TAXI DRIVING THROUGH THE PANDEMIC
The begining
When it was first announced that Covid-19 was a global crisis we started to see panic like it was the end of civilized times nobody knew what was to come at that point.
There were lunatics on every corner pushing people out of the way to get the last packs of toilet roll, I had lots of jobs in to go get large food shops or runs to get big bags potatoes or to the local meat company I continued until I decided it wasn’t safe to do so anymore I helped many of my older customers by going to get them shopping as I knew some of them where overwhelmed by it all.
People were starting to get scared as cases started to grow before the lock down it seemed like the country could collapse into anarchy people were talking of the army coming in with blockades pople were literaly getting enough food in and supplies for months we had people talking about the possibility of having to defend there homes from the possibility of looters.
People all over town were walking past coughing there heads off or sneezing nobody had any respect for my safety as a driver people would say “oh I think I’ve already had it” or just similar excuses you didn’t know if they had it or not with the person never being more than 2 ft from you in the taxi this was awful you knew that they wouldn’t care if you got the virus or not.
I worked out straight away to ventilate the car as much as possible with the windows down to reduce my risk I then got some detol and some cloths to wipe the door handle seat belts etc as people got in and out we tried to work out if we could put a screen n the car to try to get some extra protection but this only worked well in larger vehicle like a minibus or it was just a mess.
Borris Johnson eventually built up to lock down and then locks us all up in our homes, during this time I was asked to go and continue my school contract which was also a live in borstal/ special education and behaviour school this was the point of the disease spreading rapidly I refused to go once it reopened at first as the school had over 100 children plus staff still mixing from various care homes there were cars coming from around six different children’s homes and the taxis from all the other towns.
After around six weeks I returned to do the run the boy I take to school was very anxious he is autistic so we had to be extremly careful to make sure he was ok with going back as he was really worried about it all. I was shocked to see all the staff at the school standing around in packs less than one foot away from each other like nothing was wrong.
Cases were breaking out at the school we heard of a teacher bringing in a child with covid the teacher then got covid a few days later that care home stayed off for 2 weeks. We knew this kid was sat in a room with the boy I take in so we were scared we might get it we were never told off the school the kid had it until we found out for sure a week later. This hapend many times over a few months we knew we could catch it at any point.
I was amazed they kept the school open all other schools were closed it might have been a SENS school but the reality of the danger was there. The school had more than a dozen cases at this point I took a few covid tests just to try to keep sane.
What came next
After a few more months I returned to the taxi ranks there was hardly any taxis operating only one firm continued throughout the crisis. I was trying to get some normality back we were allowed to work as we were key workers doing a important role we were trying to be out there for anybody who needed important items we wanted to show people we were stil around but in truth the whole town was baron hardly any businesses were open and it was like a ghost town.
Some days we sat there and did no jobs at all a busy day might have been two to five jobs I stuck it out as I had my contract so I was only there 9.30am until 2pm many other drivers were in a much worse situation than me they were getting nothing at all from taxis they turned to the boom at the time which was take away food delivery just to stay afloat some friends are still in this situation now almost 19 months on to give you a idea how bad the recovery is.
slowly more and more familiar faces were needing us and started coming out we had multiple lock downs and by now people were weraing face masks so we fealt a bit more secure aswell we wore a mask right through to try to make people feel more safe to go in hand with our other safety measures.
Business was still really slow but we were all just driving only three firms working in town, you could see people glance at taxis but they had lost trust in public transport at this point buses had fully closed down in our area, eventually we started to see faces we hadn’t seen for one year and even two years people who were shielding and we now doing essential things.
Many industries were now on breaking point a lot of companies closed down the pub industry and hotel yet the take away business and alcohol delivery services were booming a local businessman who has a shop in town made 25,000 in a month on just delivering beer he physically bought a brand new VW Caddy and paid for it the first month.
None essential shops reopened and we started to see a few more jobs come up then pubs reopened with table only service this instantly made a mini boom. I personally decided to stay away from the later jobs as i knew i’d not had a vaccine yet people were getting in the taxi without masks with a keebab drunk this wasn’t for me.
Later on once further restrictions were lifted every Fri Sat and Sunday for the next month was crazy imagine a Fri/Sat being the base mark a bank holiday the next level up this was another level on top of that. But it brought in the idiots from other towns other taxi drivers were getting a lot of runners on fares it would typicaly be take us here then onto here then one person would jump out and the guy in the car would say oh he had the money so they would get kicked out at that point this was quite regular at a bad time to be so selfish.
In the day time which is where I mainly work people were walking around in April 2021 without masks they started to ignore the advice people just got in my taxi with no mask without even asking me if it’s ok. People were casually coughing in the car with no mask on this wasn’t a ideal situation then information started to trickle in that customers have had the virus and you work out the time frame and you know they were using you at that time but didn’t tell you that they had it which as you can see the public doesn’t care about your health only there fare most are happy to lie to get a taxi if it’s important for them.
I’ve now had my first jab so I feel a lot safer in the current situation but i still won’t work nights I’m still taking every precaution I think I will always use a glove at a petrol station now and continue the measures i have in place.
Taxi firms up to no good
Some firms in there desperate times are currently using every dirty trick possible to get one over on a different taxi company.
We have noticed all kinds going on right now it’s extremely cutthroat in our town right now as i’m sure it is in the rest of the country people are making much less money than before so they are trying to find ways to discredit other firms.
A driver asked a different firm to cover a job only an hour before it was due so they knew they were quiet the other company purposely decided to not do the job to make them look bad, this lead to a one star review for the firm but it back firmed and the firm who didn’t do the job ended up with the bad review (just deserts i say)
Everybody is trying to steal your regular customers if you ask them to cover it they are carding the jobs and offering to do the job lower I find this disgraceful especially if you consider them friends, then there’s the fake reviews I got one two weeks back by somebody who never used me and never called me yet the person lives 150 miles away in Derby yet did that and gave a rival firm a five star review I knew it was compete lies so I contested it and had it removed by google.
Then there is the rumor spreaders trying to say anything so people don’t use certain drivers it is literally a horrendous industry right now I refuse to stoop to there levels but I am keenly watching to see what peoples true character is the pandemic has brought the worst out in so many drivers people who I considered friends are now seen in a different light.
There is no doubt people are questioning if it’s worth trying to continue on taxis with all the back hand tricks going on and lack of earnings. I rely on contract work so I can distance myself from all that nonsense thankfully.
I will continue this once there is more to add.