We worked with Welsh Government on a discovery and technical alpha to explore modernising taxi services in Wales to make them safer, greener, and fairer.
The safety of passengers is crucial, and this project sought to address a critical challenge within the taxi and private hire vehicle sector – fragmented and siloed databases and limited data sharing.
In discovery, we worked with Welsh Government, local taxi companies and the public to gain insights into the realities faced by drivers and passengers to create a joint approach that proactively addresses safety concerns.
This discovery found concerns from both drivers and passengers and that there is no efficient way for modern digital services to help reduce those risks.
Alpha was a technical project looking at modernising the current digital infrastructure, working with a range of stakeholders to understand how driver and licensing data is captured on a number of local and national levels.
Impact
The taxi policy team in Welsh Government found new ways of working, which they have written blog posts about.
This work clearly identified the need for the sector to modernise and brought many local authorities together on this project for future work and collaboration.
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Transcript of video
So the Welsh Government has committed to legislate and modernise the taxi and private hire vehicle licensing, and one of the things we want to do is to, get better sharing of information to improve passenger safety.
So we've been working with the Centre for Digital Public Services to take a user-centred approach, to that challenge, to think about how sharing information can benefit passengers, the trade and local authorities who issue licenses.
Taking a user-centred approach has really helped us to focus on the kinds of services that will benefit passengers and our other stakeholders, so I'm really pleased that we've had some good insights into the sorts of services that'll really make a difference for people.
Yeah a couple of benefits of working with CDPS, I mean, first of all taking a user focused approach, has given us some new insights into the work and helped us to understand the sorts of services that'll really add value.
And the other benefits has been the pace at which we've worked.
So using an Agile approach we've managed to work really fast. Working in sprints helped the team to focus on what needed to be done, and having regular check-ins helped to keep people on task and helped us to remove blockages.
Well people won't have seen a difference to the service they receive yet, but in time, modernising taxi and private hire vehicle licensing will bring a more standard service across Wales, with consistent safety features for passengers, and a fairer system for people who work in the trade.
We're preparing to introduce a bill into the Senedd to modernise taxi and private hire vehicle legislation.
And the work we've done with CDPS has informed the bill particularly, our proposals for information sharing.
Next steps
This work has informed the bill that will now be introduced into the Senedd, in particular, proposals about information sharing.
Read more
Reflecting on the taxi discovery and ways of working
Making better policy decisions by listening to users
Learning about new ways of working for the taxi team
Understanding the problems taxi passengers face through user research
Taking a user-centred approach to taxi and private hire vehicle passenger safety
How it meets our objectives
CDPS’s objectives:
Objective 1: Supporting the leadership and culture amongst public service leaders to drive good digital policy making and support digital transformation.
Objective 2: Support others to ensure that people can access digital public services by helping them create services that are designed around user needs.
Objective 5: Continuing to promote shared use of the technologies and create and embed common and shared standards in digital, data and technology.
Objective 7: The Centre should support Welsh Government to influence at the UK Government level to help shape policy priorities and help others to secure public and private investment into Wales.
The Five Ways of Working – Well-being of Future Generations Act
- Long-term
- Integration
- Involvement
- Collaboration
- Prevention
7 well-being goals – Well-being of Future Generations Act
- A prosperous Wales
- A more equal Wales
- A Wales of more cohesive communities
- A globally responsible Wales