24 June 2020

London Taxi Card Payments Rise Over 44% After Lockdown

As a lot of taxi drivers already know, the taxi industry was hit badly when the UK entered lockdown back in March 2020. With the number of rides falling by over 90% in some areas of the country, many drivers had to look for alternative methods to keep making money, whilst others chose to stay at home and resume driving once the lockdown was over.

With lockdown gradually lifting, all sectors of public transport have gradually been seeing an increase in the number of passengers riding again, including the taxi industry.

In London alone, the number of taxi journeys with card payments has risen by over 44%, this comes as more people have been travelling to city centres to visit recently reopened shops, and businesses have been easing their employees back into work.

CMT, one of London’s biggest card payment solution providers, tweeted the following statement:

“CMT Payment Trend data. Each bar shows transaction volume for that week. The green section shows increase vs previous week, with % displayed. For context wk3 June’s transaction volume was 257.4% that of wk3 in May, so just over 2.5 times the number of jobs.”

(Click here to view the tweet)

A Bright Future Ahead?

Cabvision, another card payment provider, also provided the following statement: “Yesterday (19th June) was the busiest day we’ve had since lockdown. Volumes are still massively down, but there is definitely an uptrend.”

Whilst things are still far from normal, there appears to be more positivity that the taxi industry will come out of this pandemic strong. As flights begin to resume in airports, and the hospitality sector is expected to start reopening from July 4th, taxi drivers across the country are expecting a boost in passengers itching to travel and get out of the house.

Taxi booking apps also announced their expectations that business will improve.

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.”

Safer Taxis

“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.”

“Quintessental London vehicles: The taxi cabs and double decker buses” by Dion Hinchcliffe, used under CC BY / Modified from original

Credit Card Photo by Moghees Ahmad from Pexels