Taxi Driver Online

High Wycombe taxi driver dies of coronavirus - amid pleas for better protection for workers

A High Wycombe taxi driver has died in intensive care after picking up coronavirus. Father-of-four Zahid Pervaiz, 65, reportedly died last Friday (April 17) with the virus.

His best friend told the Daily Mail that as a taxi driver, he had frequently driven into London, but had scaled his work back to just Buckinghamshire before he sadly passed away.

Mr Pervaiz was also registered as an Uber driver, but a spokesman for the ride-hailing giant said he had never taken a trip on the Uber app.

He is believed to be at least the sixth minicab driver to have died of the virus.

Yaseen Aslam, a former Uber driver from High Wycombe who took on the taxi company and won a landmark case against them regarding drivers rights, said he knew Mr Pervaiz.

Mr Aslam, who is general secretary of the United Private Hire Drivers (UHPD) union, said Mr Pervaiz’s death shows that companies are not adequately protecting taxi drivers.

He said: “With 94 per cent of the workforce identified as BAME, discrimination is a factor in the failure of the industry to adequately protect workers and in the failure of the government to regulate to ensure they do.

“How can it be that the government regulations deem it too dangerous for barbers to work but perfectly safe for minicab drivers to do so without any protection?”

The UHPD has launched emergency legal action to force the government to introduce Covid-19 safety standards for Uber and other private hire operators in a bid to protect both drivers and their passengers.

A spokesman for Uber told the Bucks Free Press it was “terribly sad news” that Mr Pervaiz had passed away and spoke of measures the company has introduced to protect their drivers.

They said: “We have provided drivers with free sanitising products, as well as procuring over one million PPE (personal protective equipment) items such as masks and gloves for UK drivers.

“Uber will also directly reimburse drivers if they choose to source the required PPE themselves.”

_________________
IDFIMH

Ooft - who writes the thread titles here?

He'd never done a job for Uber

To think many on here complain about lazy/sloppy journalism


So roughly 20,000 people have died in England, while the adult population roughly 40,000,000?

So assume there's 200,000 PHDs (think there's more, but a ballpark figure will do) then you'd expect 100 PHDs to have died

So if only six have actually died then the job must actually be safe as houses

So I suspect a lot more than six have actually died

Alternatively, most of the deaths in the population generally will be older people and/or those already debilitated by other illnesses, so wouldn't be driving a taxi or PH in the first place.

So we're probably a lot less likely to die than the average citizen, but probably because we're generally not so old or ill.

And, of course, we'd be a bit more likely to die if we were all still working, but obviously most of us aren't working, or aren't doing much work

Took time out from my busy schedule earlier to see if I could shed some light on the Uber angle.

The article above seems to be a rehash of a Daily Mail piece about several drivers, but it's the Bucks Free Press, so obviously they focus on the one driver from High Wycombe.

Anyway, Sussex's thread title seems more consistent with the Daily Mail article headline, so maybe he read that one as well, but actually posted the local piece about the High Wycombe driver. But this is the Mail's headline:

EXCLUSIVE: Death of sixth Uber driver linked to coronavirus prompts urgent call for all minicabs to be equipped with PPE

But funny thing is that this seems to be referring to one of the six:




So that's just looking at the Daily Mail piece in isolation, but already it's looking a bit dodgy.

But the Bucks Free Press article says:


Which seems fair enough - he could have been registered with Uber without ever doing a job for them, and wouldn't be surprising if a driver based in High Wycombe had 'frequently driven into London but had scaled his work back to Buckinghamshire', thus possibly due to work drying up because of Covid-19.

However, the Daily Mail piece says this:


So if he was doing a job from Heathrow to central London, that looks more like it might be an Uber run than anything to do with a High Wycombe firm.

But according to the Bucks Free Press Uber claims that he'd never done any work for them, so who knows? But if the Daily Mail can specifically describe an Addison Lee driver as an Uber driver for the headline then who knows?

Anyway, no point getting any further bogged down with this, but just further confirmation that you can't believe everything you read in the press

And, for what it's worth, I've pasted the full Daily Mail piece below.

There's a shedload of photos on the Daily Mail's webpage if anyone is interested, but I couldn't be bothered posting them all


EXCLUSIVE: Death of sixth Uber driver linked to coronavirus prompts urgent call for all minicabs to be equipped with PPE

- Six minicab drivers have now died of suspected coronavirus
- All of them complained about feeling unwell after picking up passengers
- MPs and drivers' associations called for greater protection for those driving
- Father-of-four Zahid Pervaiz, 65, is the latest to die on April 17 after picking up a passenger he believed was infected by the killer disease

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... d-PPE.html

The death of a sixth Uber driver linked to coronavirus has prompted urgent calls for minicabs to be properly equipped with PPE.

Father-of-four Zahid Pervaiz, 65, is the latest to die after picking up a passenger he believed was infected by the killer disease.

Mr Pervaiz, from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, died in intensive care last Friday and had saved all his life for a trip to Mecca which he was due to take next month.

His death came a day after 27-year-old Zeeshan Ahmed, whose death is also being linked to the virus.

The rising number of deaths prompted families, MPs and drivers' associations to make a desperate plea for suitable protective equipment.

Mert Dogus, whose 49-year-old father Haci Ali Dogus died at the end of March, said: 'I 100 per cent believe drivers need PPE or they need help from the Government.

