Maidstone taxi firm struggling to cope as COVID pandemic leads to driver shortage
https://www.kentlive.news/news/maidston ... pe-5715770
Apollo Taxis say this is a problem across the county, but particularly in Maidstone
Image: KentLive
A Maidstone taxi firm says it is having to turn away "at least 50 per cent" of all enquiries due to a shortage of pay for hire drivers.
Apollo Taxis, which also provides services in Medway and Ashford, is losing custom and income due to the lack of drivers.
With COVID restrictions now eased and nightclubs back open, this is especially tough for the firm as revellers faced long waiting times for cabs to and from venues during the first weekend of restriction-free clubbing.
Tom Veitch, director at Apollo, was concerned about the issues this could cause for the future.
"A lot of drivers left the industry at the start of the pandemic to find other work or returned to families abroad," he said.
"However now people are not returning or are stuck in ‘red list’ countries. The work is now greater than pre-pandemic but cannot be fulfilled."
Having spoken to other taxi companies in Kent, Veitch said this was an issue across the board, but particularly in Maidstone.
Veitch had foreseen the problem occurring back in February and March as the licensing authorities had shut down and were not taking on new drivers.
"I wrote to local MPs explaining that this would be an issue and would have an effect on all sorts of other industries if people could not move around," he explained.
"That might be the night time economy not being able to get people to or from their venues, or older people not being able to get out, or people can't get to the train stations.
"We are turning away at least 50 per cent of all enquiries as we simply have not got the capacity to take on the work.
"It is obvious it's becoming increasingly frustrating for the local community."
The issue of people having fewer cabs to pick from when coming out of a nightclub was also a problem that Tom saw.
"It means people cannot get home, this leads to people jumping in their cars and drink driving, and it means more people in the town centre causing policing to be an issue," he said.
"Vulnerable people may be forced to walk home. It has always been difficult to get a cab on a Saturday night but people are even struggling to pre-book now."
With travel restrictions now also beginning to loosen now that COVID cases are on the decline, there is a small hope that this problem can be solved.
