Almost 50 percent of licensed taxi and private hire vehicles are not fit for the carriage of passengers in Dumfries.
The Dumfries councillors were shocked by this news and are extremely disturbed that taxi insurance customers are being placed under risk by vehicles that are faulty and not fit to carry passengers.
Figures release by the Police at a local Committee meeting highlighted that almost half of the vehicles stopped had failed road safety inspections to some extents. This included both the public hire taxis and private hire minicab cars.
The taxi vehicles that had failed the checks were taken off the road and were informed to have the repairs carried out before using them again. The checks were performed by the police on 21st August 2009 to ensure that the taxi vehicles in Dumfries are fir and proper for their use.
One of the local councillors asked for sterner measures to be introduced after hearing the shocking figures. He highlighted that this was not acceptable that unfit vehicles were being used to ferry customers and the committee has to review their procedures so that taxi customers can feel safe using these vehicle.
According to one councillor the whole region should be concerned and that a campaign should be undertaken to target taxi vehicles and operators to assess their suitability as well as if the vehicle was suitable and without any defects.
The taxi licensing committee will review and advise how often the private hire and taxi vehicles need to be inspected at their approved testing stations.
Active Insurance is a specialist Hire and Reward Insurance brokers and provide cheap taxi insurance policies to customers throughout Great Britain.