The "dreadful" taxi situation in Dublin city forced many people to walk long distances home over the weekend.
Many took to social media to share their experiences on Saturday and Sunday, slamming the situation as "not safe".
One person said on Twitter: "Dublin City - our capital - is a complete shambles to get home from after midnight. Taxi situation is dreadful, no Nitelink, no Luas, even Dublinbikes are gone after 12:30am."
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Another wrote: "Another night in Dublin having to walk home. Two taxis refused me. 45 minute walk home and hated every second of it. Town was not a nice place to walk through last night. Sort it out. It’s a joke and it’s not safe."
A third said: "I was walking around for 40 mins waiting to get a taxi until I could get a bus finally, but walking around the streets alone at 1/2 am as a young women was no fun, really scary, and there was no chance of getting a taxi at all."
Popular Taxi app FREE NOW has revealed that on Saturday, June 11, the app received a whopping 17,000 requests between midnight and 1am.
Niall Carson, General Manager of FREE NOW that their driver numbers have returned to pre-pandemic levels but they have experienced "exponential growth in passenger demand".
He told the Irish Mirror: “Since the start of the pandemic we have added an additional 1,000 driver partners to our existing fleet, with over 14,000 drivers now registered with the Free Now mobility app.
“Although our overall driver fleet has grown, the active driver base has been affected and has only recently returned to 2019 levels of approximately 10,000 active drivers per month.
“These active drivers are now completing more trips than pre-pandemic and are servicing around 35% more taxi journeys than they provided prior to 2020.
“Despite our active driver numbers returning to pre-pandemic levels in recent months, we have experienced exponential growth in passenger demand particularly at peak times since the start of 2022.”
Mr Carson called on the government to do more to improve Ireland’s transport sector "as a whole", so the pressure doesn’t solely land on the taxi industry.
He said: "This is not just a taxi shortage issue, this is a transport shortage issue that needs to be addressed by the transport sector as a whole, in a proactive and integrated manner.
“This will in turn help alleviate the pressure currently placed on the taxi sector to cater to the enormous need of passengers at peak times.”
Mr Carson said they don't have the supply to meet demand levels at peak times and advised passengers to plan their journeys in advance.
“At peak times, we don’t currently have the supply to meet the levels of demand that we are currently seeing, despite the incentives we have in place for our driver-partners.
“For example on Saturday night, 11th June, we received over 17,000 requests from midnight to 1am.
“Our active driver base has been affected over the past two years as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, meaning that it has been more challenging to book taxis.
“To limit booking delays or long waiting times, we advise passengers to plan their journeys in advance, consider multiple transport options, and try to avoid peak times where possible.”
In the meantime, they’re doing all they can to increase their fleet by encouraging drivers to come on board in the coming months with their new training programme, as well as incentivising their existing fleet "on a rolling basis in line with peak demand periods - providing financial rewards to encourage more drivers to supply rising demand.”
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