Ride-hailing app FREE NOW joins calls for taxi drivers to be prioritised in vaccine rollout plan

Image credit: FREENOW

Ride-hailing app FREE NOW has written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson to recommend that taxi and private hire drivers be prioritised in the vaccine rollout plan.

This comes as the industry aims to ramp up efforts to help NHS staff to get to work, to assist parents get their kids off to school, and keeping the country moving as safely as possible during this pandemic.

The letter is a further call for ‌early vaccinations after key government ministers were strongly urged to provide drivers a high-priority vaccination status by a united taxi and private hire representative front earlier this week.

The Licensed Private Hire Car Association (LPHCA) directed their letter jointly signed by eighteen different trade bodies to three key government ministers. These ministers include: Baroness Vere (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Department for Transport), Matt Hancock (Secretary of State for Health and Social Care) and Rt Hon Gavin Williamson CBE (Secretary of State for Education).

‌In the letter to the Prime Minister, Mariusz Zabrocki, FREE NOW UK General Manager, says: "Drivers who choose to use our app will in many cases be called upon to help transport passengers to and from vaccinations sites. On that basis, to help ensure that drivers and passengers are protected, we request that the government consider giving prioritisation to Taxi, PHV drivers and other transport workers for vaccination if they choose so, once the most vulnerable have been inoculated at the end of February."