Does the Age Profile of the Taxi Sector Labour Force in the Uk Affect the Provision of Transport for the Night Time Economy?

Abstract

Since the early 1990s it has been public policy in the UK to support the growth of night time economy (NTE), particularly through patronage of restaurants, clubs and pubs as a way of developing the use of city centres at night. This policy has had some success however, venue managers have stated that there is still room for further growth and key to this is improving the transport links to and from venues as the easier it is to get to and from a venue the more likely people are to attend events. Following concern from venue managers that shortage of taxi supply at night was hampering the development of the NTE the London Chamber of Commerce investigated taxi services in London and found that there was a significant unmet demand for taxis at night. They suggested that this was caused in part by the age profile of taxi driver as most drivers were aged over 50 and this is the age group least likely to work at night. This study uses data from the Labour Force Survey to find out if the age profile of London taxi drivers is similar to that of the taxi sector in the UK as a whole and assesses the impact this has on choice of working patterns. This work is coupled with a survey of taxi drivers operating in Scotland to find out directly why drivers choose to operate at certain times.