THE CONSUMERS’ UNION of Finland has received numerous reports about problems in the taxi sector, be it about the availability, pricing or safety of services, following amendments introduced to the legislation on taxi services in 2018, reports STT.
The reform has reduced the availability of services especially in rural regions by doing away with the standby obligation of service providers.
Juha Beurling-Pomoell, the operative director of the Consumers’ Union, told the news agency last weekend that the reform has left consumers in an unequal position by favouring urban consumers who are able to compare fares and comfortable using mobile apps.
“They’re able to wield power, to compare and choose the service they prefer, in cities. The consumer groups who are in a weaker position, such as older people living in rural areas, have suffered, though,” he said.
The Consumers’ Union stressed that the availability problems should be rectified particularly in regions without a functioning public transport system.
“It’s not a rarity that a taxi doesn’t come even if one was ordered. If there’s no availability, consumers should report it. That’s the absolute minimum,” said Beurling-Pomoell.
The Finnish taxi sector was de-regulated significantly in 2018, including by allowing operators to price their rides freely. Taxi fares have consequently increased notably faster than consumer prices in general – by an average of 30 per cent, including almost 40 per cent in northern parts of the country, according to Statistics Finland.
Timo Koskinen, the managing director of Suomen Taksiliitto, questioned the estimate, noting that subsidised taxi fares have decreased in Uusimaa since 2018. While consumers paid 35–45 euros for a journey from Helsinki Airport to Helsinki in June 2018, today they are paying 35–39 euros for the same journey, he added.
He also told that the price of a 10-kilometre, 10-minute journey has increased by two euros to 24 euros since mid-2018.
The pricing of taxi services is presently based primarily on market logic, according to Koskinen. “Consumer choices are of significance. Services that consumers want to pay for will be offered.”
Beurling-Pomoell admitted that consumers should refuse to pay excessive prices for services in a functioning market but argued that the logic does not apply to all consumer groups. Do people in weaker positions, such as elderly people with bad hearing and cognitive impairments, have the ability to compare fares, he asked.
Statistics Finland has also estimated that taxi fares jumped by five per cent following the adoption of changes to, for example, rules on pricing and use of fare meters, in September 2021. The reform also reinstated the requirements that taxi drivers must pass an entrepreneurship exam to secure a taxi driving licence.
The deadline for passing the exam passed at the end of May.
The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) has revealed that about 2,200 people with a taxi driving licence had yet passed the entrepreneurship exam in May. Kati Heikkinen, a director at Traficom, told STT that about 550 of them have since addressed the issue by passing the exam or voluntarily revoking their licence.
The first licences were consequently revoked in the second week of July.
“It’s currently looking like we’ll have to revoke more than a thousand licences. The situation will become clearer relatively quickly relatively quickly because of the comprehensive monitoring [we’re conducting],” she said.
Also Koskinen admitted that the sector has not developed favourably after the changes from the perspective of consumers.
“The organised taxi industry is of the view that the reform hasn’t been beneficial for the consumer. This has resulted in individual consumers finding it hard to understand the situation and find good and suitable services,” he told.
This, in turn, has resulted in consumers reducing the use of taxi services.
“This is an extremely unfortunate situation for taxi business owners. Legislative fixes are now seeking to re-establish reliable, reasonably priced and reasonably high-quality services as far as all business owners are concerned,” said Koskinen.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT