Taxi to nowhere: COVID-19 measures hit London black cab business

According to official figures from Transport for London (TfL) sent to AFP, the number of licensed black cabs has gone down from more than 19,000 on March 1 this year to just under 15,000 on November 8.

The black cabs were once in a list of British symbols recognisable around the world, including red telephone boxes and police in conical helmets.

With London's streets emptied by the coronavirus lockdown, many drivers are unable to keep paying for their vehicles and are handing them back in droves.

With air travel constrained, hitting tourism, he said the wait could be 20 to 24 hours instead of the normal three.

Fields full of taxis are now a mass phenomenon, said Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers' Association (LTDA).

Covid is "without doubt the prime factor" for falling numbers of taxis, he said.

McNamara also says taxi drivers should be singled out for help, in the same way that government helped restaurants try to bounce back after their enforced closure.

"We've been hit equally hard, if not harder than the hospitality sector," he said.