Pandemic knocks many cab drivers out of business in Hyderabad

By Mohammed Shafeeq Hyderabad, Oct 7 : The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted all the sectors but some have been badly affected than the others. Those depending on day to day earnings for their livelihood have been the worst affected.
The pandemic has thrown a large number of cab drivers out of job. With meagre income for nearly seven months, its hand-to-mouth existence for hundreds of cab drivers in this tech hub.
As almost all the Information Technology companies still operating in work-from-home mode, 30,000 cabs hired by these companies have gone off the roads, rendering the drivers jobless.
Hiring of vehicles by dozens of IT companies in this bustling city was the main source of income for many travel operators and source of livelihood for the drivers.
Even those cab drivers who own the vehicles are struggling to survive. Their income has come down to one-third of what it used to be in pre-Covid days.
Though the number of daily Covid cases has come down significantly during the last couple of months, the drivers feel that there is not much improvement on the ground.