Demerits for a reason

Adrian Acosta, president of the TT Taxi Drivers Network, may be concerned about taxi drivers being unable to work despite having fewer than the required number of 14 demerit points, but it’s the law.

A driver with ten demerit points but fewer than 14 is suspended for six months. For 14 points or more, the suspension lasts for a year. Any driver earning more than 20 demerits has their driver’s licence taken away for two years.

Driving on the Priority Bus Route without authorisation is worth six demerits, so getting ten isn’t terribly difficult if a driver is careless or prone to risk-taking.

He may have a legitimate concern that there’s no ready method for a magistrate to remove points that are successfully contested in court, but the traffic law automatically removes demerit points if a driver can drive without incident or additional demerits for two years.

But Mr Acosta must also acknowledge that a taxi driver with ten demerit points is likely to constitute a hazard on the road and to the travelling public.

To qualify for a taxi driver’s badge, a citizen must be 21 years old and have held a driver’s licence for one year and hence be an “experienced driver” under local law. It’s a low bar for ferrying passengers, but it’s the system.

It could be argued that drivers, whether they are driving as legitimate taxi drivers, running PH or even driving vehicles as ride-shares, should be required to declare a status of ten or more demerit points to their fares. It should absolutely be the law for drivers who have racked up ten demerits within six months of getting their taxi driver’s badge.

In studies of European countries which have adopted demerit systems after correction for other traffic controls, demerits were found to reduce accidents by between ten and 25 per cent – but only for 18 months.

Drivers simply forget about the penalty. Equivalent reductions in accidents were realised by simply sending letters to drivers warning them about the demerit system.

Mr Acosta bemoans the expense of mandatory refresher classes, and EU studies reveal that they seem to do little good. Drivers know they are doing the wrong thing and do it anyway.

By raising the matter, Mr Acosta has done the nation a favour by reminding drivers of the consequences of careless driving, but his arguments in favour of working taxi drivers are not persuasive.

He has offered no strategy for encouraging drivers for hire to be more careful, admonished no driver who has racked up ten or more demerit points, and argues against the demerit system as if it were an annoyance and not a safety mechanism.