Görlitz district increases taxi tariffs: "Everything has simply become more expensive."

Everything is getting more expensive, even for taxi operators. Now the tariffs in the Görlitz district have been adjusted to the cost developments of the past years. The initiative for the tariff increase came from the Görlitz Taxi Guild. Together with the taxi cooperatives in Zittau, Löbau and Weißwasser, it had called for a review of the current charges. In the past months the proposal was discussed, calculated and revised several times together with the county's approval authority, the cooperatives and various individual companies. For the companies, the issue was of existential importance. The statutory minimum wage has risen, as have the prices for vehicles, fuels, insurance and workshop services. In addition there are numerous ancillary costs that are often hardly noticed outside the industry.

„Everything has simply become more expensive. It starts with the TÜV, which we have to take the cars to every year, up to calibration,” says Michael Heinze, chairman of the Görlitz Taxi Guild.

The development is particularly evident with the vehicles themselves. According to the guild, the acquisition costs have nearly doubled within a few years. Insurance costs and workshop bills burden the businesses increasingly.

“The insurance for us taxi drivers has not become cheaper in recent years either,” says Heinze. And with workshop costs, the same applies as for private car drivers: “That’s something everyone who drives a car privately knows.”

The higher tariffs are intended to partly offset these cost increases. The base fare rises by one euro during the day to 5.50 euros. At night as well as on Sundays and holidays, 6.50 euros will be due in the future. The per-kilometer prices will also be raised. Heinze views this with mixed feelings that the additional costs will ultimately be passed on to the passengers.

"They always pass the increases downward. The government apparently does not consider relief for us, for example through taxes," criticizes Heinze.

Broad support for fare adjustment

Remarkable is how broad the approval for the new tariff regulation was. According to the district, a clear majority of companies supported the present draft. Around 90 percent of taxi operators in the district supported the adjustment. Cities and municipalities, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce as well as the responsible trade association were also involved in the procedure and expressed their approval. In the district council, however, one detail of tariff design was still discussed: the waiting time.