Tehran Taxi Service (Extended)

– (2020 Grant recipients of Pulitzer Center)

Tehran Taxi Service: of all Iranian drivers, 450 persons have been infected with the coronavirus, and 32 people have died. These statistics have greatly worried the drivers. The Tehran taxi organization owns over 70,000 cabs in the city of Tehran, the capital of Iran. It is the world’s second-largest taxi organization, after Mexico City. There are some 20,000 inter-city travels in Tehran daily, but that number has drastically decreased during the coronavirus pandemic, and even dropped to zero during the quarantine. People have preferred to do their inter-city travels in their own cars throughout this coronavirus pandemic. Taxi drivers are wearing masks and gloves and installing protection screens in their vehicles.  Mr. Salman, a 58-year old father of two in Tehran said, “I spend most of my earnings on disinfectants and daily expenses, and I can hardly cover the cost of living for my family.”