Taxi Driver Online

Dundee taxi drivers fear for livelihoods as coronavirus impact hits hard

Taxi drivers in Dundee are concerned for their livelihoods amid “unclear” government advice during the coronavirus pandemic.

Drivers are handing back radios to taxi offices because there are too few passengers to cover the costs of renting. They are also worried about the risk of catching coronavirus from passengers – but say they are stuck in a “Catch-22” situation of either working or losing their livelihoods.

Chris Elder, local Unite taxi rep, said drivers were at the mercy of local and national government, whom he says failed to provide clear guidance. Self-employed drivers should be eligible for the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme – but payments are deferred until June at the earliest.

Mr Elder has written to Dundee City Council’s licensing chiefs to ask for a deferral of renewal fees, due in May. “A lot of the guys aren’t working because they’re feart of picking up the virus,” he said. “The government has never come out and said whether there’s a ban on us working, or whether we’re essential workers.

“Drivers are sending their machines back to the offices and are having to look at whether to sign on (for benefits) as we won’t hear about self-employment payments until June. “There are drivers taking mortgage holidays and hoping their landlords will let them delay their rents. We’re struggling. Some of us are going to go to the wall.”

One driver, who spoke to the Tele on condition of anonymity, said an 11-hour shift now earns just £30 a day, yet his car costs £15,000 a year.

Local authorities are stepping in to help taxi drivers – but critics say they aren’t doing enough. Angus Council has deferred taxi renewal fees, and Dundee City Council has closed the region’s taxi testing centre for three months.

Dundee City Council added: “Provision for a three-month deferral of the last date for submitting applications for renewal of licences was included in the coronavirus emergency powers bill passed at Holyrood. “We are currently talking to the local taxi trade about the implications of this.”

Local taxi driver Roger Paterson has handed his radio back for the time being. “But there are drivers out there working to put food on the table for their kids. They’re putting their lives in danger because they don’t have a choice” he said.

“Some have had offers to defer car payments but they’re being charged interest on top of interest so they’re going out to work instead to avoid that.”

Guidance published by the Department of Transport says taxi drivers should avoid work where possible, save for exceptional circumstances. The advice states: “Taxi and private hire drivers should not generally be considered critical workers. Those undertaking home to school transport or the transport of ‘extremely vulnerable’ people may be considered critical workers on a case-by-case basis.”

Graeme Stephen, chairman of the Dundee Taxi Federation, said the risk of catching and passing on coronavirus was “too great” to justify working, citing the death of a London cabbie who may have contracted Covid-19 from a passenger. “I drive a saloon car – I can’t keep two metres away from people, and you don’t know who you’re picking up,” he said.

“Only bigger taxis should be allowed out. “We should be getting 80% of our earnings from the self-employed scheme, which is good, and I’ve got a private pension I can dip into, but it’s hard for a lot of us to keep afloat.”

He added: I’m 63, I’ve had two collapsed lungs, it (Covid-19) would cause me all sorts of problems. “Plus we pick up a lot of elderly people – there’s a risk that, if we got the virus, we could pass it onto them. I couldn’t live with myself if that happened.”

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IDFIMH

They pretty much say their means to a livelihood has already gone so theirs no point in them paying out more than they are taking in......they can always return to the job later if they feel like it, that's providing things ever get back to how it was BC (Before Corvid).

On the couple of occasions I've been in Dundee since the lockdown (for shopping and exercise ) have seen very few cars around, so suspect less than 10% of drivers still working. Therefore, if even half the normal drivers working I suspect many would be luck to get a job at all.

The ranks here in NE Fife more or less empty of cars, think the offices have just closed down completely, or have a couple of cars dealing with any work via mobile phones. But the offices are normally maybe 15 cars or so max, so they can manage via mobiles when there's not much work coming in. In fact they regularly use them for an overnight service at normal times - the offices here aren't normally manned 24 hours. But that wouldn't work for a big office fleet in a city - even if they only have 50 cars on, they'd need the office open.

And St Andrews untypical anyway, since more dependent than most locations on students, tourists, overseas golfers, and the pubs and restaurants at night, all of which are more or less wiped out

The one exception is one of the station regulars, who's been sitting on the rank there everyday

Spoken to him a couple of times, and think most he's had is a couple of runs, but some shifts zero runs

Don't know why he's bothering. To be fair, if he does get a run, chances are it'll be £15 into St Andrews, but fair chance as well it'll be £4 or so. And he does live quite close to the station - I'm 20 miles to the station there and back, so going there and sitting all day for £10-15 at the very best isn't particularly appealing. And for reasons I can only speculate about, a lot of the regulars at our station these days live in Dundee, which isn't as far away as me, but must be a minimum 18 miles or so round trip.

sounds like sundays and mondays here although i did manage £24.60 on sunday (10 hours but gave up on rank and sat at home waiting for the phone to ring)

previous Monday £0 today £8.00 credit job plus zero cash/card

but last Tuesday not sure why (apart from being our only car on but took about £100 ) rest of the week £30 or less but am not putting in a full week as i am trying to let my drivers earn some money as well

typed too soon got a call from my night driver who was on his way to Grotsville with a fare so ended up out in the 8 seater covering two jobs so have now taken £8.50 today

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

The problem is, and those of us in the trade are well aware of this, is that many drivers, sadly too many drivers, are living hand to mouth existence.

