Johannesburg - Given the difficulty of social distancing within the confines of a minibus, South Africa’s taxi commuters are particularly vulnerable to the Covid-19 pandemic, even with the lockdown laws that are meant to limit capacity.
However, Toyota South Africa, which supplies most of South Africa’s taxis, has stepped in to mitigate the problem, through a R10 million assistance package that includes both preventative equipment and educational campaigns.
Since the lockdown measures were introduced in late March, TSAM has so far distributed more than 65 000 litres of sanitiser as well as 2000 face masks to regional taxi structures across all nine provinces.
“Toyota had already committed to these taxi support initiatives when the government introduced national lockdown regulations in March,” said TSAM marketing VP Leon Theron.
“We are pleased to have been able to flight, distribute and publish some of the marketing and educational material in the beginning of the lockdown when most South Africans were still coming to grips with what the Coronavirus is.”
These include educational billboards at some taxi ranks as well as a commuter safety animation video, flyers, vehicle decals and T-shirts.
Under Level 4 lockdown regulations, minibus taxis can operate for 12 hours, between 5am and 7pm, while maximum loading capacity remains at
70 percent, with social distancing and other mitigating measures remaining in place.
“While current lockdown regulations may offer a glimmer of hope into life as we once knew it, at Toyota we believe that we need to intensify our fight against Covid-19 as we now have more commuters using public transport – compared to lockdown Level 5 when we only had essential service personnel operating,” Theron added.