Taxi Driver Online

Smoking banned in taxis

Smoking in black cabs and minicabs in the capital will be effectively banned from today, London Mayor Ken Livingstone claimed. It was the latest step in the war on workplace smoking which is gaining growing public support, he said.

Through the capital's transport authority Transport for London, Mr Livingstone, who wants a London-wide smoking ban, is in charge of licensing taxis. He said: "Up until now it has been the case the black cab driver had no legal right to refuse to drive a smoker.

"I have instructed the Carriage Office that this will no longer be enforced.
"Any black cab or minicab driver refusing to take a passenger who is smoking will have no disciplinary action taken against them. "I don't believe it is right they should run the health risk of having to breathe in somebody else's smoke."

Today Mr Livingstone wrote to the Government asking it to devolve powers to him to enable him to introduce London-wide smoking restrictions. To back his claim he released a Mori poll based on 1,007 telephone interviews between October 9-12 which revealed widespread support for a ban on smoking in offices, taxis, restaurants and other workplaces.

It found that 60% of Londoners said they strongly supported a smoking ban in taxis while another 14% said they would tend to support such a move. In contrast 7% said they strongly opposed such a ban, 8% tended to oppose it along with 10% who were not bothered and 1% who were undecided. Overall 65% of Londoners expressed support for a total ban on smoking in all workplaces.

Offices should be smoke-free, according to 75% of those surveyed, with 72% supported for a ban in shopping centres and 71% support for a ban on smoking in taxis.

Mr Livingstone now intends to hold a conference and commission further research into how the bans in the United States and the Republic of Ireland have worked.

Tourism bosses have also told him that a smoke-free capital will make London a more attractive destination. He said: "Any ban would have to work on a London-wide basis because no one would know where the boundaries. "If we are to have smoking ban it should be a London-wide smoking ban and not individual boroughs. My view is that a ban should be total and not exclude pubs and clubs.

"The great chaos predicted in ban in New York and Ireland has not happened."

Believe Dundee had banned drivers and passengers for the past three years,with regard to smoking in cabs.
Still see the odd driver/passenger lighting up.

Ken has not the power to stop smoking in cabs

read the government dictat smoking in taxis

the drivers cannot stop it.

Drivers can now tell customers to get out if they light up. But I suppose it all depends on how long the job is.

If they are going miles then the driver will see the pound signs, not the cancer smoke. If the punters is going around the corner, maybe on a Tesco's freebee, then the driver could use it as another excuse to blank the locals.

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IDFIMH

Don't know about what's happened in the last three years, but as far as I know the position is that the driver is banned from smoking while carrying passengers, but has the option of whether or not to allow passengers to smoke.

So the driver COULD make the taxi non-smoking, but on the other hand he could allow passengers to smoke while (anomalously) not being allowed to smoke himself.

To that extent the recent report in the Tele seemed a tad misleading since it seemed to say that both drivers and passengers are banned from smoking during a journey.

The report also seems to imply that there's been no change recently, so where do you get the bit about the last three years from Paul?

http://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/outpu ... 947t0.shtm

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Dundee rocks. Almost.

We have never allowed smoking in our cars, driver or passenger.