BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – There is approval from, but also criticism of, plans by Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer to fundamentally reform the transport service market. North Rhine-Westphalia’s Transport Minister Hendrik Wst (CDU) told the German Press Agency: “The fact that passenger transport law is now finally using the opportunities of digitization for better mobility is an overdue breakthrough.”
Wst went on to say: “It is good to enable new mobility without jeopardizing the existence of proven mobility offers such as taxi traffic through unfair competition. In addition, the rights of the municipalities are protected.” The Federal Council must approve the planned reform.
The NRW Transport Minister called the planned adherence to the so-called return obligation for taxi competitors an anachronism. “For reasons of climate protection, empty trips should be avoided. It is regrettable that no better instrument has been found to prevent customer search traffic in city centers.” Given the current pace of innovation, the next reform should not be long in coming, then it would have to go one step further.
The obligation to return is at the center of the reform debate. It states that the cars of the new transport services must return to the company headquarters after each trip and, unlike classic taxis, they must not wait on the street for customers. The taxi industry had strictly refused to abolish the obligation to return, because this would be at the expense of taxis./hoe/DP/zb
