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Dortmund also relies on minimum prices: Why the taxi is not luxury mobility.
Starting this summer, the base price for taxis could rise to five euros, the per-kilometer price to 2.80 euros. Those who travel longer distances pay around 2.20 euros per kilometer, waiting times are charged at about 36 euros per hour. This may seem expensive at first glance, but the city points to reality: Since 2022, personnel, vehicle and insurance costs have risen substantially. At the same time the market has undergone clear shifts: since 2014, the number of taxi companies in Dortmund fell by about 23 percent, while rental car companies grew by around 72 percent in the same period. Platform services gain, traditional taxis lose – a trend that is observable in many cities.
Competition must become fairer again
The planned minimum prices are intended to level the playing field. While taxi companies are bound by fare tariffs, platform providers have so far been able to set their prices largely freely. This leads in practice to dumping prices that distort the market and, in the long run, jeopardize supply. Those who rely on a taxi in the evenings or at night, for example after a late shift or for a medical transport, should not be left worse off because platform services cannot deploy their vehicles there profitably.
Real tariffs for everyone are not a 'luxury', but a duty!
Critics warn that the measures could make mobility more expensive and burden low-income people. "Mobility must not become a luxury," wrote Ruhr Nachrichten recently. This concern is understandable, but it misses the point. Because without minimum prices, exactly the opposite threatens: a shrinking taxi supply, longer waiting times, fewer trips in peripheral areas. The public function of taxis as a basic service would be endangered. In Dortmund, as throughout the country, taxis perform tasks beyond mere transport: patient transport, night services, provision of peripheral districts. These services are hardly profitable, but indispensable.
The legal framework for such measures exists. The 2021 amendment to the Passenger Transport Act allows municipalities to introduce minimum tariffs and set tariff corridors. Cities such as Essen or Heidelberg are already implementing this; Dortmund is following suit. The aim is not protectionism, but a market-oriented regulation that holds both platforms and traditional providers to account.
BVTM warns of job losses in the taxi industry
The debate is of nationwide relevance. The Federal Association of Taxi and Rental Cars demands minimum prices as an instrument to prevent ruinous competition and to secure fair working conditions. Without these protective measures, established companies could close, jobs would be lost, and mobility provision in less lucrative areas would collapse. This is not theoretical, but a realistic forecast.
Platform operators warn of higher ride prices and say their capacity for innovation is threatened. A price floor indeed temporarily limits price dynamics and makes transportation more expensive for some customers at first. But for passengers the long-term benefits will also outweigh. Jobs will be secured, basic mobility is guaranteed, and prices as well as the industry remain stable.
Innovation in the mobility market does not arise from low prices, but from quality, reliability, and service — qualities that the traditional taxi has been delivering for decades.
Dortmund is taking a step that other cities can hardly avoid: regulating the market to ensure mobility for all. Minimum prices are not a luxury, but an investment in the future of the taxi—and thus in mobility that takes into account not only the profits of platform providers but the provision of the entire city.
Content automatically translated.
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