As your partner in providing taxi services for your staff and customers, we recognise that as the nation recovers from covid-19, there remains an ongoing UK challenge of a national shortage of licensed taxi drivers.
This shortage, combined with the covid-19 restrictions lifting and demand for taxis soaring, is creating increased pressure on operators to meet the demand.
As your trusted ground transport partner, we want to help your travellers prepare for their journeys.
Therefore, we’ve shared five easy steps below for your customers and staff to consider when booking ground transport whilst there is a national driver shortage:
1. Allow more time for your journey.
Due to industry-wide taxi driver shortages, there is a possibility that your vehicle may arrive late. If on-time pick-up is critical, e.g. for connecting transport or medical appointments, we’d recommend that you book your pick-up time earlier. An extra 30-45 minutes is our current guideline.
2. Anticipate delays, book ahead.
If you’re aware of a requirement for taxi travel, please book in advance where possible. Bookings made with 2+ hours’ notice gives us a better chance at securing a driver to arrive on time to your pick-up location.
3. Cancel your booking as early as possible if it is no longer required.
This frees up resource within our Service Delivery team and across our supply network. You can cancel and amend bookings within the CMAC portal.
4. Be at the pick-up point on time.
Private hire taxi suppliers offer between five- and ten-minutes waiting time and because of the demand on drivers currently they may cancel the journey if their waiting time exceeds this grace period.
In this instance, a new ASAP booking would need to be placed with CMAC and the allocation process would start again.
Did you know that we have integrated with What3Words to make sure your driver knows the exact pick-up point? Make sure to specify your exact location at the time of booking to reduce delays.
5. Check your live booking link – sent via SMS.
Stay updated on the progress of your booking by checking its status in real-time. The booking link is sent via SMS to the mobile number provided at the point of booking, please make sure that you enter the correct details for the traveller.
Here you can see if a driver/supplier has been assigned, along with their vehicle details.
As post-pandemic travel booms, it’s important to remember that the taxi industry has changed, and therefore travellers may need to adapt to suit the new situation.
Communicating these steps will help to manage traveler expectations.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us on hello@cmacgroup.com if you have any questions.