260 requests per minute were recorded on Saturday night / Sunday morning.
Taxi service FREE NOW experienced its busiest January day ever over the weekend as
restrictions were eased nationwide.
Demand skyrocketed as pubs and clubs were no longer required to close at 8pm, leading to thousands of people heading out on the town across the country.
Taxi trips were up 250% over the weekend compared to the same weekend in 2021.
Compared to the previous weekend, there was an increase of 60% in requests for taxi trips across the country.
The largest increase in demand was found in the rebel county, as requests for taxis in Cork almost doubled the amount seen the weekend previous.
Cork people stayed out the latest, as the most popular time to request a taxi in the county was 2am over the weekend.
Nightclubs in Cork were also the most popular drop-off locations across the country, with destinations in Dublin, Limerick and Galway coming just under the top spot.
1 AM on Sunday was the busiest hour of the weekend with over six requests made per second to book a taxi.
FREE NOW is predicting that bookings will continue to rise as the week goes on as we approach the end of January the first payday of 2022 is coming around the corner.
“The past 20 months of the pandemic and national restrictions have weighed heavily on every aspect of life in Ireland - but it is uplifting to see the country opening back up again and regaining a sense of normality," Niall Carson, General Manager of FREE NOW Ireland said.
"FREE NOW and our driver partners are committed to keeping the nation moving with flexible transport in the coming weeks and months as they get from A to B - whether it’s their workplace, local pubs and restaurants or various other destinations that we will be returning to in 2022.”
