Transport industry wants Covid jabs for drivers

The transport industry is pushing for its drivers to be next in line for Covid-19 vaccinations after frontline health staff.

Unions and industry groups argue that taxi, truck and bus drivers face greater risk of exposure and should be a high priority in terms of getting a jab.

Blue Bubble Alliance chief executive Bob Wilkinson represents 16 taxi companies. He said that although their 3000 drivers had to wear masks, the drivers sat in close proximity to strangers, most of whom did not.

‘‘Not knowing who has been sitting in their car after each fare, they clean their vehicles to reduce risks for themselves and future passengers. But at the end of each shift they go home to their families with the fear that it is not just themselves they are taking home.’’

Wilkinson has written to Transport Minister Michael Wood asking that taxi drivers get priority. Taxi Federation chief executive John Hart agreed.

He said a Queenstown taxi driver was infected by a passenger early on in the pandemic, and many of the country’s 8000 to 10,000 taxi and ride-share drivers carried passengers from hospitals and managed isolation facilities.

According to the Government’s proposed vaccination schedule, border, quarantine, managed isolation, and health workers at highest risk of exposure, plus their household contacts, will be top priority.

They will be followed by highrisk frontline health, public sector and emergency services workers.

First Union transport logistics secretary Jared Abbott said it was not clear whether bus drivers were part of that second group because the transport industry had been privatised.

‘‘But our stance is that if they require bus drivers to wear masks all day at work, then they are obviously regarded as high risk, so they should be given priority.’’

Transport Forum chief executive Nick Leggett said the road freight industry needed to know when truck drivers would receive their jabs, especially in light of repeated lockdowns in Auckland.

Leggett wrote to Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins in January seeking details of the vaccination prioritisation used to determine workers in essential industries.

‘‘We see increasing urgency in getting truck drivers vaccinated when you note what is happening in Auckland, our largest city and home to our major port.

‘‘Ports of Auckland and other port workers are being vaccinated, and it is only a matter of time before high-risk businesses start demanding any workers going to their sites also be vaccinated.’’