It will focus specifically on issues such as drink-driving, speeding, using mobile phones when behind the wheel, and getting lifts in unregistered vehicles. The first three are unambiguously wrong, but public debate about the final one is confused.
Within the past few days, a new mobile phone app has been launched called Jersey Lifts, whose creators say has been developed as a safer alternative to the controversial Jersey Lifts Facebook group.
Like the Facebook group, the app puts people looking for a lift into contact with those willing to drive them wherever they wish to go for a fee. Many drivers, who tend to be young people, make good money from running an unofficial and unregulated taxi service.
In a press release issued at the launch of the app, its creators, who for some reason have chosen to remain anonymous, said that it was designed to make the Jersey Lifts phenomenon safer. They said: ‘Features of the app include user ratings, driver reports, identity and car verification, and optional SMS alerts to family or friends.’
Those who have backed Arrive Alive, including the police, the ambulance and fire services, Driver and Vehicle Standards and Islands Insurance, have concerns about the roadworthiness and safety of vehicles used, the competence of drivers, whether they have had enough sleep or taken drink or drugs, and whether passengers will be properly insured. Parents might well have fears about the suitability of drivers and whether they pose a risk to their children in cars late at night.
The intentions of the app creators are no doubt noble, but it is hard to see how the app will address these very real concerns. Their service suggests a reasonable mileage rate to pay as part of a ‘ride-share’ scheme to cover cost or petrol and depreciation, put at 60 pence per mile.
The reality is that drivers do not offer their services for environmental reasons or simply to cover petrol costs. They do it to make cash in a way which is probably illegal. They are protected from prosecution because it is so hard to police and the law is not crystal clear. The app, innocently created, enables those who wish to run illegal taxis for profit – and it makes it easier for them.
A campaign has been launched, but, in reality, people are shrugging their shoulders and looking the other way. If children die in an accident involving an unregulated taxi, we will all wonder why action was not taken before.
