The city of Seoul will temporarily lift an operating restriction on privately-owned taxis beginning on Thursday in a bid to prevent a nighttime supply shortage amid rising demand with lifted social distancing rules.

Seoul City Hall announced on Tuesday that through the end of the year, the regulation requiring private drivers to take days off will be suspended for the first time in 45 years as the government seeks to put more taxis on the streets by increasing the drivers’ autonomy.

Dividing drivers into ten groups to work weeknight shifts, officials expect around five-thousand additional taxis to operate at night.

Corporate taxi companies, meanwhile, plan to hold a job fair this month to hire new drivers, offering them various incentives. They expect to put an additional two-thousand cabs in service.

The city will also expand operations of overnight "owl" buses starting December 1.