Taxi drivers have ‘patchy’ day

Press, 26 December 1984, Page 5

Taxi drivers have ‘patchy’ day

Sitting behind the steering wheel of a car may not be everyone’s idea of how to spend Christmas Day but for many of Christchurch’s taxi drivers it was business as usual yesterday. More than 100 taxi drivers were on the roads ferrying people to and from Christmas dinners and church services. Trade was patchy, said the chairman of the Blue Star Taxis board of directors, Mr Dennis Graham. The busy peak hours round lunch and dinner times were interspersed with “fairly quiet” periods. Over-all the demand for taxis was less than on previous Christmas

Days, said Mr Graham. Delays were brief. Passengers faced delays of up to 20 minutes-in the outer suburbs such as Sumner and 10 minutes in areas closer to the city centre, he said. Most taxi drivers managed to break their shift so they too could be home for Christmas dinner.

Yesterday’s level of trade was in marked contrast to that of last week. “All week we were flat stick with one of the biggest job counts taken on Friday,” said Mr Graham. The firm took about 6000 fares that day, one of the biggest in a long time.

Mr Graham thought the high number was related to the “drink don’t drive” campaign. Most people who had been drinking to celebrate Christmas were being careful and taking taxis home, he said. Because Christmas Day was more of a family day, drink did not feature as much, he said, and there was usually someone sober to drive. The manager of another leading taxi firm in Christchurch, Gold Band Taxis, was away on holiday, but a duty dispatcher at the depot said that business yesterday was steady and similar to other Christmas Days.