Private hire drivers in Glasgow are being given training on how to deal with problematic passengers.
Drivers are being taught skills including body language reading, incident de-escalation, and conflict resolution to keep themselves safe while working.
The Scottish Private Hire Association has launched the campaign with Police Scotland in a bid to protect members.
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The group is also lobbying the Scottish Government for the creation of deterrents against violence against drivers who they say are playing 'a real-life game of 'stranger, danger'.
The government is being urged to expand the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021 to include private hire and taxi drivers.
This particular law created a new offence for situations where a retail worker is assaulted, threatened or abused while engaged in their work.
The offence can result in a fine, with penalties escalating to a prison sentence, and with aggravating factors adding the potential for a more significant fine or sentence.
An initial pilot seminar is be held in Glasgow but the similar courses could also be held nationally with licensing teams of Police Scotland.
Eddie Grice, the SPHA's General Secretary, said “We are asking local authorities to engage with us on this and to discuss how councils can help with our campaign.
"As an association for private hire drivers, issues of driver safety are, of course, paramount to us, and to that end we wish to see stronger legislative deterrents put in place as well as seeing stronger punishments and greater justice when incidents of violence and abuse against drivers take place.
"We are calling on the Scottish Government to widen the scope of the protection of workers legislation to include taxi and private hire drivers and to make it a specific criminal offence to threaten, abuse or attack a private hire driver or taxi driver while they are at work and to also class the offence as aggravated when such incidents happen whilst the driver is enforcing licensing or operational conditions.
“While we understand the rationale behind why licensing authorities have a priority towards public safety, our argument is that this cannot come at the cost of ignoring the safety of drivers.
"Drivers are out there providing a valuable service to the general public while playing a real-life game of 'stranger, danger'.
"Protections and safeguards must be in place and in place at all times."
