A Taste of Europe - Floris Cooijmans from the German taxi association BVTM
- The Transportation Alliance
- 11 hours ago
- 7 min read
By: Wim Faber, Dutch Journalist and Taxi Specialist, Dutch-Belgian Magazine (Magazine Personenvervoer)
“Platforms are not only a danger to the taxi sector, but especially to public transport”
Floris Cooijmans (28) has been ‘Coordinator for Mobility Policy’ at the German taxi association ‘Bundesverband Taxi und Mietwagen’ (Federal Organization for Taxis and Private Hire - BVTM) in Berlin for about two and a half years. As a mobility specialist, the native Dutchman covers various mobility aspects for the association – both national and international – and, as second in command alongside Director Michael Oppermann, is responsible for organizing large and small meetings of the German association.
‘Cities learn from cities’
For instance, on June 15 and 16, for the fifth time a special symposium for German licensing authorities will be held, subtitled ‘Städte lernen von Städte’ (cities learn from cities), focusing on the licensing and monitoring of platforms such as Uber and Bolt, where urban and rural licensing authorities learn from eachother. “The monitoring of operators before a license is granted, as well as checks afterwards in daily practice, is central,” says Cooijmans. “The obligation to return to base for ‘Mietwagen’ (private hire) is a thorny issue in this regard. Before private hire vehicles are allowed to accept a new trip, they are legally required to return to the company base, but no one does so, and monitoring of this is minimal.”
Inspiring example: Berlin
The inspiring example of the capital Berlin’s licensing authority – working in a city of 4 million people - demonstrates that monitoring and policing private hire can indeed be effective and successful. Last year, under pressure from Berlin’s social-democrat politician Tino Schöpf, who made taxis his political priority (quite unusual), this licensing authority ruthlessly cleaned up the Berlin taxi and private hire fleet. More than 1,600 private hire operators – not adhering to social and tax laws – and mainly operating for platforms were banned from Berlin and are now popping up in the municipalities surrounding the city – an area of 6 million people. “There they don’t have the specialized staff and capabilities to constantly and thoroughly check the taxi and private hire in their municipality. When I cycle to work in the morning, I see all kinds of Uber and Bolt vehicles along the way with car license plates from surrounding municipalities, which clearly do not care about the return obligation, drive around Berlin all day long, and behave like taxis. We hope to inspire cities during our symposium with good examples from colleagues.”
Minimum price for platforms
It is not just at that special symposium that the magic letters MBE—a difficult German word (‘Mindestbeförderungsentgelt’—a minimum fare for platforms) takes centre stage in the German taxi sector and in the pressure the taxi association exerts on German politics. This measure, which federal legislation made possible in 2021, obliges platforms to charge a minimum price for their rides, in order to create a ‘level playing field’ with the taxi sector. It is no wonder that they are fiercely opposing this measure, which has already been implemented in a number of major German cities, including Cologne and Essen. Munich will be next.
The measure is currently being investigated by a number of (large) cities. “Cities were playing a waiting game regarding the MBE for a long time,” explains Cooijmans. “The federal law is formulated so weakly that everyone was waiting for the municipality to move first, fearing lawsuits. In Munich, with a mayor from the Greens, things are now moving forward. Berlin and Hanover are also considering MBE’s, and now you can see a certain momentum building.”
Preventive implementation of MBE
“No research is required to introduce a minimum fare,” adds Cooijmans. “Cities can also introduce it preventively, to protect public transport, which is suffering from the platform competition. Most cities are conducting research into the situation on the taxi and private hire market and looking at the status of vehicle numbers and price trends. Often, the platforms operate at prices that are far too low.” They can only do that by ignoring Germany’s social and tax laws, as recent TV-investigations documented.
But then: compliance with an MBE must be monitored. That is where licensing authorities—not always sufficiently equipped in terms of knowledge or manpower for this type of task—come into the picture. “With MBEs, it is the same as with the return obligation for private hire vehicles. Control stands or falls with a functioning monitoring system. In this regard, we are counting on the cities. Berlin, which used to be one of the worst cities in terms of monitoring and policing, is a good example. Tino Schöpf has shown that as a politician, you can certainly earn credit with a campaign for monitoring taxis.”
