Taxi industry 'battling to recruit workers' says East Riding taxi driver
A call has been backed to look into measures to bolster taxi numbers in the county
An East Riding taxi driver has said the industry is battling to recruit workers, contending with demand surges at peak times and pandemic pressures amid council calls to help.
Jon Wray, of Willerby Cars, said new recruits were put off by the months’ long process of getting taxi licences, with only around one in 10 applicants seeing it through.
He added taxis in both the East Riding and Hull were struggling to meet demand from people out at the weekend, causing some to be up to 40 minutes late.
His comments come after East Riding councillors from the ruling Conservatives and opposition Liberal Democrats backed a call to look into measures to bolster taxi numbers on Wednesday (12th January).
Liberal Democrat Cllr Viv Padden, who tabled the motion at the full council meeting, said many drivers were stopping work after 8pm because of a lack of jobs.
Conservative Cllr Kerri Harold, portfolio holder for public protection on the council, said the coronavirus pandemic had seen many drivers leave the industry for other jobs.
She added that while taxi driver numbers were not much below pre-pandemic levels, the council was looking at bringing training in house to help encourage more workers.
Councillors from both groups also said problems with taxi availability were leading to concerns for vulnerable people such as the elderly and women travelling home late at night.
Mr Wray said part of the problem came from the taxi licensing process but the pandemic, while largely sparing his firm, had sent many others under.
He added he doubted companies like Bolt, who recently confirmed plans to move into Hull this year, would solve the issue and that problems ran deeper than just driver shortages.
Mr Wray said: “Getting new drivers is the battle at the moment.
“If you sit next to a taxi driver in their car and you ask the question most people ask, if they’ve been busy, they’ll say it’s rubbish at the moment.
“If you told them you wanted to become a taxi driver, they’d tell you not to bother.
“Of course that’s partly because they don’t want competition from new drivers but it’s also because getting a licence is long-winded, it takes too long.
“It can take up to three months, applicants are told to do this and then this and then something else, it’s not through any fault of theirs it’s the process itself.
“For people who are out of work, they can’t afford to wait three months, so they just go and get another job.
“We get enquiries all the time but we’re lucky if 10 per cent actually make it through the process and get their licence.
“Overall the industry isn’t particularly short of drivers at the moment, the problem is that in Hull for example it’s now a one night town.
“There’s plenty of cars around in the week, but it’s busy on Saturday and when everyone leaves pubs and clubs at the same time that’s when you get the shortages.
“Everyone falls out of the pubs at 11pm and the problem is people can’t seem to get to grips with pre-booking, it doesn’t matter if people book two minutes before or two hours before, it makes a difference.
“We make sure we never overbook, sometimes one of our drivers might be 10 minutes late but we let the customers know so they can stay inside the pub if they need to.
“But other firms have been 30 to 40 minutes late for jobs, you only have to look at their reviews online to see that.
“During the week there isn’t much work so a lot of drivers will take council school contracts to transport vulnerable or disabled children.
“They can’t be expected to wait around for work, they take those contracts so they can have some stability and then go and do what they need to do on a weekend moving people to and from the pubs, bars and clubs.
“During the pandemic I think our firm was particularly lucky, we retained a lot of our drivers so we haven’t done so badly.
“But there were some who did leave to go and do things like work for Amazon or deliver food.
“The vast majority of taxi drivers are self-employed, I think the government did well will the self-employment grants handed out through councils, we would have struggled if it wasn’t for that.
“We’re a small firm compared to some of the others, most of our work’s in Willerby, Hessle, Swanland and the villages far west of Hull.
“We’re doing okay at the moment but we’re not as busy as we could be, though January and February tend to be quiet because no one has any money after Christmas.
“I don’t think companies like Uber or Bolt would survive in Hull, because most of the demand is on Saturday night.
“And the problem is say if there’s 500 licensed drivers in Hull and 250 of them go and work for the app-based companies, the amount of drivers overall hasn’t increased, you’ve still got 500.”