If you are a taxi driver, your income will no doubt have fallen dramatically since the start of COVID-19 due to the reduction in the number of people needing your services during the pandemic. However, are some of you now seeing an increase in the number of fare-paying passengers?

More businesses are re-opening meaning that an increasing number of employees are going back to work. There will no doubt be a lot of those employees who would feel safer making the trip to and from work in their own cars but if they are faced with having to make the journey by public transport there will probably be quite a few who would prefer to make the journey in the back of a taxi rather than using a train or bus.

Also, taxi drivers may well be seeing an increase in bookings for airport transfers as more and more people start to take holidays and travel abroad to enjoy the good summer weather. This type of business is no doubt only going to increase week by week as more holiday destinations become available.

Furthermore, as it has been announced by the government that the hospitality industry can start to open their doors shortly, there will be an increasing number of people wanting to book a taxi to pick them up from home and take them to pubs, restaurants and hotels or pick up from those venues and return them home.

Taxi drivers will have to maintain cleaning standards in their vehicles to reduce the possibility of a passenger or themselves getting the coronavirus possibly for some time to come. They will also want to maintain social distancing measures as enforced by the government. When filling up their fuel tanks at service stations, taxi drivers will no doubt be wearing plastic disposable gloves to reduce the possibility of getting COVID-19.

It will be interesting to see if taxi drivers are able to recover and replace their lost income between now and the end of the year. Let us hope that they can.