Taxi Driver Online

All Merseyside taxi drivers could face drugs tests after police crackdown

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/li ... e-15983667

It follow a spate of arrests of taxi drivers for driving under the influence of drugs

Merseyside's taxi drivers could all face mandatory new drug tests when they try and renew their licence.

The drastic new measures are proposed in a report from police and crime commissioner Jane Kennedy's office and follow a spate of arrests of taxi drivers for driving under the influence of drugs.

From the start of last year to November police had arrested more than 40 drivers for the offence - and then revealed shortly after that eight drivers were arrested in as many days.

The new report, which will be discussed next week, said that Ms Kennedy met with council leaders and the metro mayor earlier this month to try and push the idea forward.

The document says: "Following a huge increase in the number of taxi drivers being arrested for drug driving offences, last April the Commissioner took the issue of ‘drug testing’ for taxi drivers to the authority, advising that she would like to see a standardised approach to drug testing implemented across the region.

"This would mean that all prospective taxi drivers and those seeking to renew their licenses would be subject to a mandatory drug test."

A post on Merseyside Police's Safer Roads Unit twitter account last year revealed how a driver had tested positive and over the limit for three drugs while he had a paying customer in the vehicle.

A report from the courts said the unnamed driver had cocaine, Benzoylecgonine (a compound tested for in cocaine urinalyses), and Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (a compound common in cannabis) in his system when he was stopped back in June.

The amount of Benzoylecgonine in his blood was 16 times above the "specified limit", the tweet said.

That driver lost his licence.

Improving road safety is one of Ms Kennedy's priorities as PCC, with the aim of reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured on Merseyside's roads to less than 400.

For 2017 that number stood at 557.

So presumably it would be easy enough for a druggie driver to get 'clean' if they knew when the test would be conducted?

Don't tell them the date just drop on them. We've got drivers round here smoking weed when they're working.

Maybe the understatement of the year so far.

_________________
IDFIMH

Some drugs stay in your system for months, especially for those tested via their hair.

_________________
IDFIMH

Not uncommon down here.

_________________
IDFIMH