Dissatisfied taxi drivers: Branch in the crisis: Taxi corsos in a dozen cities

With long taxi corsos in around a dozen cities, taxi drivers have demonstrated nationwide for stricter rules in the competition between Uber and Co. In Berlin alone, drivers gathered with several hundred vehicles in the zoo between the Brandenburg Gate and a large star. In the morning there were already rallies in North Rhine-Westphalia, including in Dortmund and Düsseldorf.

Drivers and other road users had to adjust to considerable traffic restrictions in the city centers. Taxi demos were also planned in Stuttgart, Bremen and Cologne. The industry has been in crisis for years because the demand is declining. The taxi associations are jointly responsible for rental car platforms such as Uber or Bolt.

Taxi industry demands minimum prices

These taxi competitors can offer trips at cheaper prices depending on demand because there is no price regulation for them. To do this, rental car drivers actually have to return to the headquarters after every trip – unless they receive a booking for a new journey. On the other hand, you are not allowed to pick up passengers spontaneously on the way.

“It may not be that we have regulated tariffs as a decent taxi business and can do Uber, Bolt and Co. what they want,” said the general manager of the taxi and rental car association Germany, Patrick Meinhard, at the demonstration in Hanover. “In addition to tariff corridors, the minimum tariff for rental cars are needed in Germany.”

This is also what Michael Oppermann, managing director of the Federal Association of Taxi and Rental Car, demands another advocacy group: “We have nothing against competition. But it is only fair with almost the same prices.”

The President of the Freenow placement platform, which once also conveyed trips to rental cars, but now only concentrated on the taxi business, considers the debate about minimum prices to be overdue. “Minimum prices in rental car traffic are not an innovation brake,” he said. “They are a protective mechanism against a business model that is not able to survive without subsidies from the platforms.”

So far there is no minimum prices for rental car companies in any German city. Berlin has been examining such a measure since January. The city of Leipzig had already set minimum tariffs for rental cars in 2021. A company complained about it.

The administrative court in Leipzig decided in November last year that the minimum prices were fundamentally permitted, but had been set too high by the city. Similar complaints can also be expected in Berlin in the event of a corresponding regulation.

As expected, the rental car platforms see the measure critically. “The call for more regulation does not ensure an improvement in the situation, but harms everyone,” said Uber. “We are committed to ensuring that the taxi prices are liberalized by flexible preliminary prices and thus the taxi drivers can significantly increase their utilization and thus their sales with the broadest possible corridors.”

Platforms criticize plans

Such fixed price corridors for taxi rides are already available in Berlin. The measure was also required by the taxi industry for a long time. Passengers are shown a fixed price before the trip that moves within a tariff corridor. You have certainty about the fare before the journey without having to stare at the taximeter throughout.

“Minimum prices will not save the taxi industry,” is the new German director of the Bolt platform, Christoph Hahn. “Such a measure would only be at the expense of consumers who would then switch to their own car again.”

The taxi industry also criticizes illegal machinations on the part of the rental car companies. A few months ago, the Berlin Senate closed numerous rental car providers because they were traveling without or with fake permits. In the meantime, each vehicle is checked more strictly before it can be conveyed on the apps. The number of rental car vehicles in the capital has dropped significantly since then.