Safety in taxis. PiS wants a certificate of no criminal record

PiS MPs Janusz Kowalski and Anna Krupka appealed on Monday for urgent consideration by the Sejm of a project assuming, among others Introduction of the obligation to present a certificate of no criminal record from the country of origin by each person who wants to perform a person transport service.

The draft amendment to the Road Transport Act prepared by PiS politicians in cooperation with NSZZ Solidarność professional taxi drivers went to the Sejm at the beginning of December last year. In February, the project was directed to the first reading at the Infrastructure Committee, which took place on July 24.

According to the project, the entrepreneur personally performing transport, employed by him and non -employed persons, but personally carrying out transport on him are to be obliged to submit, among others certificates of no criminal record from the country of origin. In addition, such persons would be subjected to a compulsory psychological test, which is to be carried out only in Polish, and in every vehicle of travel applications there is to be a device recording journeys and enabling control.

According to MP Krupki, Poland has ceased to be a safe place for women for several months, and this also applies to the safety of journeys. – Women want to feel safe in taxis, which is why we submit a bill, which assumes towards anyone who wants to be a taxi driver to show a certificate of no criminal record from the country of origin – she said at a Monday press conference. She recalled the case of November last year, when a citizen of Georgia was arrested, a taxi driver ordered by the application, on charges of raping the woman he transported.

– There is no consent that a Polish taxi or a vehicle for so -called transport is a place for asylum for criminals, rapists, murderers or pedophiles – said MP Kowalski. – I trust that we will decide to exacerbate and restore normality in August or at the latest in September at the latest in September.

According to the chairman of NSZZ Solidarity, professional taxi drivers of the Capital City of Warsaw Paweł Saturnski, “Each control carried out in any city in Poland shows from 15 percent to 35 percent irregularities in transport applications.” – Today, specialized groups are organized in Poland, they can be called criminal groups from outside Poland. They are foreigners who, in fact, bring candidates for taxi drivers to Poland. (…) Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, this situation must be repaired – said Satuski.

Since June last year, the amended provisions of the Road Transport Act, according to which all drivers from the so -called Taxi for the application must have a Polish driving license. These provisions were introduced to improve the safety of passenger transport, which included For sexual offenses and facilitate the work of the police, which previously could not check whether the driving license, which was issued in another country, was certainly legal.

In addition, entrepreneurs intermediating in road transport were obliged, among others for verification of drivers who carry out transport before starting cooperation and ordering the first transport – in personal appearance mode, including their identity (fixing the image), their rights (driving license) and no criminal record; verification of documents entitling to drive a vehicle, and in the case of Polish documents to check their authenticity.

Pursuant to the regulation, the entrepreneur conducting the mediation during the transport of passengers may process information about persons carrying out transport for 5 years from the end of the calendar year in which the driver has completed cooperation with a given entrepreneur.

Penalties – up to PLN 1 million were also tightened – for entrepreneurs intermediating in transport and for persons performing transport for violating the obligations provided for in the Act. A number of violations that will be punished, e.g. mediation during the transport of persons without the required license – PLN 500,000, were also described, and for the failure and failure to inspect the device on which the mobile application is installed – PLN 12,000. (PAP)

Iwo/ Mok/