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State Representative Paul Tucker of Salem, Massachusetts, who is the former Chief of Police of the Salem Police Department is proposing legislation which would require the Registry of Motor Vehicles to automatically notify local Massachusetts Police Departments whenever a Taxi driver has his driver’s license suspended or revoked.
The basis for this legislation is that Taxi or Hackney licenses are issued by local police departments and they currently have no way of knowing if a taxi driver had his or her driver’s license suspended or revoked by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. With these electronic notifications, the local police can ensure that the driver is not still operating a taxi with a revoked or suspended driver’s license. It places information in the hands of local police so that they could consider taking action against the taxi driver’s hackney or taxi permit.
The proposed legislation was prompted by the death of a 44 year old man who was struck and killed in Salem, Massachusetts. The victim was struck by a taxi driver who had no valid Mass. Driver’s license. Under the new proposed system, the police would have been notified that the driver had no license and the police could have taken action to prevent him from working as a taxi driver.
Under the current system, most police departments only check the status of taxi drivers’ licenses when they apply for new hackney permits or renewals of their permits when they are due to expire. The new system would provide electronic notifications in a near “real time” basis.
Taxi drivers are more likely to accumulate surchargeable events due to the extensive amount of driving which they do often in congested urban areas and sometimes under time pressures.