Ensuring safety: ID badges proposed for public transport drivers

Committee okays recommendations to check rising incidents of road accidents involving public transport.

LAHORE:

The government is planning to make it mandatory for drivers of public transport vehicles to wear identity badges, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The recommendation has been made by a special committee, formed by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif after a spate of deadly accidents involving public transport vehicles.

A member of the committee, requesting anonymity because he is not authorised to talk to the media, said that they had recommended a number of reforms involving registration of public transport drivers.

“After most accidents involving public transport vehicles, the drivers run away. Later, police cannot track them down as the vehicles are not registered in the drivers’ names. An ID badge is a good way to ensure that the driver has been registered with the authority concerned,” he said.

“No new rule needs to beformulated. The condition for drivers to wear badges was introduced in the Motor Vehicles Rules, 1969. According to Rule 104, drivers of a public service vehicle are bound to display on their chest or left arm a metal badge inscribed with the name of the authority which has authorised them to drive a public service vehicle.

The word “driver” together with an identification number should be inscribed on the badge. Moreover, if at any time, the authorisation on a driver’s licence entitling him to drive is suspended or revoked, he is bound to surrender the badge within seven days,” the committee member said.

He said the committee had recommended that the drivers of public transport vehicles, including those of light transport vehicles (LTV) and heavy transport vehicles (HTV), be issued the tags in a phased manner. “In the first phase, owners of new public transport vehicles will be asked to nominate a driver for their vehicle at the time of registration with the Excise and Taxation Department.

They will be held responsible for the driver whom they hire to run their vehicle. In case, they intend to change the driver, they will have to submit the details of the new driver to the authority.

The drivers will be given these badges after theirdriving skills are tested,” he said.

“The drivers already in service will be called to take a driving test before they are issued the badges,” he said. He said that information about them would be obtained from trafficpolice and the Transport Department.

A Transport Department official told The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity that they had suggested that the drivers of public transport vehicles should be registered at the time when they come to the department for renewing their route permits.

He said that the committee had finalised an implementation module for the plan and would seek its approval from the chief minister next week.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2014.