Taxi of the month initiative at slow pace

Windhoek taxi drivers and owners are encouraged to take part in the next “taxi of the month” initiative by the Namibia Public Passenger Transport Association (NPPTA). The initiative was established to instill tolerance amongst taxi drivers to adhere to traffic rules.
The competition which ran from 16 to 27 April 2013, has only managed to register 139 taxi drivers since the launch and according to the association, the response has been good considering the initiative is still in its first phase.”The responses received were average to good. However it has mostly been enquiries,” said NPPTA Secretary General Nathan Africa.
He added that currently the association did not receive any comments from commuters. “We encouraged commuters to sms to NPPTA sms line as follows SOS (Car Number) Comment, eg. ‘SOS K53 Driver is considerate’, to 99910. NPPTA would like taxi drivers to see the importance of the campaign in providing safe public transport to commuters. The benefits as you know is the N$5000,00 award for the months best taxi driver as well as other benefits that the association has to offer,” Africa highlighted.
To raise awareness of the campaign, Africa said NPPTA did a radio announcement on various radio stations as well as utilising the press conference to get through to the taxi drivers. “We also held a meeting for taxi drivers and owners on 21 April 2013 and also had a  public sms line whereby we sent smses to 300 taxi operators, and we also distributed the flyers to taxi drivers,” he said. In addition, NPPTA will also be running a follow up awareness campaign. The first winner of the competition will be announced this month.