This article is a week old, but the Birmingham Mail used a couple of the quotes here in today's piece, which was mainly about the Brum version of the Veezu 'driver shortage' rehash.
And one of the firms quoted is TC Cars, which was the operator that introduced surge-pricing a couple of weeks ago, but quickly abandoned it.
Nothing particularly new here, but some interesting comments, particuarly from TC Cars.
Birmingham and Solihull taxis - driver shortage as cab firm urge people to book in advancehttps://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/m ... e-21913060Other industries face problems after a HGV driver shortage left petrol pumps running dryTaxi firms are facing a crippling shortage of drivers which could cause disruption during the festive period, operators have told BirminghamLive.
Local companies TC Cars and Direct Taxis, based in Solihull, both said they were in desperate need of more drivers and urged punters to book a taxi well in advance this Christmas.
It comes as other industries also face problems after an HGV driver shortage left petrol pumps running dry and supermarket shelves empty amid mass panic buying.
This week, TC Cars, based in Chelmsley Wood, quickly ditched a policy to charge more at peak times after passengers expressed anger.
The firm quickly U-turned on the introduction of 'surge pricing' after just days, admitting it had "lost sight of what matters most".
Following the debacle, Stuart Day, general manager, told how the taxi industry was facing shortages similar to that of HGV drivers - with some firms battling to survive.
The 58-year-old said that while demand had rocketed, driver numbers were plummeting - with some going to work for rival firms and food delivery apps.
"It's down to drivers basically logging off our circuit and going to work at Uber or Bolt," said Mr Day, who also runs taxi firms across the country.
"You can now go and earn a good living and not have to have any interaction with customers. They are earning good money on those apps at the moment and that's the big issue.
"We have the same issue that all the HGV companies have got. They haven't got drivers either.
"When the pandemic originally hit, we had a lot of Eastern Europeans working for us. They went home and I don't believe they have actually come back and that's a big issue."
Mr Day said locals could be hired but training as a cabbie took time and money, with DBS checks and relevant documents needed.
"The cost implications of becoming a cab driver are actually quite high," he explained.
"It's a very hard trade to be in at the moment. We are probably running at 60 per cent of the number of drivers we had 18 months ago. And this isn't just TC cars."
Mr Day runs a larger company that owns TC cars and operates all over the country. He said every single operator had the same issues that TC had.
"It's certainly putting pressure on us," he said. "And the problem at the moment is demand is outstripping supply constantly.
"Our phones are non stop every single day and we might have to quote up to 40 to 45 minutes for people to get a cab. If you go back 18 months, it would have been five to ten minutes.
"But then it's not just us. It's everywhere you go. If you look on the shelves at Morrisons or Tesco, they're all missing items because they're struggling to get their supply in as well. So it's a countrywide issue.
"I believe that we will get a surge at Christmas and I believe that what customers should do is book early so they're not disappointed."
And Lee Roberts, general manager of rival Solihull firm Direct Taxis, also raised similar concerns and said it was a "national problem".
"From the groups I'm in about private hire and the taxi industry in general, companies up and down the country are suffering the same way," Mr Roberts said.
He explained it was difficult to compete with global companies that could afford to lose hundreds of millions to incentivise drivers to join them.
"They are big multi national companies that are losing money constantly rather than making money," he said. "Somehow they are still able to run and as small local firms we just can't compete."
He said some drivers that had flocked to food delivery companies had started to come back but they were not working at local firms.
"We could definitely do with more drivers," he went on. "We're obviously getting more work than we can cover at the moment and our waiting times have crept up more than we would like."
When asked if he was concerned about the festive period, Lee replied: "There's something we try to do which a lot of taxi companies don't do and that is be honest with customers.
"If we haven't got a driver we tell them and let them book elsewhere. A lot of companies will just take bookings and deal with the fallout afterwards.
"I'd encourage customers to pre-book and give themselves plenty of time.
"If you've got to be somewhere for a specific time make sure you give yourself more than enough time to get there."
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