Government is to introduce a bill of rights to spell out what taxi drivers and their passengers should expect during their journey.

Transport Control Department Director Kevin Monkman said the code would follow similar ones abroad.

He said: ?There are certain things drivers should not do and certain things drivers should expect from passengers.?

In yesterday?s Bermuda Taxi Owners Association (BTOA) spokesman Lee Tucker said drivers were being ripped off, robbed or attacked on a weekly basis but drivers were not reporting the situation to the Police because they believed that nothing would be done.

Mr. Monkman said drivers were not complaining to him about the situation.

He said: ?I would encourage drivers who have been accosted or robbed by a passenger or refused a fare to report it to the Police.

?If they don?t report it, it?s all just hearsay.?

Items likely to appear in the bill of rights include having a polite driver willing to follow the route directed by the passenger.

The driver should not smoke, talk on a cell phone or play the radio if the passenger has requested it be turned off. The passenger should also decide whether the A/C is kept on.

Suggestions are based on the New York taxi code. Those who feel their drivers have not followed the guidelines, which will be posted in cabs, are encouraged not to tip.

In turn passengers are expected to pay the fare and not abuse the driver.

?If you intend to hire the vehicle for a certain period of time that?s a verbal contract,? said Mr. Monkman.

He said the code should be set up in the next few months after it has gone to the Public Services Vehicle Licensing Board and the Cabinet.

?We will have to have signs made up, it?s on the drawing board for this year.?

Asked what had prompted the idea Mr. Monkman said: ?It?s something we have been working on for quite a while.

?The Minister wanted to have something like this and now it?s come to the top of the to-do list.?

He said TCD didn?t get that many complaints from passengers.

Mr. Tucker last night said it was difficult to comment on the initiative as drivers were still waiting for details from TCD.

He said: ?Everyone else knows apart from the taxi drivers. I don?t know how they are going to enforce it. It?s kind of here and there.?