all potential criminals with very nasty hidden personalities and capabilities – whilst I personally agree with the basis of the national standard and why this is happening, I cannot help but notice that no one (as usual) has spared a thought for how we as drivers deal with and protect ourselves from abusive members of the public – what about driver protection? This topic always seems to be a conversation stopper, with the Council and Police generally changing the subject and walking away from the matter.
Sign our Zero Tolerance Petition now!
So perhaps now is a good time to put some real focus on this matter, and pursue the cooperation of the Council to help us develop a methodical procedure for dealing with this to include general do’s and don’ts, and ways of reporting these incidents to the Council and Police so that action can be taken against such people. With zero tolerance abuse policies becoming common place (especially in the council itself), why should we be any different, what do you think?