Charlottetown taxi industry still hurting amid pandemic
'I'm still paying the expenses of being a taxi driver'
Some Island taxi companies say the pandemic continues to make life challenging for their drivers, with many facing a huge drop in business, and others staying off the road all together.
Paul MacPhail, the bookkeeper with Co-Op Taxi Line and a part-time driver himself, says the company's normally lucrative summer business was down 50 per cent over last year.
MacPhail maintains while many Islanders started taking cabs again as the province's pandemic restrictions eased in late spring, the industry has suffered from a lack of tourists.
"We have had tourists here from the Atlantic bubble, but it's nowhere near the numbers we used to have," said MacPhail. "And most of the people that are coming here, they're kind of sticking to themselves. There's no concerts. There's nothing really here to attract people that we would normally have."
'I'm still paying the expenses'
MacPhail himself is among a few drivers with Co-Op that didn't bother driving all summer.
He said he's at a higher risk of developing complications from COVID-19, and didn't feel comfortable sitting in a cab with customers.
He just got back behind the wheel this week, after a summer earning only his part-time bookkeeping income.
"I'm still paying the expenses of being a taxi driver," he said. "I'm licensed up until next year, insured for it until next year, the payments are still on the car until next year. All those things are still there. So it's an impact."
The pandemic hasn't stopped Yellow Cab P.E.I. general manager Kirby Eldershaw from driving a taxi.
But he said it has kept him and most of his company's drivers away from airport pickups — which normally make up about 15 per cent of their business in the summer months.
"We're staying away from the airport," he said, referencing that P.E.I.'s cases have been travel related. "Some of our guys are scared to go up. They don't want to go up."
Like those with Co-Op Taxi Line, Eldershaw said Yellow Cab drivers saw their business cut in half this summer.
He said while those losses will be tough to recoup, he's hopeful as long as P.E.I.'s COVID-19 case count remains low, business will eventually return to normal.
"It'll be near 100 per cent, I would think in the winter, just having our locals going back and forth.... And we're taking all the steps for customers being in the vehicle," he said.
"We wipe down after every couple customers. A lot of the drivers, we wear masks when there's customers in the car. And a lot of customers do wear masks too."