Castle Cars taxi company in Tonbridge launches 'cabs for jabs' for Covid-19 vaccine patients
14:40, 21 January 2021
updated: 17:16, 21 January 2021
Thousands of pounds have been raised in a "cabs for jabs" campaign by a taxi firm.
Castle Cars in Tonbridge is offering older folk free rides to and from their appointments to receive the Covid-19 vaccine at the town's Baptist Church in Darenth Avenue.
Owner and director Terry Hill says many of his regular customers, who have been able to get out far less frequently during the pandemic, have been delighted to make the journey to receive their jabs.
"We have got a lot of elderly customers," Mr Hill said. "Pre-Covid they would be using us quite a lot, for all their shopping, trips to the hairdressers, and so on, but we have not seen them now for nearly a year.
"So when the vaccine site was decided on in Tonbridge I started thinking how can we find a way to get them there and cover the cost of it.
"Somebody down in Winchester had come up with an idea called 'cabs for jabs', and I thought that sounds good. I spoke to the guy down there and he gave me some pointers as to how to set it up."
A Go Fund Me page was set up so people could chip in donations to cover the cost of the journeys, and so far almost £4,000 has been raised thanks to many smaller contributions and even one anonymously-given sum of £1,000.
So far around 100 people have benefited from a ride to their appointment, although not all of those have been free and any payments taken have gone back into the pot to fund future trips for those in need.
Mr Hill said: "We are expecting to do 100-plus journeys a week.
"I'm totally amazed by the amount of money we have raised so far, I really expected we would probably only get about £1,000 but we now stand at nearly £4,000. It's been amazing.
"The customers are over the moon. They are just so glad to be getting out, seeing people again, and with the prospect of getting back to normal again, hopefully quite soon.
"For a lot of the elderly, we are their link that they see on a regular basis and they have said it is lovely to speak to us again."
Mr Hill, who has run the taxi company for 26 years, says the pandemic has been a huge blow to the business.
"It's been a terrible time," he said.
"We instantly went down last March to about 20% of our normal turnover, obviously we lost all of our airport trade, which still hasn't come back.
"So we have been really struggling. We have been operating at quite a big loss, drivers have been working for less than minimum wage a lot of the time as they are all self-employed, so any extra work we get is extremely appreciated."
Visit the Go Fund Me page to contribute to the cabs for jabs fund
