Taxi drivers across Fife have been criticised for their “shocking” dress sense.
Scruffy drivers wearing slippers and jogging bottoms have been spotted ferrying passengers in west Fife.
Elsewhere, others have been seen in shorts and baseball caps while driving dirty taxis.
Many have been warned that they are flouting the dress code drawn up between Fife Council and the local taxi associations and have been told in no uncertain terms to pull their socks up.
Councillor Bob Young, chairman of the council’s licensing and regulation committee, which oversees taxi standards, said the state of many drivers’ clothing is a real “bugbear” of his.
“I found a taxi driver in his baffies, jogging bottoms and a T-shirt in Dunfermline,” he said. “He was doing everything else right helping an old lady out of the taxi etc.”
He added: “You can get a decent pair of trousers out of Tesco for £6, for goodness’ sake.”
Fife Council’s licensing enforcement officer, Donald Jenks, said there were some very good examples of drivers turning up smartly dressed but others are continuing to wear inappropriate clothing.
Asked if he could write to operators and issue a polite request for drivers to smarten up, Mr Jenks said: “I do write to them but I don’t necessarily write politely.
“I say: you’re not meeting the dress code and I expect better.”
Meanwhile, taxi drivers condemned last year for putting passengers at risk have improved their standards.
A year ago, 19 taxis in north-east Fife were pulled off the road after serious defects were found during annual inspection tests by council officers.
This year’s tests found significant improvements, with 96% of taxis passing with flying colours and the rest passing on a retest.
Operators in west Fife maintained their good results with a 97% first-time pass rate and the remainder meeting standards when retested.
North-east Fife councillor John Docherty said he is pleased with the improvements.
“I’m absolutely delighted with these figures compared to some of the previous results,” he said.
“However, we really need to be very firm with the ones who continue to fail.”
Last year’s failures included a car with a speedometer that was clearly not working.
Another had a broken exhaust system and a kinked brake pipe, while a third was found to have a catalogue of defects including a flat spare wheel, a torn wiper blade and problems with the brake pedal.