GB Railfreight’s Peter Brockett reflects on the role of taxis in freight operations and shares how his company keeps staff safe.
The use of taxis, certainly within the freight sector, is a direct result of the often ad-hoc nature of the work involved or the places our traincrew need to be taken to or picked up from. All this presents various risks to our staff – risks that are not really highlighted and rarely make the headlines.
It is recognised that the working conditions of other transport sectors can have a direct impact on the health, safety and welfare of traincrew, shunters and so on. Taxi drivers can work hours as long as anyone, but this can affect their fatigue levels, and as RSSB has shown, staff injury though taxi driver fatigue is not unknown.
From a freight operator’s perspective specifically, managing the logistics is challenging, certainly in getting members of staff to what are sometimes quite remote locations, on one-way journeys (a goods loop in the middle of nowhere to relieve a driver out-of-hours, for example).
With that in mind, though, GBRf promotes that, if a member of staff decides they do not wish to travel in the taxi allocated, they would be supported in that decision for refusing to travel in a vehicle that they believe is unsafe or where they believe their safety might be compromised.
Taxis play a large part in our work, however. On average, we have booked around 130 taxi journeys so far in 2023, covering over 2,600 miles a day. Over 95% of those trips are for one passenger, and 40% of taxis booked replace journeys where we’ve been unable to source a hire car.
Hiring or buying our own vehicles is part of the answer to the increased use of taxis and will also cut down on single occupancy taxi use, which is not good for the environment, nor the economy. It can also place rail staff in positions of vulnerability in some (thankfully unusual) cases.
The ASLEF Combined Road Transport Policy (February 2018) gives sound guidance as to what, as a minimum, staff should expect when using taxis:
All private hire transport must be run by a reputable, licensed taxi/private hire operator or by someone specifically employed with the necessary qualifications to carry out the role safely.
All vehicles must be clean, roadworthy and properly maintained.
All taxi/private hire drivers must be well rested and fit for duty preferably in line with the requirements adhered to in the railway industry.
All taxi/private hire drivers must drive to the prescribed speed limits, in a safe and non-aggressive manner.
Mobile phone use is prohibited unless this is in combination with a handsfree system and only then, when the vehicle driver feels that it is safe to do so.
All taxi/private hire drivers should be professional and courteous.
Female staff should have the right to request a female taxi driver if available.
