Taxi Driver Online

Not much to see here, but the licensing chair obviously has her finger on the pulse of the local supply/demand situation. Not

(Couldn't fit the word 'availability' at the end of the thread title, but the sliightly more technical word 'supply' means the same thing. I think )


Carlisle taxi driver shortage down to Covid-19 pandemic say drivers

https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/1977 ... y-drivers/


Chair of the Licensing Committee at Carlisle City Council, Cllr Marilyn Bown, said the council is "unaware of any impact" that Covid-19 might have had on the availability of taxi drivers in Carlisle (Image: News & Star)

A TAXI driver has said he believes an apparent taxi driver shortage in Carlisle is down to former drivers not wanting to return to the profession.

Social media has recently been rife with posts from people in Carlisle supposedly not being able to get hold of a taxi in the city, and multiple drivers have pointed to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Joe Morjane of Joe's Taxi in Carlisle said he has noticed a taxi driver shortage in the city.

"There is [an increase in demand]," said Joe.

"Especially during rush hour between the hours of 3pm and 7pm when a lot of taxi drivers go on school runs.

"There are always people complaining that they have been waiting a long time for a taxi, or there is always a queue at the taxi rank.

"Some people do get angry if they have been waiting a long time, but sometimes it is not our fault. It is busy, or the traffic is bad."

On why there might be a taxi driver shortage, he added: "a lot of taxi drivers [stopped driving] during the pandemic because they went to get other jobs. Some of them haven't come back.

"Some of them went to drive for Amazon or other delivery companies and I think they are quite happy where they are."

"We had a bad time during the pandemic, especially during the first lockdown. There was hardly anything.

"I would just go to the rank and wait there for a couple of hours to get a small job. It was really hard."

Another taxi driver working in Carlisle, who wishes to remain anonymous, also said drivers have thought twice about returning during the pandemic, adding: "[During] lockdown, they found other jobs and better pay. A lot of foreign drivers left because of Brexit and recently, fuel prices went up and a lot of drivers just gave up.

"I have thought about leaving [the profession]."

Chair of the licensing committee at Carlisle City Council, Cllr Marilyn Bowman, said: "The pandemic continues to have an impact on all our communities and businesses. We are unaware of any impact this may have had on the availability of taxis within the area."

There is often a queue at a bus stop, bus comes along which is nearly full and a couple of people at the front of the queue are able to get on, rest of queue have to wait for next bus.
Should we expect the bus company to have buses waiting at bus stops to alleviate queues forming, I think not yet we never here of any one complining about this.

Many years ago when I was a lad, if a bus was full or expected to be full the local bus company would send out a duplicate service bus to follow the first one and pick up the extra passengers.

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Grandad,

Little point in any business increasing it's operational capacity at great expense just to service a bit of extra demand that constitutes less than 2% of the week.

Yes but you still had to wait in the queue until that bus arrived.

It's one of the busiest times down here as well.

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IDFIMH

Must be mega school runs if drivers are still on them at 7pm

I think what happens is that many drivers go home straight after finishing their school runs.

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IDFIMH

CC is doing ok

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!