Passengers arriving at the Kotoka International Airport have been advised to avoid potential criminals by patronising the services of accredited commercial drivers and vehicles.

“There are registered taxis whose drivers could be identified by their blue uniforms,” Mr Samson Kwame Gyampoh, Managing Director of the Airport Car Rentals Association said.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview, Mr Gyampoh said there were a number of occasions when passengers had joined vehicles which were not registered to operate at the airport and had ended up being robbed of their money and other valuables.

He said in such instances it was very difficult to trace those drivers because their identities were absolutely not known.

“The accredited drivers are vetted by the police to ensure they have no criminal history. Then they are also trained by aviation security on the right way to relate and deal with passengers, passenger safety and security among others,” he said.

“Our uniforms are white with our identification cards displayed at chest level. We also wear Orange T-shirts which also has our identification printed on them and this is in addition to the identification cards which we wear at chest level,” Mr Gyampoh said.

Touching on the fares of the Association, the rates have been standardised and could be verified in the airport brochures.

“If you doubt in the least that you are speaking to the right person, just find other uniformed drivers or security personnel for confirmation,” he said.

“We know each other by face and name and are also licensed by the Ghana Tourism Authority. That makes it quite impossible for anybody to sneak in and infiltrate our ranks.

“On how far the cars would drive a person he answered, “we would take you to as far as the borders of the country,” Mr Gyampoh.

He said one of the greatest risks a passenger faced on arrival is joining the wrong commercial vehicle.

“The safest thing to do is to be careful in the first place and join cars driven by uniformed drivers with valid identification cards,” he said, adding that passengers must always be alert and verify from either security personnel or other accredited drivers, whenever they are in doubt.