‘We have become a frontline service,’ drivers say
‘I’m out here so people can stay home, and that’s the most important thing’
Anthony Hoffer delivered 24 takeout meals during his shift Monday — meaning he had doused his hands in rubbing alcohol some 48 times in less than eight hours.
That’s once before dropping the food off, once after returning to his car and several times in between, depending on who or what he comes into contact with. His hands are feeling the burn.
“They were bleeding on the first day things really took off last week,” said Hoffer, a 38-year-old Uber eats driver. “My skin got so dry it began to crack and split. I have an arsenal of Lysol wipes, Purell (hand sanitizer) and now lotion. Anything to keep my skin from tearing apart.”
Hoffer isn’t a doctor or a triage nurse but he is on the front lines of the fight against COVID -19. Every day, he gets in his car, drives to restaurants across the city and delivers food to apartments and homes so that you can stay inside instead of spreading the sickness.
With the number of confirmed coronavirus cases jumping from 624 Monday to 1,013 Tuesday and 1,339 on Wednesday, all non-essential businesses have been locked down and most Quebecers aren’t leaving their homes. Hoffer is just one part of the fleet of cabbies and delivery people keeping the indispensable goods and services flowing.
“We have become a front-line service,” said Georges Tannous, the president of a federation that represents 2,000 taxi drivers in and around Montreal. “I just dropped off a patient at Rosemont Hospital. We’re taking people to and from the grocery store. If we stop working, things will begin to unravel.”
Tannous said cab drivers are becoming professionals at infectious disease control. They wash their hands and sterilize their vehicles before and after every ride. They act as a conduit between patients and the province’s network of hospitals — which are increasingly providing drivers with masks and other safety equipment.
Their clients are also doctors, nurses, orderlies and other healthcare workers who don’t want to risk contamination by using public transit. They also service the
Trudeau International Airport, which was the main vector through which the virus entered Quebec. Drivers have put themselves at great risk to help preserve some form of normalcy in the crisis.
But while Tannous said he wants to do his part to help keep things rolling, business is hurting.
On Monday, about 18,000 people across Quebec rode in a taxi — down from about 50,000 rides daily before the pandemic. That means workers are losing out on up to 75 per cent of their revenue in addition to incurring costs to keep their passengers safe.
“We’ll need help buying masks, getting gloves and medical scrubs but we’ll also need something to keep putting food on the table,” Tannous said. “We’re independent contractors and — even before coronavirus — our industry is struggling. We have Uber and other ride-sharing services eating into our market. It’s hard out there.”
For professional truck drivers, safety conditions aren’t yet up to snuff, according to one of Canada’s largest unions.
“I’ve heard of drivers who are given a few packets of moist towelettes — the kind you get when you eat ribs at the restaurant — to wipe down their cab,” said François Laporte, president of the Teamsters Canada union. “This isn’t
about money or getting the big end of the stick. This is about our drivers who happen to be a vital part of the country’s supply chain.
“If they get sick, the whole thing collapses.”
Laporte said it isn’t enough for the government to give advice on coronavirus protocols. He said it needs to start getting tough on employers who don’t take the safety of workers seriously.
“We’re very busy for now but our people won’t work in any old conditions,” he said. “If it gets unsafe, they won’t do the work. Certainly they won’t keep working no matter what the personal cost is. We need access to safety equipment just like every other front-line worker.”
The Teamsters represent 120,000 workers across Canada — 60 per cent of whom drive trucks and delivery vans, according to Laporte. While many are seeing their workload increase, Laporte says business to business shipping is way down and any sort of recession brought on by COVID -19 will hurt union members badly.
For Hoffer, delivering food is a gig: he gets to decide when his shift starts and stops and, lately, business is booming.
“Every time I pull up at a traffic light, I look to my left, look to my right and there’s a driver with the cellphone mounted to their dashboard. It’s like the only people out there are delivery drivers,” he said. “It makes me feel like I’m part of the solution. I’m out here so people can stay home and that’s the most important thing, right? For as many of us to stay home as possible.”