With COVID-19 severely impacting the taxi industry, Whitehorse Taxi owner Farah Hassan has been working overnight shifts, seven days a week, to fill in the gaps.

“We decided to lay off the dispatchers, so we do the dispatch and we’re not getting paid, because there’s no money,” Hassan told the Star earlier this week.

“We charge a small fee for the drivers and that’s how we’re paying the bills, so we are really struggling.”

Hassan and Whitehorse Taxi co-owner Abdul Hakim have witnessed a steep decline in business since physical distancing orders came into effect.

The cab company would previously field about 100 calls every day. Now, that number has plummeted to 25 calls a day.

The drop-off in traffic has caused most of the company’s drivers to jump ship, Hassan said. The company’s fleet of 20 drivers is now a crew of just five.

“Everybody is scared about getting the coronavirus, so they stay home and they also get the emergency money,” Hassan said, in reference to the federal government’s relief payments.

“When, in the whole day, you get maybe 20 calls, and eight drivers out there, they aren’t making money so they prefer to stay at home and be safe.”

Hassan said he is hopeful that those drivers will return to work once the pandemic is over, but nothing is certain right now. There is no contractual agreement requiring that drivers return to the company.

To mitigate expenses, Whitehorse Taxi laid off its three dispatchers.

Hassan has been working the overnight shifts, while his co-owner mans the dispatch office during the days.

“We get really tired,” Hassan said.

“It’s a 24/7 operation, so it really takes a lot to keep open; I work 12-hour shifts every day, my co-owner is also working 12 hours every day.

“Can you imagine when you work seven days a week, there’s no money, we’re not getting paid, but we keep running the business, trying to run the business and serve the customer? That’s the only reason we are here.”

Whenever Hassan and Hakim burn out, they hire an on-call dispatcher to relieve them for a day. Otherwise, they are the sole operators.

When the Star spoke with Hassan at around 10 p.m. Monday, he was three hours into his 7 p.m.-to-7 a.m. shift.

He’d received just three calls in those three hours, he said – and the first call didn’t arrive until 9 p.m.

Between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. is the busiest time. During that hour, Hassan found that having two cars on the road was suddenly not enough to field the small amount of business he’d received.

“If I get three calls, it becomes difficult because there’s no driver,” Hassan said.

Striking that balance has been challenging, but Hassan said Whitehorse Taxi is prepared to weather the storm for as long as it can.

“We’ll see in the next couple months, as long as it takes, to stay open,” Hassan said.

“It’s really frustrating; there’s nothing else we can do, just hoping things go back to normal and wait and do whatever we can to do the service.”

Hassan said he would appreciate funding help from the territorial government. His work schedule has been so demanding, however, he hasn’t had the time to assess his options.

His largest expense at the moment is a $2,000 monthly phone bill, which Whitehorse Taxi depends on to operate its business.

“I heard about (funding opportunities) but I didn’t get time to even look for it,” Hassan said.

“I go to sleep and come to work, I don’t have time to read the newspaper or watch TV.”