Motoring

Here’s how many traffic fines taxi drivers receive in a single month

Staff Writer

 ·22 Apr 2018

For better or worse, South African motorists have grown accustomed to the driving style of the country’s taxi drivers.

According to new statistics by the City of Cape Town, its Traffic Service issued nearly 44,937 fines to taxi operators in just over three months since the beginning of 2018.

This equates to just under 15,000 fines a month, in addition to an average of 269 vehicle impounds each month, the city said.

It added that the fines had been issued across the metropole for a range of contraventions, including:

Battle against taxis

“These fines exclude speeding offences, so it really does give one a sense of the level of lawlessness that happens on our roads on a daily basis,” said CoCT’s Alderman JP Smith.

“The statistics also debunk the perception that our enforcement agencies do not act against taxi operators. We have very limited resources that are stretched to capacity given the demands on them.

“Furthermore, this does not even represent the enforcement done against other road users, who are by no means innocent, so it certainly provides some perspective on what exactly we are up against,” he said.

Speaking to BusinessTech, the city said that over the period in question (three and a half months), a total of 560,265 fines were issued city-wide. Of these, 279,658 were camera generated, i.e. for speeding transgressions.

Excluding these speeding transgressions, there were a total of 280,607 fines issued across the city meaning that the 44,937 fines issued to taxi operators accounted for nearly one in six of all fines issued.

Impounding

The Traffic Service also impounded 2,426 public transport vehicles since July 2017 – an average of 269 a month.

Of these, 71% of drivers did not have an operating licence and the rest were operating in contravention of their operating licences.

“Impoundment is a massive logistical exercise for us as the vehicle has to be driven to the pound by a traffic officer and the necessary documentation completed, which is time consuming,” said Smith.

“When one considers that the vehicle reclaim rate among public transport operators is 98%, it does make impoundment seem like a revolving door as the vehicle is back on the street virtually the same day or the next,” he said.

“We need to hurt errant operators where it hurts and that is permanent impoundment, but currently the law does not allow for this and the City simply enforces the law, we do not make it.

“We have been working with the Provincial Government to expedite the conclusion of the new Provincial Traffic legislation that would allow for more effective enforcement strategies, including impoundment of vehicles for traffic offences committed by public transport vehicles rather than issuing fines which are often evaded,” said Smith.

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