Over 70 cabbies recently protested about council plans that could see a dramatic increase in the number of taxis on the capital’s streets.
By Ka Long Tung. Cover image by Ka Long Tung
For Tariq Majid, a taxi driver of seven years in Cardiff, the future looks bleak.
“The fact that they (Cardiff Council) want to open up the cap will just be suicidal for them because it will literally finish our trade.” said Tariq, a taxi driver who’s also a leading member of the Cardiff Hackney Alliance, the branch of the Unite union representing taxi drivers.
“There are already too many taxis working in our city,” Majid, pictured above, said.
He was taking part in a protest by the Unite union, where cabbies drove slowly and loudly honked their outside County Hall last month, hoping to stop plans that may force them out of work.
Removing the cap on Hackney Carriage Vehicle Licence, the black and white taxis, is part of the Cardiff Council’s plans to introduce more Euro 6 and electric vehicles.
The demonstration in County Council wasn’t the first time that cabbies had come together to oppose the council’s plans. voice.wales reported that up to 100 protested in the city centre in January.
During the first year of the pandemic, Cardiff cabbies successfully protested and won emergency payments from the Welsh Government – a move that benefitted all taxi drivers in Wales. But despite the temporary relief, things are getting worse again.
“After COVID, we’ve had a big trouble with the ranks,” said Faik Ahmed, a taxi driver for more than seven years.
“If you make a mistake, they’ll (the council) give you the fine. They just want to make money out of normal people,” said Roshid Ahmed, anoth Cardiff taxi driver who attended the protest.
“We don’t have enough customers. Because Uber takes over and Dragon and so many different cabs working,” said Faik.
Hackney carriage drivers are individual workers who make an income from the amount of work they do. But some have also joined a private operator in order to make more money, according to Majid.
“Some drivers, out of desperation, do have to join a privatised company as well. They work both ways – Hackney but they also work for the company,” he said.
“But even the companies are really ripping the drivers off. They wanna charge 30 per cent of the commission on the fares.”
As of December 2022, there were 726 hackney carriages actively licensed in Cardiff.
“At the end of the day, when you’ve got 1,000 taxies and those legally should not be working in our city, that’s gonna have a huge effect on our income,” said Majid.
Even without the incoming removal of the cap, many cabbies in Cardiff have already experienced a serious decline in living standards.
“Income has already massively been affected. Drivers now literally have to use food banks and other resources to make sure they feed their family and pay their bills,” said Majid
Faik added: “Believe me, we don’t even make minimum wage. We don’t even make a minimum wage. Because we have too many expenses for the cars.”
Many taxi drivers do not have their own vehicles, and they have to rent a taxi to work. Some told voice.wales that they pay around £600 a month for the rent.
“You have to work no less than 10 hours to even see like £50, £60 a day,” he said.
Mohammed Saif Uddin, a taxi driver for 13 years now, told voice.wales that after deducting all the costs, he earns just around £9,000 a year.
The move to electric vehicles is also being done in a way that could exclude the poorest cabbies.
“Electric vehicles are still very, very expensive. If we don’t create a trade where they can earn enough money to pay their rent, feed their families, clothe their kids, and still be able to save enough money to afford an electric vehicle, the poorest taxi drivers in Cardiff are going to find themselves unable to be taxi drivers anymore,” said Alan McCarthy, the regional coordinating officer for Unite.
“Forcing them to save money for a full electric vehicle while at the same time over-saturating the market isn’t going to help the poorest taxi drivers to survive in a dream,” he said.
A large section of the workforce come from Cardiff’s Black, Asian and ethnic minority community, with families hit disproportionately.
With the potential increase of competition, their situation may become even worse.
“We know that Black and ethnic minority people are disproportionately impacted in the employment market,” McCarthy said.
“Saying that anybody who rocked up with a Tesla today can have a taxi license, over-saturating the market even further, all that that does is reduce the earnings of these people who rely on it just to pay rent.”
With all the hardship that has happened over the past few years, some cabbies have been thinking about leaving the cab for good.
“To be honest, I am thinking about quitting this job,” said Roshid. I’ve been doing it for five years. It was okay. Now, I think it’s not anymore.”
Faik shares the feeling. “I have thought about changing my job since a few months ago,” he said. “I’m carrying on searching for what job is the right one.”
“I don’t want what happened to the taxis to happen to another job as well.”
