Hull's shortage of taxi drivers leads to public safety fears

Paul Bone said some drivers felt they had had enough of being abused if arriving late

A taxi firm has said the shortage of drivers is the worst the industry has seen in Hull for 15 years.

There had been a big drop in the number of cab drivers since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, it said.

Hull Cars boss Chris Davidson said his firm was "150 drivers down" since the start of Covid.

Steve Wright of the Licensed Private Hire Car Association said the UK shortage "was a real public safety problem that needs to be addressed".

Without more drivers some people looking for taxis were "going to be stranded", Mr Wright added.

At times on Friday night Hull Cars was telling customers the next available taxi would be four hours and about 20% of its 5,000 callers were told no car was available.

Some of his drivers had left to be delivery drivers, Chris Davidson said.

Hull Cars said they had had 450 drivers before Covid but were now down to 300

Mr Davidson said: "I've never seen anything like this in 15 years, it is just getting worse and worse."

"We are just desperate for drivers, we want to get them in a car," he added.

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"At the taxi rank outside the station sometimes the queue goes all the way round the back," said Grace Barrett

"It is scary when I finish work"

Grace Barrett 20, a bar worker and student from Hull, explained some of the difficulties of getting a taxi home in the early hours of the morning.

"At 3am when I finish work as a young girl you really don't want to be out at that hour.

"I finish my shift and think 'now I've got to get home, what's that going to be like?'

"I should be able to bob off straight home in a taxi as it's not safe to do a 40-minute walk by myself.

"It is really bad phoning round all the firms and getting 'no...no' and I've got to go to the queue and face a lot of drunk people."

Mr Wright, chairman of the association, called for a reduction of bureaucracy and said costs, including the rising price of cars, were a problem for new drivers.

He said the UK was short of "well in excess of 100,000" taxi drivers.

"There needs to be some sensible measures taken with what people are asked to do to get into the industry and it could do with some help financially", he said.

Before Covid Hull had 1,447 taxi drivers compared to 1,290 now, according to Hull City Council.

The council said it was "aware of the concerns nationally" and was monitoring the situation in Hull.

It was looking at ways to simplify the application process while maintaining standards and making sure applicants were "safe and suitable", it added.