A compulsory taxi customer information system introduced at a cost of more than €200,000 has been scrapped by taxi regulator Ger Deering just three months after its launch, writes Olivia Kelly.
Window stickers detailing the new national fare, vehicle licence information, contact details for the regulator and customer rights and responsibilities were launched by Mr Deering last September and were made a compulsory feature of all taxis from October 16th.
The stickers cost €11.68 per vehicle and were sent to more than 20,000 taxi and hackney owners at a total cost of about €233,000.
The cost was borne by the Commission for Taxi Regulation, funded by vehicle licence fees paid by drivers.
The commission received a number of complaints from drivers that the stickers were affecting the mechanism of electric windows and were being peeled off by passengers. The Braille information on the stickers was also inaccurate as it failed to indicate to the reader that they were dealing with numbers and not letters.
The stickers had the potential to create a robbery risk at drivers' homes, according to National Taxi Drivers' Union president Tommy Gorman. "A lot of drivers would have taken down their roof sign at night, because a taxi outside the door gives an indication that there might be money inside - but with the stickers you couldn't do that."
Any future information system would have to give the driver the option of removing it from view when the vehicle was not in service, he said.
Mr Deering has conceded that the stickers caused problems and has decided to discontinue their use.
A new in-vehicle information system will be introduced as part of vehicle standards regulations currently the subject of public consultation. The new regulations are to be implemented from the beginning of next year.
In the meantime, every driver is being sent a temporary passenger information card to replace the stickers. These cards contain no Braille information and have been sent to drivers at a cost of less than €1 each.