London taxi card payments shoot up over 44% in one week as industry slowly recovers from COVID-19

The number of taxi journeys paying by card in the capital have shot up by over 44% via one of the largest card payment providers in just one week, as lockdown measures continue to ease across the UK.

Last week businesses eased some workers slowly back into original working environments side by side with the reopening of retail shops.

According to one of London's biggest card payment solution providers CMT, the number of card transactions shot up by 44.8% compared to data from the previous week. Whilst the number of journeys remain low compared to pre-coronavirus work levels, the data shows a steady recovery week on week.

In the data released by CMT it also shows the number of card payment transactions grew by x2.5 in the space of month.

Another card payment provider, Cabvision, also commented on the growing number of journeys, saying: “Yesterday (Friday 19 June) was the busiest day we've had since lockdown.

“Volumes still massively down but there is definitely an uptrend.”

Last week, taxi booking app service, Gett, announced its expectations that businesses will shift towards using black taxis due to the purpose built partitions and distance.

A spokesperson from taxi app Gett told drivers: “We are now working with our clients to support their return to the office. The team has held several virtual round tables with big clients to understand how they plan to get their workforces back into the office and what Gett can do to support that.

“Clients have told us that they feel safer travelling in black cabs. The partition, large vehicle and professionalism of the drivers give them extra reassurance.

“We expect to see demand steadily increase starting from this week. In fact, we have already been seeing an upward trend over the past few weeks.”

Image credit: Piqsels