Inverness taxi drivers 'have to protect themselves'

Inverness taxi drivers are being advised to fit CCTV within their vehicles to protect themselves from abuse or threats.

The advice from the Inverness Taxi Alliance (ITA), which represents drivers across the city, comes after a viral video apparently showing one driver facing a lengthy tirade of abuse from a passenger prompted discussion on the abusive behaviour operators face. It included racist abuse.

ITA vice chairman Duncan Fraser said abuse of drivers was, sadly, nothing new.

"It is more common than you might think," he said. "Every single driver more or less will have suffered abuse of some kind or another while on shift.

"That would be especially at nights or on the weekends where drink is likely to be involved.

"I know of one driver recently, now retired, who suffered two serious incidents of abuse in just a couple of months, his vehicle also badly damaged.

"I would say that 99 per cent of the time alcohol has been taken by those who are doling out this abuse."

He added: "There has been a large rise in the number of foreign nationals driving taxis and as a result I would say racist abuse particularly is becoming increasingly common.

"Maybe it is because in most cases when a passenger gets into your taxi you are a stranger to them and they are a stranger to you that makes then think it is OK to behave like this, bit it's not."

He said that a private online discussion group allows drivers to share information on passengers who have been abusive or threatening, ensuring they will find it difficult to access local taxi services in the future.

And pointing to how else technology can help tackle the issue he added: "We are all for protection of the public and there has rightly been a lot of discussion and initiatives to make sure passengers are safe when travelling alone in taxis.

"Equally, though, drivers have to protect themselves from those passengers who might, for whatever reason, decide it's OK to be abusive towards them.

"My advice to any driver is to get CCTV in their vehicle to have a record of what is going on.

"When I started driving very few drivers had cameras in their vehicles, now I would say most do.

UPDATE: Woman (59) charged in connection with hate crime incident

"Taxi drivers are generally well able to look after themselves – I've had threats made against me and I'm not bothered.

"Some guys, though, could be quite intimidated by it and nobody should have to just put up with that kind of thing."

Inverness area commander for Police Scotland, Chief Inspector Judy Hill, said: “This matter has not been reported to police, however officers are now carrying out enquiries into the video to identify and trace those involved.

“Any type of hate crime is completely unacceptable and this type of abuse will not be tolerated.”

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