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Taxi drivers are exposed to the risk of infection in the Corona crisis and sometimes wait in vain for customers for an entire day. However, a good half of the drivers are still in Zurich. You need the money.
George Botonakis is President of the Zurich Taxi Association. His attempts to organize masks and disinfectants for his people were unsuccessful.
In normal times, taxi drivers are willing to do a lot to get a parking space at the Zurich main station. They make several turns and, if necessary, accept a bus if they get into the furthest free parking space and their vehicle does not fit in the parking area. Now, on a weekday afternoon in early April, there would be plenty of room. There are a few vehicles. They seem lost in the inanimate environment, and one does not have the impression that they will soon begin to move. The drivers stop next to their cars and look into the void. They are waiting for the passengers who will not come. There are hardly any passengers on the trains that still enter Central Station. The station hall is almost empty. The sound of the few voices that echo in it seems strangely strange.
The Corona crisis relentlessly highlights the differences between workers. Those who only have to be bothered by the screams of children in the home office can consider themselves lucky. Others are forced to work despite the risk of infection. Others fear for their existence as freelancers. Those that are not directly prohibited by the authorities are particularly wrong. Technically speaking, they are only indirectly damaged. So far, the federal government has not provided any help.
Taxi drivers have the worst cards in all of these areas. They are exposed to the risk of infection, often independently and without the right to receive support. The drivers of these days can be divided into two groups. In short: some stay at home, others still do not earn anything.
Waiting without profit
One of the drivers at the main station provides us with information. He introduces himself as George; he does not reveal his last name. George is a striking appearance with his blonde hair. He is 62 years old. His accent reveals that, like most drivers, he is of foreign origin. It has been in place since 10 a.m. and he hasn’t taken a trip yet. And the customers who were still coming mostly wanted them to take them home with the shopping bags; these are short distances. George cannot count on a daily turnover of more than 20 or 30 francs. That barely covers your expenses. Why is he here? He asks a cross-question: “What should I do at home?” He likes to work. But in reality: many of his colleagues went directly to welfare. “You gave up mentally.”
Zurich taxi drivers have not felt bad since the Corona crisis. Driving a taxi is a poorly paid job for many, and the lack of alternatives forces them to do so. That would be no different if there were no competition from Uber and ground taxis. Recently, the “Täxeler” celebrated a surprise blow to Uber when voters in the canton of Zurich adopted a taxi law that required Uber drivers to register. But that was in early February, at a different time.
The crisis doesn’t stop at Uber, either, but the big corporation has sponsors and should be able to hide them. The mediation platform gives drivers who are quarantined at the request of the authorities, the average income generated in the past for 14 days. In other countries, for example, Uber does not apply the service fee when transporting people in the health sector. Switzerland is working on similar initiatives, says spokesman Andreas Hinterberger.
“We ants”
At the train station stalls you will find mainly self-employed people who depend on customers without an appointment. They are at the lowest level in the industry. Georges signals SBB employees to join in and chat. “They will still receive their CHF 6,000. But we are the ants. Its turnover fell from 4,000 to 3,000 and then to 1,700 francs in three months. You still live on your credit card debit.
George estimates that the drop in sales will be 90 percent or more. You can hear the same number and the same story from almost every taxi driver you speak to: the Aargau driver, who specializes in nightly transportation of families to the airport, or the Uber limousine driver, who has just bought his expensive vehicle. It has and should pay for itself.
Medical misery also affects taxi drivers more than others. Drivers are exposed to their guests and vice versa. The two meter distance cannot be maintained in an ordinary car. Some drivers who drive anyway do so with a dizzy feeling. One of them is Zivko Djuric, 47 years old. He says, “You never know who goes in there.” But it depended on income. It belongs to the minority of taxi drivers who wear a mask.
Several industry experts agree that more than half of the approximately 1,200 drivers in the city of Zurich stay at home. Jamal Khaldoun, 40, a driver for 15 years, is one of them. “I did not risk my health for 20 francs,” he says. You can hardly find disinfectants in pharmacies, not to mention masks. Just as important to Khaldoun’s decision is the fact that the hotels and companies he works with canceled orders.
The best placed are those drivers who work in a central office and who are committed to short-term work, but that is the minority. George Botonakis, president of the Zurich Taxi Association, asks the Federal Council to provide support to those sectors that can no longer do their job. Most of the drivers had few reservations.
Survive as a messenger
However, Botonakis also sees opportunities for self-help. A taxi driver could do some shopping or run errands. “The initial willingness to help neighbors in the Corona crisis does not last forever. Professional solutions are increasingly important. ” Some drivers worked as courier services for large distributors, for example.
The plexiglass panel, called saliva protection, is designed to protect passengers and drivers.
Each driver has to solve the problem of greater contagion by himself, says Botonakis. But he supported the members of his association in this. In local authorities, he campaigned for the supply of masks, but received rejections: priority was given to emergency services, they told him. The attempt to buy disinfectants in Germany failed due to complicated export conditions. Taxi drivers needed a lot, says Botonakis: 300 liters per week, if each of the approximately 600 drivers consumed half a liter.
After all, rubber gloves have enough. And the solution to the problem of the two-meter distance inside the car has been devised: a plexiglass panel, called saliva protection, is supposed to separate the driver and passenger. Along with Spandex at Dietlikon, Botonakis has designed a model that members of their association can buy for CHF 75 each. The drivers of the 7 × 7 taxi company are already on the road with comparable protection. Installation is worth twice, says Botonakis, because it inspires customer confidence. Colleagues with spit protection reported a noticeable increase in sales.
One can read this as an example, which shows in small details: if the health problem is solved, then the economy is slowly rising again. But right now they are but a ray of hope.
Garlic and red onion
At least the fear of infection does not affect Joanna Schneiter. The 62-year-old man drives an eight-seater van. There is enough space in it. She is not afraid of being infected, says the Polish native. Like many red onions and raw garlic. My body is strong. They regularly disinfect the hands and compartment of the vehicle. Schneiter is a trained flute player. She has lived in Switzerland for twenty years and has been driving a taxi for ten years.
These days he is chasing the few remaining opportunities that trade still offers. She says she has been working harder than ever these days, until she peaks at 13 hours a day. Wait two, three, or four hours for the next customer. List what is no longer available: No trips from the airport to a convention center, no more hotel guests. No one visits a doctor or therapist. Seniors in particular have become major customers for taxi drivers in recent years, who have fewer and fewer customers due to competition from Uber. This clientele now stays at home.
But he has to work, says Schneiter, and begins to list again, this time the costs: 1,000 Swiss francs to pay for the vehicle, 1,000 Swiss francs to connect to the central office, insurance, rent, living expenses. She has requested emergency aid from the city of Zurich for self-employed workers amounting to 2,500 Swiss francs. “If that works, I am very, very happy,” she says. At least she can survive April.
