KITCHENER -- Lockdown orders were in effect for New Year’s Eve but not everyone was staying home.

The Waterloo Regional Police Service says four impaired driving-related charges were handed out Thursday night and into Friday morning.

One of those was a novice driver who had more than 50 mg of alcohol in their blood.

Most people were responsible and used a designated driver or taxi service.

Local cab companies say they were surprised by how busy they were Thursday night.

Overall, 2020 has been a tough year for taxi services.

“Business was down as much as 70 per cent at one point,” says Tony Rodrigues, the Director of Marketing for Waterloo Taxi.

Mike Sima, the president of United Taxi, says they also had to make some tough decisions.

“What we did over the summer, we reduced the number of vehicles on the road, so the owners actually work less.”

Based on their experience earlier this year, cab companies also expected a drop in the number of trips for New Year’s Eve.

“[It was] close to 600 [calls],” says Sima. “Comparing [that] to previous years, where we were up to 1,300-1,500.”

According to their customers, most of those trips were people from single households going to other single households.

Both United Taxi and Golden Triangle Taxi say they anticipated a drop in calls.

Waterloo Taxi, meanwhile, says the night was busier than they expected.

“Based on a normal Thursday, we were probably 30 to 40 per cent better,” says Rodrigues.

The taxi companies tell CTV News they’ve made plenty of pivots in 2020 to help boost business, and hope to see a U-turn back to normal in 2021.