Trend of cheap alternatives
“At the association, I dealt with Uber and Bolt and discovered the many abuses in the platform world. But the strange thing is that those abuses are seen as normal by consumers.” In doing so, he cites the example of the Berlin coffee chain LAP, where coffee always costs two euros, while elsewhere one has to pay double. “The owner advertises by saying that he is ‘just like Uber’. For me, that is not something to be proud of. I see a trend of cheap alternatives to products and services with a very large negative social impact. Because somewhere in the chain, someone is being exploited in order to offer the product very cheaply. But you only learn that when you delve into this world. For normal consumers, it plays no role, because they only look at the low price.”
Platforms: a danger to public transport too
Getting politicians interested in combating these abuses in the taxi world is no easy job, Cooijmans soon discovered. “I had just given a nice presentation to politicians about the value of the taxi sector, when comments immediately came up about unpleasant experiences with taxi drivers, refused rides due to the short distance, and drivers taking detours.” The well-known Terrible Taxi Stories (TTS), known in the taxi sector all over the world. The willingness to help the taxi sector has declined dramatically in recent years, Cooijmans observes. “One bad experience and a customer who then loads the Uber app on his phone, often means you’ve lost that customer forever,” sighs Cooijmans.
“I had prepared a presentation for the Public Transport Day last year in which we indicated that Uber and Bolt—which is even cheaper—also pose a danger to public transport. Just think about it: as soon as you share a platform ride with someone, it is already cheaper than a public transport ticket. That is why we must convince public transport companies that platforms, with their current pricing policy—that is, without MBE—pose a real danger to the use of public transport. The general public only sees that they are picked up at their doorstep and dropped off elsewhere at fares lower than bus, tram, or metro. That is why the fight against current platform fares is a shared one—public transport and taxi.”
Public transport and taxis share common interests
Cooijmans notes that public transport and the taxi sector also share common interests in other areas. “Just think of the countryside, where taxi operators struggle to keep their heads above water. We often speak of ‘taxi deaths in the countryside.’ It is structurally difficult for taxi operators in low-density areas to survive if they have no other sources of income, such as non-urgent medical transport. However, consultations with health insurance funds are traditionally tough and arduous. “It is a sensitive issue because many taxi operators derive their livelihood from this non-emergency medical transport work,” says Cooijmans. “In addition, as a taxi sector, we are trying to promote our role in national public transport through the ÖPNV (Public Transport) Taxi. This allows local taxi operators to generate even more income, and residents of those rural areas are assured of transportation.” Because two different ministries are responsible for patient transport and public transport, progress is slow.
‘Neglected child’
“We are the neglected child of public transport, if people even think of us at all,” laughs Cooijmans. “People often only look at things in terms of metro, tram, and bus. A recent overview of traffic measures in Berlin Mitte – the centre of Berlin - focused mainly on those modes of transport. Taxis didn't even appear in the plans.” Cooijmans finds it even more surprising that public transport companies have recently started talking about ‘on-demand’ transport. “Taxis have been doing that for years. And we try to be involved when it comes to the introduction and regulation of new forms of public transport, such as ‘robotaxis,’ which fit better into our activities than those of public transport. Self-driving buses are more something for public transport companies.”
Are international themes the same?
So the German taxi themes are certainly not much different from those on the international taxi stage? “I spend about a third of my time on international matters. And there – in the IRU Taxi Group or Taxis4SmartMobility – it always strikes me that although the markets and regulations are completely different, everyone faces the same problems. And these items seem unsolvable through changed regulations. Although I do not know the taxi market in, for instance, my native country The Netherlands very well, it strikes me that the taxi sector there is structured very differently and the contract transport component is considerably larger than in other countries. For example, while most representatives had no comments on the proposed European Union plans for public tenders, that was recently a key point for the Dutch taxi representatives.”
“The taxi sector in many countries is not well organized at all”
“What also surprises me is that the taxi sector in many countries is not very well organized at all. The representation for France actually comes only from Paris. Many of the key players in international consultations own large taxi companies themselves. The structure and operation of our association are very different. We constantly have to defend our international activities and lobbying efforts to our members.”
Cooijmans would like to see more countries – especially from Eastern Europe – represented around the international table. “The more members you have, the more legitimate you are as an organization. There is certainly interest, but participating in international activities is also costly. Currently, we are collaborating within both organizations.”
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