Amongst others during busy period.
Many taxi drivers ‘turn off booking apps’ as Dublin set for busiest weekend in over two years
March 16 2022 03:27 PM
Dublin taxi drivers are bracing themselves for unprecedented demand over the coming days, with the St Patrick’s Festival and Ireland’s Six Nations clash with Scotland set to bring record numbers into the city.
After a challenging two years, the taxi industry is expected to enjoy a bumper weekend as the Dublin parade returns and workers benefit from a bonus public holiday.
The weekend will also see the most significant rise in international visitors to the capital since Covid restrictions were lifted.
However, revellers can expect to encounter difficulties finding a taxi after a night out, particularly on St Patrick’s Day, with passengers urged to plan ahead and “be patient”.
Noel Ebbs, chief executive of Lynk, said St Patrick’s Day will see the highest number of bookings this year.
“This weekend will be as busy as Christmas and New Year’s Eve,” he said. “The main difference with St Patrick’s Day is that it’s an all-day event – from early morning, it will be non-stop.”
Mr Ebbs advised passengers to pre-book, where possible, and be mindful of traffic restrictions around the city on St Patrick’s Day.
“We would ask people to be patient as there will be delays, especially if you’re travelling across the city.
“Bear in mind that roads in the city centre will be closed for several hours because of the parade and drivers will have to use alternative routes to get to you.”
Mr Ebbs said Lynk employs 1,500 full-time drivers, with a further 1,000 working on a “pay-per-job” basis. He told Independent.ie efforts were under way across the sector to increase recruitment levels. 
“We have this anomaly where a lot of drivers haven’t returned since Covid, particularly those with health issues, and this has resulted in a shortage of drivers at peak times,” he said.
Jim Waldron, spokesperson for the National Private Hire and Taxi Association, claimed very few new drivers wanted to enter the industry as it was “a challenging career”.
“It’s hard to tell people to join an industry where you can get abuse every day of the week and you regularly hear of drivers being assaulted,” he said.
“The average age of drivers is very high and a lot of guys who stayed at home for health reasons during Covid did not come back in the numbers we expected them to, which is a concern.”
Mr Waldron believes there continues to be too much responsibility placed on the taxi industry to come up with the city’s transport solutions.
“The challenge this weekend is for the NTA and public transport operators to provide additional services and not just rely on taxi drivers,” he said.
Mr Waldron claimed many taxi drivers will turn off their booking apps this week due to high levels of passenger demand.
“They won’t want to pay 15pc commission on a fare to an app company when there’s such high demand on the streets,” he said.
He suggested passengers travelling into the city by taxi should make arrangements with their driver to be collected at an agreed time later that night.
He added while this would be a good week financially for many drivers, “a night’s work can be ruined by one bad passenger”.
“If somebody vomits in your car, you will have to take it off the road and pay €180 for it to be properly valeted,” he said. “That’s always a concern for drivers, but we hope everyone enjoys themselves safely.”
According to the National Transport Authority (NTA), there were 25,426 small public service vehicle (SPSV) licences in Ireland at the end of 2021.
“This is broadly in line with where we were in 2017,” a spokesperson for the NTA said.
