When the recent news broke where black taxis were left abandoned in the open field, there was a huge concern about the business fall of UK taxi fleets post COVID-19. Currently, there are the only a fraction of fleets running on the UK streets.
Let us check how the global pandemic effected the UK taxi fleet market, but drivers still being optimistic about it.
To start with, the Wolverhampton City Council, who was previously criticised for issuing large number of private hire license, especially to those who are not working.
Despite of the pandemic negatively impacting taxi or private car hire industry, the council went ahead to increase the private hire driver licence,
According to the stats, the private hire driver license risen from 16257 to 16924. Despite in the increase of private hire vehicle licence, there has been a significant drop.
Next in the line is the Brighton & Hove City Council licensed drivers. According to the figures released by the council, both hackney carriage and private car hire driver number has come down in the last 12 months. The stats also says there has been a driver licence drop by 78, from 1138 to 1060. Similarly, the private hire vehicle license dropped 56 from 493 to 437 with the increase across the board coming from hackney carriage vehicle licences.
Nottingham taxi drivers, on the other hand, proved to be in control with number of licensed driver only dropping by 2 in last 12 months. Figures show that current number of licensed drivers sits at 2,425.
Transport for London (TFL), UKs largest taxi and private hire licensing authority states shows that till 22nd November, hackney carriage taxi driver licence, 18,995 holding ‘All London license and 2,551 Suburban licences.
However, the figure released by Hackney carriage taxi vehicle licence is quite worrying showing the drop of 3,664 in the last 12 months.
The number of private car hire operator license in UK is currently at 2,022, which is down by 91 compared to last year figure of 2113.
Cabbies licenced with Sheffield City Council, some of which will be receiving 500-support package. The package will be provided only if the eligibility requirement is filled.
Many of these taxi councils are waiting for the package announced by the UK government. This will certainly help drivers to meet up their needs and overcome the financial problem they have been facing since no business due to lockdown.