Dundee licensing chief Rod Wallace says he is open to discussion about city taxi and private hire drivers receiving awareness training about disabilities that are not immediately obvious.
He was responding to the case of a driver censured for not picking up a blind woman and guide dog as he had just had his car valeted.
Dundee City Council this week heard the case had been dealt with promptly and effectively by the company concerned.
The driver was suspended, apologised to the woman and attended a disability awareness course.
Sandra Gollan, manager of the Dundee Blind and Partially Sighted Society, complimented the company Dundee Private Hire for acting so quickly in the case.
“I have no criticism of the company because they sorted this out right away,” she said. “The driver came here and we spoke to him about people who are blind and partially sighted in terms of their needs.
“But I’m concerned some drivers might be slipping through the net in terms of disability awareness. Taxi drivers and bus drivers are supposed to do an awareness course at the Mackinnon Centre in Broughty Ferry. That is supposed to be a condition of their licence.
“We’ve had an explosion in taxi numbers in Dundee and I wonder if drivers are aware of the needs of people with disabilities? There are drivers who do occasional shifts to earn extra money: are they as aware as regular drivers of the different needs of passengers?
“OK, this case was dealt with very well, but are there rogue drivers getting behind the wheel of taxis not knowing as much about the job as they should?”
Mr Wallace said, “The Mackinnon Centre runs disability awareness courses for drivers but these are more relative to wheelchair users’ needs. Helping a passenger in a wheelchair is a health and safety issue for driver and passenger, because it is important to know the correct way to move a person in a wheelchair into and out of a vehicle.”
He accepted that passengers may have other needs that are not be immediately obvious, and said, “If Mrs Gollan is making the point that awareness of a wider range of disabilities should be part and parcel of driver’s training, we are quite prepared to look into this if she cares to get in touch and ask for this.”
But he felt the Dundee Private Hire driver case was very much the exception rather than the rule.