Many licensed taxi and private hire drivers, and bus drivers are from communities who have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and are at risk of enduring transmission. Protecting them from infection by passengers is important. Equally, passengers, many of whom maybe choosing taxi transport as safer than public transport also need to know they are safe.
The Travel with Confidence programme consists of training, funding and an assurance mark which signifies that a taxi or private hire driver has gained a safety accreditation aimed to keep customers and workers safe from coronavirus.
If the mark is displayed it means that the driver and operating company have been through a training course, been offered funding for items such as a Perspex screen and other physical measures to separate driver and passengers and have taken extra steps to keep passengers safe. This includes risk assessments on their procedures and infection control training. Compliance checks are made by the council that issued the driver with their licence.
The programme was devised and is operated by the ten district and borough councils in Hertfordshire (as taxi licensing authorities) and funded through its Health Protection Board – a multiagency board which oversees the spending of the Council’s COVID funding. A separate programme rolled out prevention measures for buses with every bus operator in the county, led by the County Council’s Transport Teams.