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PostPosted: Mon May 23, 2022 11:11 am 
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Following on from my post in the general section.
What is the position on returning to work?
Our LO says that the driver must report the stroke to the DVLA but the DVLA website says that if it is a car license they you don't have to report it.
The LO says that the driver must provide a letter from their doctor to say that they are fit to drive after the 1 month period but there is nothing in the policy to say this.
Now this is where things can get complicated because I am assuming that bus and lorry drivers have to report the issue to the DVLA and get a letter from the doctor because they have a group 2 medical. Now our taxi policy states that we must have a group 2 medical but in reality this is not the case because the Council provide the medical check list for the doctor and the information requested is very basic and is nothing like a group 2 medical.

I have advised the driver to ring the DVLA and tell them that they are a taxi driver and ask if it needs to be reported.
I also advised him to just go to the doctors and get a letter because in his particular case there should not be a problem.
Now the other driver here who has recently had a stroke has lost the vision in one eye at the moment, it is not known if this will be temporary or permanent. He has asked the Council to give him his license back but they have said no on the grounds that you can't drive a taxi with only vision in 1 eye. Now I believe that this is a requirement for a group 2 medical but not on our medical form and in fact we do have a driver in the town who has only had one eye since childhood, it was 2 but the other one died a year ago.
So if they don't give this driver his license back does that mean that the other driver with one eye will lose his license as well?

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PostPosted: Mon May 23, 2022 7:56 pm 
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We don't have Group 2 medicals, we have medicals that are meant to meet Group 2 standards.

Does your council have its own independent doctor, who has the final say should any questions come up in the medical?

Down here we do, so any questions about strokes or anything that comes up in the medical is dealt with by that doctor, and they would liaise with your GP or consultant, and have the final say as to when, or if, you can return back to the trade.

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PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2022 12:00 am 
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Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2016 7:56 pm
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I know of 2 drivers licenced who only have vision in 1 eye and neither have had any problems renewing their licenses.


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PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2022 3:27 am 
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The Group 2 standards administered by councils themselves is all very messy, particularly as there's 300+ of them.

If it's DVLA administered Group 2 standards then there seems to be more in terms of concrete rules, procedures and clarity, but not so when it comes to councils. Which might be a good thing in that it gives them more discretion, but a bad thing if they're over-cautious and inconsistent.

(And, of course, as far as being a taxi driver is concerned, the DVLA is not interested, and leaves licensing and medical matters to local authorities. As far as the DVLA is concerned, you're just a bog standard car driver.)

But what the council is doing here doesn't seem unreasonable if a higher standard is required for drivers in the trade, whether or not how they apply the Group 2 standards seems a bit messy and inconsistent.

As regards the one-eyed drivers specifically, there may be some such drivers in the trade, but one who's just had a stroke and only has vision in one eye as a consequence rings alarm bells, so not allowing him to drive doesn't seem unreasonable, in the short-term at least.

I'd ask the council how they intend to approach things in the longer-term, particularly if they're saying that he could NEVER get his badge back if he's stuck with permanent monocular vision.


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PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2022 3:00 pm 
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heathcote wrote:
I know of 2 drivers licenced who only have vision in 1 eye and neither have had any problems renewing their licenses.


1 left, 1 right, a pair!

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