HISTORIC AND IF REQUIRED FOR INFORMATION ONLY DURING THE 2020-21 PANDEMIC

COVID-19 Precautions for driver and passenger safety

Guidance issued by our licencing authority South Oxfordshire District Council (SODC)

The Department for Transport (DfT) has confirmed that:

As a Private Hire business, CCE Cars do undertake home to school transport and the transport of ‘extremely vulnerable’ people and so are considered Critical Workers.

We would like to take the opportunity to provide advice with a view to protecting you, the passenger and your driver:

• If you have symptoms of COVID-19, or live in a household with someone with possible COVID-19, or if you believe you may have been exposed to the virus, either through anyone/where else, please follow the official advice to self-isolate. 

• Our drivers are advised to avoid handling money and to take alternative payment methods.

• Where it is not possible to remain 2 metres apart, drivers and passengers should face away from each other, rather than face-to-face if possible. Where face-to-face contact cannot be avoided, this should be kept to 15 minutes or less wherever possible. Our drivers will consider reducing occupancy to individual passengers in the back left-hand seat.

• Good ventilation (i.e. keeping the windows open) may help to reduce the risk of transmission. Air conditioning or ventilation on our vehicles is set to extract and not recirculate the air within the vehicle where possible.

• After each passenger journey, our drivers clean hard surfaces such as door handles, window controls, seat belts, card payment devices, the rear of the front seats and other touch points with alcohol (minimum 60%) wipes. Drivers then wash/sanitise their own hands. A thorough clean of the vehicle is completed at the end of each working day.

• Hand sanitising gel with alcohol of a minimum 60%, is provided in the car, for the driver and passengers to use in particular after handling money, coughing, sneezing or blowing your nose, touching your face, eating or drinking.

• Our drivers carry tissues, and use them to catch coughs or sneezes. Used tissues are disposed of in a bin as soon as possible.

• Drivers are still obliged under the Equality Act 2010 to provide reasonable assistance and make reasonable adjustments for disabled passengers. The safer transport guidance for operators in the section below includes advice on measures that can be taken when it is not possible to maintain the recommended social distance.

• Passengers MUST wear a face covering (i.e. not a medical mask) to assist in reducing transmission unless there is a medical reason for not doing so

• We would remind passengers to use the sanitiser provided and masks if required which we have available on entering and exiting the vehicle

• Between every journey our drivers:

1. clean those parts of the vehicle that the driver or passengers may have touched, for example, door handles, payment devices, protective screens, buttons, seats

2. open doors / windows to ventilate the car for 5 minutes

3. wash hands for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitiser

• Covid-19 vaccination programme

  Getting vaccinated is crucial in the country’s strategy against the virus. Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust is encouraging everyone who has been contacted to arrange their vaccination to do so without delay.

  See the latest NHS information here on how to book or manage your vaccination appointment.

  Rollout details and location of the COVID-19 vaccination centres across Oxfordshire are on the Oxfordshire County Council website.

  The vaccine alone cannot control the virus, and so even with increasing numbers being vaccinated, everyone needs to continue to observe the latest guidance, and follow the government’s Hands, Face, Space, Fresh Air message:

  1. hands – wash your hands regularly and for 20 seconds
  2. face – wear a face covering in indoor settings where social distancing may be difficult, and where you will come into contact with people you do not normally meet (except if you are exempt)
  3. space – stay two metres apart from people you do not live with where possible, or one metre with extra precautions in place such as wearing face coverings
  4. fresh air – increasing ventilation indoors and meeting up with up to six people or two households outdoors

Use of partitions or screens in vehicles
There is no evidence available that demonstrates that partitions in vehicles reduces the risk of transmission of infection, as they do not provide a fully sealed compartment which completely separates the driver from the passenger. Therefore, whilst it is possible that partitions may reduce the risk of transmission of infection, please note that the risk would not be eliminated entirely.

Updated 12/01/23