Taxi and rental-car industry: VSPV brings volunteer work and social responsibility into focus.

Whoever talks about the future of the taxi and rental car trade tends to think of mobility, digitalization, or competition with platform operators. The Association of Private Commercial Road Passenger Transport of North Rhine-Westphalia (VSPV) is currently trying to broaden the discussion with another perspective: the social role of medium-sized entrepreneurs in their home communities. To that end, the association is strategically expanding its political network. In addition to transport and health policymakers, the VSPV increasingly seeks exchanges with policy specialists from other areas. After a meeting with the chair of the Bundestag Committee on Legal Affairs and Consumer Protection, Carsten Müller, VSPV managing director Sascha Waltemate and head of the capital office Patrick Meinhardt have now met the CSU member of the Bundestag Stephan Mayer.

Mayer himself has long been a volunteer

Mayer has been a member of the German Bundestag for more than two decades, was Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, and is today, among other things, spokesperson and chair of the Working Group on Sport and Volunteerism of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag. As former president of the Technisches Hilfswerk and current president of the Federation of Expellees, he also stands for long-standing voluntary engagement. Exactly at this point the argumentation of the VSPV begins. The association wants to direct more attention to the people behind the companies.

“We want and must place the civic engagement of our entrepreneurial personalities even more at the center,” emphasize Waltemate and Meinhardt.

According to the association, taxi and rental-car operators are engaged far beyond their actual business operations. Many are active in clubs, churches, aid organizations, or fire brigades. They support local events, promote youth sports, or assume responsibility in voluntary positions.

“Our medium-sized taxi and rental-car operators, their families and many of their employees are a pillar in their home communities in clubs, churches, associations, with the THW, the fire department or the Red Cross,” explain the two association representatives. For many entrepreneurs it is natural to give something back to the community. “The taxi company is a part of the town; you help at the sports festival, sing in the church choir, belong to the team of the voluntary fire brigade, or sponsor the T-shirts of the carnival club.”

Criticism of platforms

With this view of local anchoring, the association also clearly differentiates the SME taxi and rental-car sector from international platform providers. In discussions with consumer protection advocates, the VSPV had already critically assessed the business models of Uber, Bolt and other intermediary platforms. There, consumer-protection issues are closely linked to topics such as undeclared work, social fraud, illegal offerings, and lack of insurance coverage.

In discussions with Mayer, however, the association placed less emphasis on regulation and more on the industry's societal contribution at the center.

“Show us the comparable commitment of Uber, Bolt & Co.”, demanded Waltemate and Meinhardt. While platforms often relied on anonymous intermediary processes, long-standing personal relationships often arise in the traditional taxi- and rental-car trade.

This becomes particularly evident in the area of medical, rehabilitation and physician transports. There, the service often goes beyond mere transportation.

“An unknown driver takes an unknown passenger from A to B; the assignment is completed. This anonymity has nothing to do with what we as an industry live by and how we view customer service,” Waltemate and Meinhardt continued.