There has been a growing year-on-year interest among aspiring taxi drivers hoping to join Ireland’s taxi fleet, according to mobility app FreeNow.
This is despite there still being a major shortage of taxi services late at night throughout the country.
FreeNow said it recorded a 33 percent increase in new drivers completing its manual training programme in 2023, which helps new drivers prepare for the National Transport Authority’s (NTA ) SPSV driver entry test.
The mobility app also said that its driver partner base has grown overall by around nine per cent year-on-year in 2023 - "a record high" for FreeNow.
Despite all this, one only has to walk to their local taxi rank (if they have one ) after a night out to find there isn't a taxi service available, with most drivers avoiding working at night.
According to research conducted last year on the taxi industry commissioned by the NTA, just 50 per cent of the 670 taxi licence holders surveyed reported working between 6pm and 8pm at the end of 2022, compared to 59 percent at the start of the year.
While almost 60 percent of taxi drivers operated between 8pm and midnight in early 2022, less than half were working during the same period by September/October 2022.
The fall-off was even more noticeable after midnight, with only 38 per cent of taxi drivers stating they worked between midnight and 4am at the end of 2022 – down from 51 percent in February 2022.
The research also said that the more than 80 per cent of taxi drivers who don't work in the hours after midnight had given up working nights, including 21 percent who had ceased night-time shifts in the past three years.
Almost half (48 percent ) cited concerns about their personal safety as the reason for stopping working nights, while 23 percent said it was for their personal health and 13 per cent said it was not financially worthwhile.
Asked what might encourage them to work nights, 31 per cent of taxi drivers said at the time that nothing would persuade them to work night shifts.
