Airport cabbies live in their cars
Hard-up drivers kip in back waiting for fares
TAXI drivers are living in their cabs just to collect one fare a day from desolate Heathrow.
One veteran cabbie told the Mirror the drastic drop in air traffic since the start of the pandemic 15 months ago has caused a 60% slump in income.
The dire situation was highlighted earlier this week when a driver was found dead inside a car.
The man, 56, is believed to have been there for at least three days.
He was discovered in his sleeping bag in the back of the vehicle on Wednesday afternoon.
It is thought he had not been noticed earlier because there are so many black cabs parked for hours on end at the same location.
Scotland Yard said the death was not being treated as suspicious.
At the taxi feeder car parks just outside what used to be one of the world’s busiest airports, drivers sleep on mattresses in the backs of their vehicles to stay in the queue.
If they went home to sleep, they would lose out on picking up a passenger from the terminal.
Most are arriving in the early hours in the hope of getting a passenger before nightfall.
Jimmy, 74, who has been a London cab driver for 50 years, said of the man found dead: “He used to sleep here all of the time. He didn’t have a healthy lifestyle. It’s a terrible tragedy. This pandemic has affected all of us though.
“I got here at 3am, and I’ll be lucky to leave by 6pm. Everyone’s got their problems, but it’s been really bad for us. You only get one fare, which might be just £40, and then you can’t get back in again within the same day, so that’s it.
“You have to pay for your tax, fuel and cab licence out of that.
“It used to be three times that at least before the pandemic.”
Fellow cabbie Russell Poluck, 76, said: “The private hire cars and Uber have slaughtered us.”
He added: “We have to stay here. We have no other choice.”
Another cab driver in the queue, who asked not to be named, said: “We are all working very long hours, trying to keep our families together, and it’s very stressful.”