If passengers can’t be polite, then they can be walking.
Earlier this year we took a look at a change in the rules regarding taxis in Japan when the government gave the OK for ultracompact kei cars to start being used as cabs. Now comes another revision to regulations aimed at keeping the taxi experience civil by giving drivers the right to kick passengers out of their cabs if they can’t behave themselves.
Up until now, taxi drivers in Japan have only been allowed to pull over and tell a passenger to get out of the vehicle under pretty specific conditions, such as the customer becoming physically violent, being in possession of illegal or dangerous items, or being too intoxicated to intelligently verbalize their desired destination. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has now disclosed that it is making amendments to the Standard Terms and Conditions of Carriage, the underlying rules of the taxi industry, which will explicitly give drivers the right to order passengers out of their cab for being verbally abusive, making unreasonable demands, or engaging in otherwise disruptive behavior. The same rights will also be granted to bus drivers.
This expansion of drivers’ authority comes in the wake of another regulatory change which went into effect at the star of this month, requiring taxi and bus operators to put in place protocols by which to protect drivers from harassment by customers. Since requiring a driver to continue carrying problematic passengers would constitute exposing them to such harassment, the logical solution is to give drivers the power to remove rude jerks, even if it means they’ll have to walk home from wherever their ride came to an abrupt end.
The question of what to do if a belligerent passenger then becomes defiant too and refuses to vacate the vehicle appears to be something that individual operators will need to establish protocols for, but ostensibly contacting the police are having them remove the passenger, in the same way that trespassers within private property are dealt with, would be an option.
The new regulation is expected to go into effect before the end of the year, so anyone who’s gotten into the habit of throwing their weight around when they hop in a taxi would be advised to polish their manners sooner rather than later.
Source: FNN Prime Online, 47News
Top image: Pakutaso (edited by SoraNews24)
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