PBefG reform: VSPV hands over to Federal Minister of Transport Bilger its own concept for the future of taxi and rental cars

The debate about the future of the Passenger Transport Act is gaining momentum again. With an inaugural visit to Federal Transport Minister Steffen Bilger (CDU), the Association of Private Commercial Road Passenger Transport in North Rhine-Westphalia (VSPV) presented its proposals for a fundamental overhaul of the legal framework. VSPV Managing Director Sascha Waltemate and Patrick Meinhardt, the General Authorized Signatory and head of the association's Berlin office, handed the minister in the Berlin Ministry of Transport an extensive packet of documents. The focus was on a position paper on the revision of the Passenger Transport Act (PBefG), which the association has already placed at the ministry at expert and state secretary levels.

Bilger knows the taxi trade

Here, the VSPV deliberately ties into statements Bilger had already made during his time as Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Transport. In 2019, the current minister stated during a discussion with protesting taxi operators in Freiburg that the taxi is part of public service provision and requires fair competitive conditions. At the same time, he noted that the return-to-base obligation for rental cars should not be an end in itself.

Precisely at this point, the VSPV's paper picks up. The association proposes to rethink the traditional separation between taxi and rental-car traffic. In the future, the historic operating form should no longer be at the center, but the respective function within the mobility system. According to the association's view, the taxi remains the tariff-bound and always available component of public mobility. It should in the future be more strongly integrated into digital booking and mediation systems of public transport. Rental cars, in turn, are understood as a private-sector complement to the mobility offering.

Monitor the Return Obligation!

The reform approach becomes particularly clear in dealing with the return obligation. The VSPV advocates replacing rigid regulations with digital control and steering instruments. Not additional bans are required, but effective tools for states and municipalities to monitor and enforce existing rules based on data. The association therefore expressly does not understand its proposal as a classic protection concept for the taxi trade. Rather, it is about adapting the passenger transport law to the requirements of a digitized mobility market.

“Mobility policy must be more than the lowest common denominator. It takes courage and vision if one wants not only to manage the present but to shape the future. We hope for both from the minister,” said VSPV managing director Sascha Waltemate after the meeting.

Patrick Meinhardt also sees in the new leadership of the Ministry of Transport a potential catalyst for the upcoming reforms.

“With Steffen Bilger we have an experienced policy expert who will be able to tackle the challenges of the mobility sector—even against inertia and resistance,” said the head of the Berlin office.