WOMEN COPING WITH COVID Tracey with her father, Mick Norton
We are following council guidelines regarding PPE, but our drivers do wear a mask and we have signed up to the Safe Taxi Charter so that our customers know what standards we are all working to achieve, ensuring customer safety is always paramount.
Our company holds the local contract for the NHS and our drivers have been working round the clock to help them to get staff, notes, blood, samples, packages, patients etc. from A to B. This includes one of our drivers, Lesley Guy, who drives a London style cab transporting Covid-19 patients leaving hospital or going in for tests etc. She has worked extremely hard to make sure we can provide this service to the most vulnerable passengers who still need to get around at this very difficult time. Our company applied for and we did get the £10K grant from the government.
The main problem with our local authority is lack of communication generally with licence holders: I have spoken to several drivers and they have not been getting emails or post direct from the council; any information they have is what they found on the council website.
As for going forward into the “new normal”? Ahh, that’s the mil- lion-dollar question that I wish we could answer. We are following government guidelines and adhering to government policies during this dreadful time that not only affects the taxi trade but most other businesses at the minute. We are a family run business and we hope to continue to work as a team with our dedicated drivers and staff to provide a good reliable service. With the help of our loyal customers and account holders this will hopefully help us get through this together and we will be able to continue to be a successful family business that has been run- ning for nearly 53 years - and long may this continue.
We are pleased to say we have managed to acquire some new busi- ness during this dreadful time. We have opened new accounts for care homes and companies that need to get staff safely to work or for important appointments, We have also had some very nice new cash customers that need to go to the bank or shop and cannot travel on public transport. The drivers have built up some good rela- tionships as they are usually wait and return jobs and are used to their individual needs and ways. Let’s hope they all see how cheap we are for these journeys and continue to use us in the future!”
"I would like to say a massive thank you to all my staff, drivers, cash and accounts customers for their hard work and loyal support at this very difficult and stressful time for everyone concerned"
VIVIENNE SPENCER - DALES TAXIS COLWYN BAY, NORTH WALES
Finally, we go cross-country to chat with Vivienne Spencer, pro- prietor of Dales Taxis in Colwyn Bay, North Wales:
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“Dales was established approximately 40 years ago and I became a business part- ner with Alan Dale 20 years ago. He retired 12 months later and I continued as a sole proprietor. At that time we had 15 drivers. We now have a mixed fleet with around 50/50 of company and owner/drivers totalling 40.
Over the years we have tried targeting different income streams, but in our area the best way forward is to offer a 24- hour 365 days of the year service, doing a bit of everything that comes our way. We do undertake school transport which is a great basic income level for the drivers; we also supply several logistics companies and railway assistance. But our regulars are the workers, the local shops and residents. Put them altogether and my drivers have a reasonable level of work.
Ignoring my initial terror at the thought of a lockdown and what it would entail, we are still here!
The main office closed at the end of March with staff being fur- loughed. Our sub-office remained open and I allowed the drivers who wanted to continue to run it themselves working off the phones. Due to the support of school transport and the council grant they have been able to continue for three months free of charge including free cars for the company men. Some sort of normal…
We reopened our main office the first week of July; the drivers are offered four shifts at heavily discounted rates. The hope is that they can financially recover and be able to sustain any fur- ther restrictions should they be reintroduced. Our drivers, many of whom have been with me for a long time, have been incredibly adaptive and we have worked together to get the show back on the road. We are currently working at two-thirds capacity with some still off shielding, but demand is now slowly picking up.
The financial support the company received is being filtered to the drivers through initially free use, low pay-ins, free screens. I hope to continue this policy for as long as we can, but at some point that will have to cease.
As much as the office has a strong female leadership, we cannot ignore our two men, Mark and Graham, who put up with us.
Our relationship with our local council is one of helpful coopera- tion which has been of benefit to us in these difficult times. Accepting that there was so much the government had to cover in this pandemic, the guidelines for taxis was vague especially as in most areas taxis did still operate to get people to work and look after our elderly customers who still needed to get to the shops. We did agree to help move patients between hospitals but did not get called on, so I did feel advice for the use of face masks in taxis was very late coming out. My biggest concern has been the safety of my drivers.”
As you can see, all these women – whom we thank heartily for taking part in this feature – are displaying more than their share of the “X-factor” in the diverse ways they’ve been coping with Covid. We say to them, and to you all: Stay safe!
AUGUST 2020
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