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The South African National Taxi Council in the Western Cape has joined the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) to encourage safe driving this festive season.
Provincial chairperson, Mandla Hermanus, said SANTACO was taking a holistic approach to road safety, starting with the “fitness” of drivers.
“We need to ensure our drivers are fit and healthy to be able to undertake these long journeys. We have started a campaign at taxi ranks with partners and Absa to test taxi drivers’ eyesight and blood pressure over three days,” he said.
Hermanus also said that they want to encourage their operators to rotate drivers.
“It’s peak season and you’ll find that by now some drivers have already done two or three trips to the Eastern Cape.
“A driver must rest before more trips,” he added.
Hermanus also noted that “economics” comes into play, saying for every trip, a driver gets a portion [of the fares] so they are not always willing to make sure they get enough rest.”
He said the taxi organisation was exploring the idea of limiting driving time but hadn’t worked out the modalities yet.
Hermanus said that SANTACO wants to “explore with government” the possibility of introducing a curfew as was in the past when trucks were not allowed on the roads at night.
“We want to explore with the government how to do this on long-distance trips. For example, we want to be able to say that our taxis must leave the Western Cape by 10 am so that 90% of the driving is during the day,” he said.
The SANTACO appeal comes as the carnage on Eastern Cape roads continues with the provincial government saying that the road death toll was approaching 90 fatalities since 1 December.
