Taxi Driver Online

'They've got mortgages to pay' - Norwich cabbies struggle as work dwindles

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/business/n ... ic-7081192

Taxi drivers across the county are often earning less than minimum wage having been hit by a fall in demand for hospitality-related trips, as well as losing out on self-employed government financial support.

Mark Snelling is a manager at Millennium Taxis in Costessey, who has reduced his number of drivers from eight to three with demand at just 33pc of pre-pandemic times.

He said: "There are a lot of companies that will go out of business because they've got mortgages to pay and kids to look after.

"For some of our employees they can afford to just keep their head above water and many are earning less than minimum wage."

One of his drivers, Richard Elliott, applied for self-employment support from government but was only entitled to £15 a month in rent.

"A lot of people don't qualify for the SEISS benefits and so have had to turn to any other work they can get their hands on - delivery driving, decorating, construction. I don't think it'll be a case of when we get to normal, but if," he said.

He was echoed by the manager of Green Frog Taxis in Norwich, who said: "We've lost about 75pc of our demand because the bulk of it used to be picking up and dropping off from the pub.

"We're in the supply chain of the hospitality sector but we won't be eligible for the new Culture Fund, despite how much we rely on the sector.

"All of our drivers are self-employed and many of them haven't been eligible for self employment support.

"At the moment we've got about ten drivers on - usually we have about 30 but people have left to do delivery driving.

"The bulk of our work at the moment is doing vaccinations - I'd say about 70pc of our jobs are taking people and picking them up from jabs.

"We're just trying to stick together as an industry and try and pull through it - but we're already seeing cab firms closing and I think there will be more to go."

Obviously not up to speed with the basics of employment law, never mind the likes of the Uber case. An 'employee' by definition can't be self-employed...


People in the comments suggesting this means he's basically been declaring tuppence ha'penny in his tax returns.

However, I suspect the specific mention of rent means he's not been entitled to SEISS, so has instead been claiming some other kind of benefit.

Article is interesting, however, because it mentions SEISS several times, but makes it sound like much of the trade ineligible.

Of course, there could be several reasons for that

I've read what these people say about cab drivers across the country....theyre c*nts

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