DRAGON Taxis is urging passengers to be patient during the coming months, with driver shortages having an impact.

The company – which covers Newport, Torfaen, Cardiff, Vale of Glamorgan and Bridgend – have seen customers having to wait longer than normal for a taxi after being hit by the nationwide shortage of licensed drivers.

Dragon Taxis managing director, Ryan Owen, said: “Regrettably, passengers are having to wait longer than normal. We are taking all the steps we can to increase the number of licensed drivers to match the high demand of journeys by the public.

“Just like within the road haulage industry, there is a nationwide shortage of licensed private hire drivers. We ask for patience as we partner with new and additional drivers to meet resurgent demand.”

The coronavirus pandemic saw thousands of registered taxi and private hire vehicle drivers across the UK leave the industry or retire and many local authorities stopped processing applications during the pandemic – meaning that now this has been restarted, it will take time to licence the drivers to meet the demand.

Veezu – the parent company of Dragon Taxis – is looking for 4,000 additional drivers across its five brands in England and Wales.

MORE NEWS:

Mr Owen said: “It’s a great time to partner with Veezu and one of our regional brands such as Dragon Taxis. Driver partners are self-employed and have total flexibility to work the hours they want.

“This autumn and winter we anticipate the demand for bookings will surpass pre-Covid levels, there is good money to be made driving.”

Alongside the recruitment for drivers, Dragon Taxis is also recruiting call handlers to help manage the increased volume of calls – which has seen an increase of tens of thousands of additional calls each weekend across the UK.

Mr Owen said: “We are doing everything we possibly can as quickly as we can. We hope the public can understand that the private hire industry is facing severe shortages and can empathise with our situation.

“We would like to remind passengers that the quickest and most effective way of booking a car is to use our app. We also encourage passengers to use the app to track the arrival of their car and get fate estimate in less than 20 seconds.”