WORLDWIDE from Russia
PANDEMIC PROVES NO HURDLE FOR MOSCOW TAXI AND CAR-SHARING FIRMS
Despite suffering an extremely tough 2020, taxi and car-share operators in the Russian capital will still be able to purchase new vehicles thanks to subsidies paid out by the Moscow government. According to Intelligent Transport, Moscow Transport has continued subsidising taxi and car-sharing companies’ fleet renewals throughout 2020 despite the Covid-19 pandemic. This year marks the eighth year in a row that the subsidies have been paid by the Mayor of Moscow. More than 115 taxi companies submitted applications for refunds, which amounted to 288 million rubles (€3.3 million) to purchase more than 11,000 new vehicles. Moscow Transport says that thanks to this support, 70 per cent of city taxi cars were purchased with the direct financial support of the Moscow Government. Since 2018, Moscow Transport has helped car-sharing oper- ators as well. This year they have applied for another 200 million rubles for 8,500 new cars. It’s been a tough year for taxi operators around the world, including in Moscow, but the local authority thinks it has done enough to support the sector through 2020. “The subsidy is the only state support for the pandemic-stricken taxi compa- nies and car-sharing operators. The Government of Moscow will continue to help the companies next year. It is essential for the development of urban transport services,” said Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Transport, Maksim Liksutov.
people’s hearts,” said Walteros, 52, as he and the pooch cruised around crowded, high- altitude Bogota two days before Christmas, their vehicle decked out in fake pine boughs. “That’s Christmas!” Walteros found Colonel, a mutt with shaggy fur and floppy ears, on the street six years ago and the dog has been riding shotgun daily for three years, usually dressed in a police costume. The pair start work at 4 a.m., attracting smiles and attention throughout their shift. “It’s unusual, but this year has been unusual and getting into a cab with a dog dressed as Santa Claus is fun!,” said passen- ger Cesar Reina. Walteros said there is no end to his love for the hound. “Colonel is a friend, a buddy. I can’t explain what I have in my heart for him,” Walteros said, his voice cracking.
from Sweden
‘CORONA CABBIES’ IN DRIVING SEAT OF STOCKHOLM’S COVID TESTING
from Colombia
COLOMBIAN TAXI DRIVER AND CANINE CO-PILOT SPREAD CHRISTMAS CHEER
People who were looking for a bit of Christmas merriment recently in the Colombian capital might have found it in an unexpected place: the front seat of a taxi, in the form of a costumed canine co-pilot. The Toronto Sun reported that taxi driver Nicolas Walteros and his beloved dog Colonel took passengers around Bog- ota together, dressed in matching green Santa tops and hats, aviator sunglasses and a fluffy fake beard resting on the pup’s blonde snout. “We’re showing people a Christmas of hope, where there’s not just material things but what’s in
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Taxi driver Lars-Goran Goransson admits to feeling a little anxious each time he slips on a pair of latex gloves and gin- gerly lifts a Covid-19 test administered just moments earlier from a doorstep in a Stockholm suburb. “I think this is a safe way to work, but yes, I am nervous about the virus,” said Goransson, 55, one of over 1,000 “corona cabbies” who now make a living ferrying Covid-19 swabs between homes and laboratory collection points in the Swedish capital. The Telegram reports that since the pandemic began, private hire firms have home-delivered and collected more than a quarter of a million Covid-19 tests, an initiative that effectively puts cab drivers at the wheel of Stockholm’s test- ing regime. It has thrown struggling cabbies a financial lifeline during the pandemic, allowing drivers to stay afloat until the time when people, rather than swabs, become their main passengers once again.
Under the initiative, run by the national health authority, cab drivers receive 320 Krona ($37) per hour, a bit more than a standard journey in central Stockholm. Sweden, which bucked the international trend earlier this year of imposing a national lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus, was initially slow to roll out testing but ramped
JANUARY 2021
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