Pandemic wreaks havoc on vehicles for hire

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/02/2021 (1866 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When COVID-19 first forced many Winnipeggers to stay home last spring, nearly half of the city’s vehicles for hire were pulled off the road.

The number of available vehicles for hire — which includes taxis, ride-sharing vehicles, limousines and “accessible transport vehicles” regulated by the city — fell nearly 50 per cent in March and April 2020, according to a new city report.

“Many cars were pulled off the road at that time, and drivers simply sat idle,” the report notes.

Despite busier stretches when businesses were able to reopen last year, the average number of monthly trips remained low, or about 364,684 per month between January and September 2020. That compares to 452,955 trips per month throughout 2019.

The loss of weddings, concerts, festivals and sports events, as well as vastly reduced travel, all triggered major decreases in demand, according to Grant Heather, the City of Winnipeg’s manager of vehicles for hire.

Heather said the number of vehicles for hire in use rebounded by the end of 2020 to just below 2019 levels — around 1,200 per month. He expects ride totals will still fall well below normal once year-end figures are finalized, however, in part because the code-red lockdown kept Winnipeggers largely at home this past holiday season.

“The average for 2020 is still going to be about 100,000 (rides) a month less than what it was in 2019 … There’s still no airline travel, which affects the industry drastically. There were also no holiday parties, no Christmas parties, so people aren’t going out,” Heather said.

A taxi driver told the Free Press he and his colleagues continue to struggle with the lack of demand.

“With the effects of COVID-19 all around the world … we suffered a lot,” said Gurmail Mangat, a former president and current driver with Unicity Taxi.

Mangat said he saw ride numbers plummet to about 50 per cent of normal levels during November and December.

“This is usually a very busy time with all the parties but this year (it) was dead for us … Nothing was happening. There were no Christmas parties. So every day we were waiting for the opening of this lockdown,” he said.

Joe Masi, a spokesperson for the Winnipeg Community Taxi Association, said a city rebate on some taxi fees, along with provincial and federal pandemic support programs, have helped many drivers and companies survive. Masi said it’s tough to figure out when the industry could finally recover, though, since possible destinations for Winnipeggers are still greatly limited by public health orders.

“We’re just coming out of another shutdown, so we’ll have to see the impact of that. 2020 really did deliver a blow and we’re still in it,” said Masi. “A lot of things have been lost. The graduations, the Christmas season, the shopping … the airport business has totally vanished. It was a very difficult year.”

Meanwhile, the city report proposes to help make taxis and ride-share vehicles more accessible starting in 2021, through a three-year, $1.8-million pilot project.

If council approves, the city would hire a contractor to create a centralized dispatch for accessible trips and offer incentives to drivers to offer more accessible rides.

“Currently, to find an accessible ride you might have to call a number of companies … and this will centralize that into one call and make (it) much more user friendly,” said Coun. Matt Allard (St. Boniface), the chairperson of council’s public works committee.

The city would fund the project through a seven-cent-per-trip accessibility surcharge, which is charged on all vehicle for hire rides.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga