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Glückstadt and the question of how the taxi finds its way back to the customers.
Representatives from Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern were invited, along with Berlin and Hamburg. In other words, people who run taxi companies, lead associations, or organize taxi call centers. About 30 participants gathered again this time, for two days, in the familiar atmosphere of an inn. The meeting is traditionally organized by the Hamburg Taxi Union, specifically by Dörte Voehrs and Jan Grupe. The proceedings are deliberately kept simple: predefined topics, few slides, many testimonials. And it is precisely these reports that often show faster than any industry study where the trade stands.
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: Patient transport services as a flashpoint
Opening was made by Guido Sembach, chairman of the state association for the taxi and rental car trade in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. He faces weeks that could decide the economic future of many businesses in his federal state. The AOK has terminated the contracts for patient transport as of March 31, 2026. Sembach reported on negotiations in which the trade had “mathematically proven” the need for higher remuneration — without getting through to the health insurer.
His image stuck: it's as if one had to explain to the AOK that the Earth is round, and the health insurance fund would reply accordingly: We know that—but for it, it is simply a disc. In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, much hinges on a question that in the industry is often easier to utter than to implement: unity. From April, the trade actually has to close for two weeks and forgo patient transport to gain negotiating leverage.
Hamburg: Why Uber Seems More Attractive to Many
Afterwards, the focus turned to Hamburg. Dirk Ritter from the Hamburg taxi office had traveled there and posed a question that in many cities is no longer merely theoretical: Why do passengers often find Uber better than taxis?
Ritter based his answer on a survey of his agency. Praised were above all two points: fixed prices and the ability to pay cashless. Both sound banal—but in practice they are a benchmark for how much expectations have shifted.
Ritter added an observation that caused not only frowns in Glückstadt: Two-thirds of Hamburg's taxis now drive for platforms. “They are not the ones sitting here in Glückstadt today,” he said—a sentence that was less a reproach than a diagnosis.
Berlin and Leipzig: The Future of Central Dispatch through Automation
Seamlessly, Hermann Waldner followed up. As head of Taxi One and Taxi Berlin, he appeared with a stance that you don't see everywhere in the industry today: he sees a future for taxi central dispatch centers. However, only if they change—and, specifically, technologically.
Waldner is betting on a higher share of automated order dispatch. The effect: lower costs, more room for marketing. In Berlin, they have managed to stop the decline in orders with this approach. For Leipzig, where Waldner has recently begun cooperating with the central 4884, he hopes for a similar development.
Waldner was particularly clear on fixed-price fares: For him it is indispensable that fixed-price trips can be paid cashlessly already at booking. In his app, 60 percent of fixed-price customers choose the cashless option. Waldner called this a "popular vote" – and meant that the market has decided before the industry has finished the debate.
Cooperation with platforms: Out of necessity, not out of conviction
Jan Grupe, himself the co-organizer of the meeting, described another path. His taxi dispatch center "Alstertal" has in recent months not only been handling its own orders, but also taking on assignments from the platform Free Now by Lyft. The move arose from economic pressures. He had initially halted the decline in revenues and trips.
Grupe framed a dilemma that many dispatch centers know: While the taxi business loses visibility, platforms have reach—and marketing power that a dispatch center can barely build up on its own.
City and countryside: Who still makes money?
The economic tensions affect not only dispatch centers. Dirk Ritter made clear that they also burden multi-vehicle operators in large cities. His prognosis: The future lies more with sole proprietors than with multi-vehicle businesses.
Interestingly, the contrast with rural areas is often the opposite. In particular, businesses with many vehicles and several bases still make money. This was confirmed by several entrepreneurs from regions such as the Harz, the Hannover hinterland, or East Frisia.
Generation Z: TikTok instead of taxi radio
Thomas Sell spoke about visibility among Generation Z. Sell supports the business idea of the young entrepreneur Lukas Kleinecke, who with videos for TikTok and Instagram wants to bring the Taxi brand back into the daily lives of young people.
To prevent it from staying at gut feeling and click counts, a dashboard was developed that analyzes the user behavior of the people who have watched these taxi videos. So it's about feedback, but also about data: who watches, for how long, what works, what doesn't.
WhatsApp as an ordering channel – and the software industry as a brake on progress
A direct ordering option should also offer a WhatsApp channel. In the discussion the participants were remarkably in agreement on one point: If such a channel is to become, at some point, a nationwide uniform ordering option, software providers must overcome their boundaries and personal aversions.
The meeting did not stop at the appeal here. Almost unanimously the participants decided to commission Thomas Sell and the Hessian taxi entrepreneur Jens Margraf to bring the key players in the taxi software industry to the table. The goal: to explore whether a joint ordering option is even realistic.
Zum Schluss: Lernen von Plattformen – ohne sich ihnen auszuliefern
In the end: Learning from platforms – without surrendering to them
Den Abschluss bildete Michael Mühlin, früher Inhaber einer Taxizentrale und heute Berater, unter anderem für ECabs. Mühlin sieht ein Erfolgsgeheimnis moderner Zentralen darin, von Plattformen zu lernen – insbesondere bei der Kundenanalyse.
The closing was provided by Michael Mühlin, formerly the owner of a taxi dispatch center and today a consultant, among others for ECabs. Mühlin sees a secret of success for modern dispatch centers in learning from platforms – especially in customer analysis.
Er beschrieb auch, wie Fahrer und Plattformen immer stärker zusammenrücken. Das Multi-Apping, also das parallele Arbeiten mit mehreren Apps, könne zwar durch bestimmte Maßnahmen eingeschränkt werden – verschwinden werde es aber nicht von alleine. Mühlin verwies auf ein 90-minütiges Webinar, in dem er diese Themen vertiefen will.
He also described how drivers and platforms are moving closer together. Multi-apping, i.e., working in parallel with several apps, can indeed be restricted by certain measures – but it will not disappear by itself. Mühlin referred to a 90-minute webinar in which he intends to delve deeper into these topics.
Ein Treffen, das weniger nostalgisch ist als sein Name
A meeting that is less nostalgic than its name
Der Glückstädter Kreis klingt wie ein Traditionsformat, das sich an die Vergangenheit klammert. Tatsächlich zeigt das Treffen Jahr für Jahr, wie sehr das Taxi in der Gegenwart angekommen ist – und wie unbequem diese Gegenwart sein kann. Verträge mit Krankenkassen, Plattformdruck, Sichtbarkeit in sozialen Medien, Zahlungsarten, Automatisierung: Es ist die Frage, wie sich ein Gewerbe organisiert, das längst nicht mehr allein über seinen Markt entscheidet.
The Glückstädter Circle sounds like a traditional format clinging to the past. In fact, the meeting shows year after year how much the taxi has arrived in the present – and how uncomfortable this present can be. Contracts with health insurance providers, platform pressure, visibility on social media, payment methods, automation: It is the question of how an industry that no longer decides solely by its market organizes itself.
Content automatically translated.
Taxi-Fahrzeuge (Pkw) , Taxi-Newsletter, Taxameter, Taxi-Fahrer , BZP – Deutscher Taxi- und Mietwagenverband , Straßenverkehrsordnung (StVO) , Krankenbeförderung , Weiterbildung , Taxi-Konzessionen , Verkehrspolitik , Mietwagenbranche , Taxi-Apps , Berufskraftfahrer-Qualifikations-Gesetz BKrFQG) , Taxizentralen , Personal, Gehälter, Arbeitsschutz , Wirtschaftsnachrichten , Werbung , Taxi-Folierung , Taxi-Umrüster , Straßenverkehr , Elektromobilität, Taxifuhrpark und -flottenmanagement , Taxi-Versicherungen , Hybrid, Diesel, Erdgas , Taxi-Magazin
