WARRNAMBOOL taxi drivers are increasingly acting as delivery services to make up for a loss in passengers during harsher lockdowns.
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Drivers are being called to deliver groceries, take-away meals and even household items like TVs as the stage three coronavirus directions again limit travel.
It's welcome work for 13CABS Warrnambool driver Rodney Woodbridge, who saw business fall 75 per cent earlier this year, and is now increasingly doing collections for elderly people staying home.
"They have no contact with anyone and we only have contact with the supermarket. We all have to wear our masks so we feel comfortable and feel safe," Mr Woodbridge said.
"If the elderly haven't got a car they ring us to do click and collect."
He said many drivers now received the federal government's JobKeeper payments but remained driving because it was an essential service.
"We are basically operating not to earn money but to help people," Mr Woodbridge said.
"We have clients who have dialysis and need to go to hospital every day, and we have a lot of elderly who don't have family and still need to go to medical appointments or groceries."
He said business was now back to about half what it was before the pandemic.
Taxi driver Graeme Deal said he was increasingly delivering take-away food.
"I would probably do it twice a day. Before the virus it was pretty rare, no one really asked me to do it," he said.
Mr Deal said he also had delivered items from hardware and homeware stores in his wheelchair-accessible taxi.
"People have realised they can't move around like they used to," he said.
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