'If they can’t have PPE, then they should stop driving. There is this problem with not enough PPE being available for NHS workers, but cab drivers need them too.'

Mr Dogus, from Hackney, worked six days a week. Mert said his father was convinced he contracted the virus after regularly picking up passengers from Heathrow.

‘In their cars they can’t be two meters away and they are in a confined space,' he added.

‘But if they get ill then they have to be treated by the NHS workers anyway. The PPE might prevent all this... It is a huge dilemma.’

Yaseen Asleem, head of the United Private Hire Drivers association whose organisation represents drivers in eight cities, said PPE would save lives.

‘It is impossible to keep two meters if you are driving passengers and drivers are unnecessarily dying. They could be saved with proper PPE and Government help.

‘Many of our drivers cannot afford to give up driving and stay at home. Many are from BAME backgrounds where the ethic is to provide for their families.

In mid-March Mr Pervaiz picked up a passeng'er from Italy at Heathrow Airport whom he believed was infected with coronavirus.

He took them into central London and fell ill a few days later, finally succumbing to the disease in intensive care last week, away from his wife, three daughters and son.

His best friend Rashid Arshad said Mr Pervaiz drove into London frequently but had scaled back his work back to his local area in Buckinghamshire before the tragedy.

‘He was a very good man who helped others and wanted to serve God in the best way he could’ Mr Arshad said. ‘This is a very sad and tragic thing to happen.'


Mr Ahmed, a father of two, died in St George’s Hospital in Tooting on Thursday.

Although he is reported to have had underlying health problems his death is being blamed on complications arising from coronavirus.

Married father-of-two Rajesh Jayaseelan, 45, died in Northwick Park Hospital on April 11 after testing positive for the virus.

His friend of eight years Sunil Kumar said Mr Jayaseelan started to experience symptoms shortly after a dropping off a passenger at Heathrow.

Mr Jayaseelan, who lived in Harrow, west London, moved to the UK from Bangalore, India, a decade ago and worked as a driver for several years.

Ayub Akhtar, from Norwood in south London, was described as ‘perfectly healthy’ before he contracted the virus and died earlier this month at the age of 33.

Mr Akhtar told his family he had driven a female passenger from Heathrow into Central London and she had coughed throughout.

He said he feared she may have been infected and a few days later developed coronavirus symptoms before dying in intensive care around a week later.

Cab driver Haci Ali Dogus, 49, from Hackney in London, who drove for private hire firm Addison Lee, has also died from Covid-19, leaving behind his wife Cigden and sons Mert, 17 and Ozen, 12 .

He passed away in the intensive care unit of Homerton Hospital last month from coronavirus and had no underlying health conditions.

Coronavirus is also believed to have claimed the life of a former Somali footballer who drove for Uber in Harlesden, North West London.

Abdulkadir Mohamed Farah Biriq, 59, who left Africa and moved to London in the 90’s died after ten days in an intensive care unit.

His death was mourned on Twitter by the Somali Football Association after his family confirmed Covid-19 had claimed his life.

He was born in Beledweyne and at the age of 17 made his professional football debut, playing for the Hiran region football team.

MPs have started adding their support for greater protection

Labour MP Nadia said on Twitter: ‘Uber and private hire drivers haven’t been given PPE, not even a drop of hand sanitiser, as they provide essential services to NHS staff.

‘They’re dying. The government must act to prevent further avoidable deaths.’

London Assembly member Caroline Russell said: ‘The issue is that the Government needs to have a risk assessment of the situation with the virus and private drivers.

‘There is a need for there to be clear guidelines on whether it is safe for drivers of private cabs and for the Government to take responsibility.’

Uber told MailOnline that it had begun distributing sanitiser, face masks and other PPE to drivers.

A spokesman said: ‘In these difficult times, we believe it is the right thing to do to support any driver who uses the Uber app.

‘Active drivers diagnosed with Covid-19 or asked to self-isolate by a public health authority will receive financial assistance for up to 14 days.

‘This is in addition to free AXA insurance protection, which covers sickness, injury, maternity and paternity payments for all drivers in the UK.

‘Uber has also introduced measures to ensure that every driver can access the PPE they need for free to drive safely on the Uber app, if they choose to do so.’

:: Friends of Mr Dogus have set up a gofundmepage in his memory https://uk.gofundme.com/f/in-loving-mem ... -ali-dogus

Statistically taxi and PH drivers make up about 0.5 to 0.75 percent of the uk population so with 18738 the current "official" death toll that means that statistically at least 93 taxi/ph drivers would have died

Add the few reported around the country together I think there is nowhere near that number so as a trade we are doing better than many

_________________
lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Simple reason is the majority of licensees are following government instructions and are self isolating.

The drivers that are still working here are not using any PPE and I have not seen any of them wipe the car in any way, shape or form when they are at the rank.

_________________
Grandad,

I was referring to not working,agree with you that those who are working could be spreading the virus and cross border hiring should be stopped as vehicles being used could travel from an area where it is prevalent.

Some contract customers are insisting on drivers wearing masks and gloves down here.

Which is fair enough, but at our local major hospital I saw two volunteer patient transport cars picking up patients and neither of the drivers had any PPE on.

_________________
IDFIMH

so you can tell if they are using hand sanitizer regularly

_________________
lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

What relevance is that?

Can you imagine the reaction if the Health Secretary responded to a question about lack of PPE if he said we are fine as we have buckets of hand sanitiser?

_________________
IDFIMH