Thus even if they got £20/30 a day clear that could be the difference between staying afloat until things get better, or go to the wall.

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IDFIMH

TaxiPoint has done a survey, and 80% say they won't manage until the Government's payout in June. Doubt if the survey is particularly scientific, though. People might tend to exaggerate these things, and the survey will to a degree be self-selecting - drivers will only take part if they think they won't manage.

On the other hand, since the survey is probably skewed towards London HCDs, you'd think they'd be in a better position than most to weather the storm. Of course, often people just adjust their lifestyle to the max if they're earning more, so just as likely to go under than someone earning half as much in normal times.

Anyway, I would take the precise numbers with a pinch of salt, but no doubt a *lot* of drivers will find it difficult to get by before the June payout. Which reminds me, I'll have to stop putting off getting in touch with the landlord about my rent


Four in five self-employed taxi drivers short of funds before COVID-19 financial relief package due

https://www.taxi-point.co.uk/post/four- ... ackage-due

Four in five self-employed taxi drivers do not have the funds to see them through to the government's financial relief package due in June.

In a poll conducted by the taxi industry’s leading news source, TaxiPoint, it finds only 20% of the 937 UK cabbies polled have enough funds to make it through to June, when the government is expected to pass on backdated grants to self-employed cabbies.

A large majority of the 5 million self-employed workers in the UK will receive direct cash grants though a government scheme to help them during the coronavirus outbreak.

Last month in the most recent step to protect individuals and businesses across the UK, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced plans that will see the self-employed receive up to £2,500 per month in grants for at least 3 months.

However, Unite Wales have since urged the government to provide taxi drivers COVID-19 support payments now rather than in June, which they say would allow cabbies to stay on top of their finances and focus on supporting emergency services during the crisis.

Alan McCarthy, Regional Officer for Unite in Cardiff, said in a video statement: “Our self-employed taxi drivers have seen their earnings decimated by the COVID-19 crisis. Employees are receiving some relief through the job retention scheme, however, the self-employed are feeling forgotten and left behind.

“They’re being asked to wait until June to see and real financial support from Government and for the majority this is far too long to go without a liveable income.

“Taxi drivers are an at risk group, they want to support the national effort to combat COVID-19 by helping where they can, but they also need to feel comfortable and able to do the right thing at the right time, to self isolate when needed.

“When we say that we want to encourage everybody to do the right thing, what message do we send to them when we say that they must wait over nine weeks for financial relief."

The poll was on TaxiPoint's Facebook page, and someone left a comment saying they were rolling in it because 75% of the cars had given up

Doubt that somehow. No doubt no two places the same, but in most I suspect that even if 90% had given up there would still be a lot less than normal for the 10% of drivers left.


https://www.facebook.com/TaxiPointNews/ ... 9329171494

All of which reminds me why I tend to avoid Facebook generally, and TaxiPoint's site in particular - thought the Government's payments might have come through before the page loaded on my laptop

Just what we need at the mo is c***s like that.

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IDFIMH

I would say down here more than 80% of the trade are currently out of the trade.

Either working elsewhere, self isolating, looking after kids or oldies, sh** scared to work, retiring, or now claiming benefits.

I'm part of the 20%, but only for about 5/6 hours a day max.

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IDFIMH

I’m a full time painter and decorator at the moment. Jobs ok but my forewoman is a nightmare.

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Former taxi driver

I'm sure the bonus will be worth it

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

The firm who I used to work for have half their cars parked up and 90% of PDA's handed back in.

Apparently he sat eight days at the station in a row without getting a single fare

(Maybe it was eight days in total over lockdown, but I'm sure he said eight on the bounce. Apparently he just did his normal hours at the station all through lockdown )

Still a dearth of cars on the ranks here, though, despite the students arriving back over this fortnight, and this weekend in particular.

By 'dearth' I don't mean a shortage as such, because there's still more than enough compared to the volume of work.

But some drivers doing other jobs, some I doubt will ever be back, some apparently just waiting until things more back to normal - they could have a long wait

And, of course, no doubt a lot of new faces in weeks to come to replace some of those who have disappeared.

But don't know precisely what the situation with new badges is just now, or whether council simply not processing them.

Still trying to catch up with a backlog of renewals, by the looks of things

F***ing hell.

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IDFIMH

Some drivers are just fools to themselves, they just dont change ranks no matter what. Even seen some drive
past a rank with people waiting . Wont pick up on another rank ,madness .