Petition launched: FFB taxi association demands minimum prices for rental cars in the district.

The demand of the taxi cooperative rests on a possibility created by the legislator with the amendment of the Passenger Transport Act. Since 2021, municipalities can set minimum ride fares for hire-car services. The regulation is intended to prevent trips being offered at prices that are not economically sustainable in the long term and thereby distort competition.

A Look at Munich

As a model, the cooperative cites Munich, the state capital. There, policymakers and the administration have for some time been dealing with minimum prices for hire-car services, which are often mediated via platforms such as Uber. The background involved investigations that pointed to substantial price differences between taxi and hire-car offerings, as well as economically questionable rock-bottom prices.

Now, a similar approach should also be examined in the Fürstenfeldbruck district. The taxi radio cooperative calls for a market analysis modeled on the Munich model and the involvement of representatives from the taxi and rental-car trades as well as the municipalities in the decision-making process. In the end there should be a minimum transport fare that is aligned with the respective valid taxi tariffs.

Concern about price pressure

Platform-mediated rental-car offers are pushing more strongly into suburban areas and often advertise prices that are well below the costs of traditional taxi rides.

In the view of the initiators, this leads to a structural imbalance. While taxi companies are bound by government-set tariffs and transport and operating obligations, rental-car companies can set their prices flexibly. The consequence would be growing pressure on the profitability of the businesses, on wages and working conditions, as well as on the long-term stability of mobility provision.