STEP TWO REOPENING: London taxi industry prepares for increase in travellers as lockdown eases

Image credit: LTPR (Twitter)

The capital’s black taxi service is gearing up for an increase in travellers on Monday with step two of the coronavirus roadmap about to commence.

New informative floor stickers will direct taxi passengers and the public to ranks at busier train stations. The circular stickers also advertise ‘safe partitioned travel’.

A London Taxi PR spokesperson said via social media: “So whilst out and about at the stations and ranks in London today we saw these on the pavement. What a great informative idea, and a good colour scheme too.

“Wonder who thought of them?”

On Monday, hundreds of London black cabs are set to descend on a historic cab shelter in Russell Square for a free, Covid-killing “electrostatic” clean to celebrate the day much of the capital reopens for business.

A team of cleaning specialists from iPurus will be sanitising vehicles between 12noon and 3pm on 12 April, using electronic spray guns and non-toxic ‘grenades' of hospital-grade detergent in order to give London's cabbies the most hygienic start to the second phase of lockdown easing.

The cleaning will be provided to drivers free of charge thanks to funding from the Licensed Taxi Drivers' Association (LTDA), the largest trade body representing London’s black cab drivers and ComCab – operator of one of London’s largest black cab fleets.

The taxi and travel industry not only in London, but throughout the UK has been one of the hardest hit sectors due to the impact of COVID-19.

In a recent LTDA survey they found 99.8% of taxi drivers said their income had been affected by the pandemic. 25.5% of those said they currently had no income at all from driving a taxi due to the pandemic, and 34.8% said they were earning 20% or less of their usual income.