Taxi Driver Online

I am told that our licensing team are looking at refusing to renew drivers badges if the driver has had the misfortune to have suffered a stroke.
They have not said that they will revoke any current licenses but will no renew. This seems strange to me that someone who has held their current license for say 6 months and then has a stroke will only become unfit 2 and a half years later.
Does anyone else's Council have a similar policy?

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Grandad,

this seems very odd the normal procedure is your badge is suspended until you are passed medically fit.

if a doctor has passed you medically fit that you have been declared medically fit to resume work surely ?

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

That is what I would have thought as well.

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Grandad,

It is not in the remit of a licensing officer to make a decision on the fitness of a driver. They have, by the introduction of medicals for taxi drivers handed that decision to doctors, who, at least in the City of Lincoln, where, and are, ultimately asked one binary question. That is, is this person fit to drive a taxi/ private hire vehicle. The doctor who carried out the medical can only answer yes or no. The medical form in Lincoln was I believe, 6-8 pages long, and covered all kinds of questions on such things as lifestyle, e.g. do you smoke, drink, eat garbage, etc. along with checks for blood pressure, heart rate, medication, and so on , and so forth. On this evidence the doctor should make an educated decision based on the evidence before them. Strokes, like many other medical conditions, happen in many degrees of severity, from so mild the patient does not know they have had a stroke, to fatal so severe is the stroke. Some people make a full recovery, some, over time a partial recovery, some die.
It sounds like your council want to have their cake and eat it too. If they have handed responsibility for declaring a taxi driver fit for work to the medical profession, then they surely must stick with this policy, or they should recind the medicals policy, because they know better than the doctors do as to whether or not a person is fit to drive.
Is my opinion.

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Former taxi driver

Ours definitely doesn't have a hard and fast rule as never, as it would more and likely be illegal.

The issue is what a suitably experienced and qualified doctor says, not what a pen pusher says.

In short if the doctor says he is fit and proper to drive a taxi, then medically he is.

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IDFIMH