Need a lift to get your Covid-19 jab? I’ll tuk tuk care of it! Travel company is using its fleet of vehicles to help elderly get to vaccination centres

• Tourist transport company Tuk Tuk Time is using its fleet of vehicles to help the elderly get jabs
• Pensioners are transported to vaccinations centres for free around Saundersfoot
• Volunteer driver Kathryn Farrow said it was a privilege to help her community

Getting to vaccine appointments has been a challenge for many pensioners who usually rely on the bus but want to avoid public transport in the pandemic.

Now a form of travel normally seen in the Far East is on offer. Tourist transport company Tuk Tuk Time is using its fleet of vehicles to help the elderly get jabs.

It has already transported a dozen pensioners to vaccination centres for free around Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire.

Director Lorraine Niederlag, 56, said: ‘During the first lockdown, we had 35 or so volunteers who shopped for the vulnerable.

Tukking it easy: Volunteer driver Kathryn Farrow (right) with passenger Tessa Pearson (left) outside the Regency Hall in Saundersfoot where Tessa received her first dose of the vaccine

‘But ever since the vaccines started being rolled out, we announced we would help people get their vaccines safely. Many in our community are retired, perhaps with adult children that live far away, meaning they do not have any way to get around.

‘The vehicles have good ventilation and are safer than the bus, for example. Many people who we helped during the first lockdown reached out again for help.’ 

Volunteer driver Kathryn Farrow said it was a privilege to be able to help her community and people felt safer in an open-sided tuk tuk rather than in a closed vehicle.

Tourist transport company Tuk Tuk Time is using its fleet of vehicles to help the elderly get jabs. Pictured: Kathryn transports Tessa in the tuk tuk in Saundersfoot

The firm has been providing the service since January 25. Tuk tuks – a motorised rickshaw – originated in Thailand half a century ago, where they got their name from the sound of their engines. Around 20,000 act as taxis for locals and tourists across Thailand.

Mrs Niederlag said the company hopes to transport another dozen pensioners to centres over the next week.

Tuk Tuk Time wrote about the initiative on Facebook. It posted: ‘What a great pleasure it was – we’ve never felt so hopeful! For the longest time we have awaited some light at the end of the tunnel – just within our grasp at this point.

‘We’re not quite out of the woods, so our continued safeguarding and social distancing is as vital as it has ever been, but boy are we getting closer!’

The firm stressed: ‘We consider it a privilege to be a part of your vaccination journey.’

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