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Taxi deregulation coming to Finland

metropolitan.fi

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Re: Taxi deregulation coming to Finland

#31

Post by mattmanser »

dagw wrote: post #30
mattmanser wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree, from experience. I live in an urban environment in the UK with extensive public transport and haven't had a car for the last 5 years. I have friends and family who live in the 'burbs. There are plenty of times I take a taxi over public transport, including: 1. I'm in a rush 2. I need to transport something not small 3. I'm feeling lazy Note, that all public transport suffers from some fundamental problems…

So while I like and appreciate our public transport, it can be a huge timesink and when you don't want to pay the "time tax" of public transport, taxis fill the role. Last time I was in London for work I naively hopped in a Taxi at Paddington Station because I was late for a meeting and the tube would take 30 minutes. The taxi took 35 minutes and cost an order of magnitude more.

Well, yeah, it depends on the town and the time. Here in Notts the buses have lots of dedicated lanes, so in rush hour it can be better to take a bus than a taxi.

Re: Taxi deregulation coming to Finland

#33

Post by wott »

illuminati1911 wrote: post #3

Uber left Finland last summer due to the harassment from the government and police, but it still made huge difference to the Finnish taxi system. Before the taxi rides were expensive, service was mediocre and there was no apps nor anything else. After Uber started mixing the market, many new companies have started operating in the field offering travel packages etc. and almost all taxis can now be ordered with an app…

I lived 8 years in Finland.

Taxis were not expensive, they were also easily available and convenient, and an incredible lot of people used them. I mean, you could easily get taxis in the middle of the night in small towns (below 5000 inhabitants) or even more remote villages, and regular low to middle income people would use them with no second thought. Also drivers would not even complain if they called for a short distance trip.

It was a shock for me, coming from France, where nobody 'normal' would ever use a taxi in a 'normal' situation. And if you ever try, you generally do not try again: no availability, extremely expensive price, and generally, as a driver, a moron who complains about you or anything. So most French people only use a taxi every other year to get a ride to the airport, and that habit was so ingrained in me that I never got to initiate taxi rides in Finland because it does not fit in my mental model when I want to get somewhere. But Finns had no such problem :-)

Re: Taxi deregulation coming to Finland

#34

Post by wott »

illuminati1911 wrote: post #15
dyyni wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taxis aren’t that expensive in Finland compared to other Nordic countries or countries with similar living costs as Finland. Swedish taxis are unregulated and there fares have risen faster than in Finland. And Uber as a ride hailing service was perfectly legal in Finland. The issue was they were hiring drivers that didn’t have taxi permits (and didn’t pay taxes).

If the pricing of taxis is correlated with local purchasing power, taxis are almost (#2 or #3) most expensive in the world in Finland. It doesn't matter if the prices increase or decrease. The price will get adjusted according to the market needs IF there are no other regulations or interferences. If the prices increase, it means that there are other regulations or restrictions in place which are not publicly known o…

What you say is completely bogus. Taxis are not expensive in Finland, they are less expensive than in most Western European countries.

Re: Taxi deregulation coming to Finland

#35

Post by TomMarius »

Reason077 wrote: post #17
TomMarius wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The market would build railroads and metros given the chance.

Building a metro requires enormous investment, with a huge but very long-term payback. Most of that return is not direct in the form of ticket revenues, but externalised in the form of economic growth along the metro routes, as well as environmental and social benefits. Even where you have private companies building and operating metros, it's usually with the direction and financial support (such as land grants and l…

There is no need for the initiative to be for profit. People are perfectly capable of getting together and doing stuff - in much bigger scale than a metro.

Re: Taxi deregulation coming to Finland

#36

Post by gooseserbus »

mattmanser wrote: post #31
dagw wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So while I like and appreciate our public transport, it can be a huge timesink and when you don't want to pay the "time tax" of public transport, taxis fill the role. Last time I was in London for work I naively hopped in a Taxi at Paddington Station because I was late for a meeting and the tube would take 30 minutes. The taxi took 35 minutes and cost an order of magnitude more.

Well, yeah, it depends on the town and the time. Here in Notts the buses have lots of dedicated lanes, so in rush hour it can be better to take a bus than a taxi.

Taxis* can drive in bus lanes

*Not private hire vehicles, which are not legally considered taxis.

Re: Taxi deregulation coming to Finland

#37

Post by orangehour »

pluma wrote: post #27
illuminati1911 wrote: post #3

Uber left Finland last summer due to the harassment from the government and police, but it still made huge difference to the Finnish taxi system. Before the taxi rides were expensive, service was mediocre and there was no apps nor anything else. After Uber started mixing the market, many new companies have started operating in the field offering travel packages etc. and almost all taxis can now be ordered with an app…

I can't speak for Finland but to me Uber seems similar to Facebook in many ways (though it currently doesn't seem like Uber is as successful internationally): Taxi apps started out in 2007/2008 according to Wikipedia, most apps I'm personally aware of (in Western Europe) seem to have popped up at some point in 2010, roughly the same time as Uber launched in the US. I remember using a taxi app in 2011 but the signup w…

It doesn't help that StudiVZ is based off of Facebook, so it's not really revolutionary either.

Re: Taxi deregulation coming to Finland

#38

Post by golergka »

mandelken wrote: post #7

Taxi's don't scale in an urban environment. Their use is exactly for night or irregular use. Go to Mumbai, Jakarta, or any low income country and you'll find yourself stuck for hours in a cheap taxi. We need regulation because the market will not build railroads and metro's. "A developed country is not where the poor drive a car, but where the rich take public transportation". Visit and compare Switzerland with Egypt…

> Their use is exactly for night or irregular use

I have exactly the opposite experience. Although public transport here is pretty good (by US standards, anyway - especially the subway system), I usually take the taxi. After all the apps appeared and started to compete with one another, it became extremely cheap (usual ride is about $3, expensive one is $6-7), clean and convenient.

And on top of it, taxis can use public transport lanes - so the traffic isn't that much of an issue.

Re: Taxi deregulation coming to Finland

#39

Post by acompetency »

staticelf wrote: post #18

Finland is just killing it lately, I wish Sweden could be more like Finland.

With the healthcare system being privatized, higher education receiving massive cutbacks, falling PISA scores, social welfare being slashed and shoehorned into a new model conditional on employment status, mass surveillance bills being pushed through parliament, a rising far right etc. etc... I agree that it would be wonderful if any country could be more like Finland now, but I doubt you'd want to head the way the country is currently going.

Re: Taxi deregulation coming to Finland

#40

Post by sol_remmy »

deanclatworthy wrote: post #29
staticelf wrote: post #18

Finland is just killing it lately, I wish Sweden could be more like Finland.

It’s funny the outsiders perspective of Finland. I can assure you there are plenty of problems here. The government being broke for one and making obscene cuts across the board.

i.e. The government is reducing taxes and reducing services.

That's precisely WHY some people like Finland. The government is stepping out of the way (as we can see in this article)

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