COVID-19 is currently ravaging the world with most businesses shut down and over a third of the world either in quarantine or under lockdown. One of the groups that have been hit particularly hard is taxi drivers. These drivers depend on people moving around and now that people are not doing so, their businesses have been enormously affected. Below, we will look at how COVID-19 is affecting taxi drivers.
Lower Revenues
Many cities have halted the movement of people unless it is urgent or very important. Because of this, the number of people using taxis has gone down significantly. The direct result of this is a massive loss of revenue for taxi drivers. Drivers can no longer carry the number of passengers they used to, which is leading to this situation.
Some governments have also asked taxi drivers to limit the number of people they carry in their cars. For taxi drivers who would carry up to three people, this number has been cut to just one passenger, which is another reason for the massive fall in revenue for taxi drivers.
The government is also urging taxi drivers not to allow anyone showing symptoms to get into their taxis which reduces passenger numbers in cities that have been hit hard by the coronavirus.
Massive Job Cuts
The direct effect of a loss of revenue is massive job cuts. Companies are having a hard time retaining employees in areas where it would not be economically viable to do so. The number of unemployed taxi drivers, sadly, will continue to rise as more cities lockdown and there is a total cessation of movement.
Risk of Infection
A lot of people who cannot drive themselves to hospital if they are ill are opting to use taxis. Also, because the majority of people who have the coronavirus are asymptomatic, taxi drivers put themselves at risk if they ferry someone who is sick but is not showing symptoms yet.
Savings on Insurance
Because there are so few passengers and revenues are so low, some taxi drivers are opting to either temporarily SORN their car because they feel it will be some time before they get back on the road, or look for cheaper insurance options to save money. If you are still on the road and need to save on your insurance, you should visit Quotezone. They are a comparison website that will help you get cheaper private hire insurance for your taxi by letting you compare private hire insurance quotes from different companies.
Increased Operational Costs
The government advises taxi drivers to disinfect their cars as many times as they can. The direct impact of this is increased operational costs due to costs incurred in the purchase of disinfectants and other materials needed to keep their vehicles virus-free.
The taxi industry has been massively affected by COVID-19, sometimes in ways we cannot see. The best thing taxi drivers can do is take care of themselves so that when everything goes back to normal, they can get back to work.
