While more and more sectors are slowly moving away from their pandemic-related declines, not much has changed for the taxi sector, even one year after the beginning of the health crisis. Earlier this week, the national taxi federation came together with unions OGBL and LCGB to sign a redundancy programme, which will guarantee that no employee can be let go before the end of the year.
However, apart from pandemic worries, there is another issue threatening the status quo of taxis: the planned reform to liberalise the sector. OGBL spokesman Sven Graas commented: "For now, it is important that the redundancy programme will provide a certain amount of safety for a duration of seven months. Naturally, we hope that the situation around the pandemic will continue to calm down. Nevertheless, we still expect the taxi reform to be another critical hit for the sector once it comes into effect." The way it stands at the moment, OGBL believes the reform to be unacceptable.
Paulo José Leitao, president of the Luxembourgish taxi federation, also noted concerns over the planned reform: "All our businesses are already in debt due to pandemic. Some will certainly face bankruptcy at some point. It will be impossible to compete with new business that enter the market debt-free."
Leitao further conveyed that around 80% of taxis are still out of circulation at this point, and that revenue in the sector suffered a 90% decline: "Drivers at the airport, for instance, have two to three clients per day, and that in spite of being there between 7 a.m. and midnight." Leitao now hopes that by the end of the year, business may return to at least 30-50% of their former rates.
Although the redundancy programme ensures that no further taxi drivers can be let go for the next seven months, some already fell victim to job cuts earlier on. With 149 individual businesses, it is difficult to assess the dimensions of the sector, and the taxi federation acknowledges that they lack exact statistics of their former employees. It is estimated that around 900 people work as taxi drivers in the Grand Duchy.
