In recent years, the number of taxi licenses has risen sharply, especially in Oslo, after the taxi market was liberalized in 2020. Several of the new players have adopted payment via app instead of using taxi meters. Experts fear this will have led to more black payments, and required clean-up. Now the government is tightening up. – We have had an over-establishment in the urban area, and a depletion in the districts. This is not good, so we have to clean up the taxi industry, says Jon-Ivar Nygård, Minister of Transport (Ap). Now all taxi license holders must be connected to a central office. – It is about making it safe for the customers. You must have a place to turn to as a customer. And we will contribute to seriousness in the industry, says Nygård. Transport Minister Jon-Ivar Nygård wants to tighten up the taxi industry. Photo: Tom Balgaard / news – We must have more orderly and orderly conditions, so that those who work as taxi drivers can know that they can get a decent salary, and not such Texas conditions as there have been, says Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, Minister of Finance (Q). On Friday, the proposal will be presented to the Storting. This is what the government proposes: Introduction of a central connection obligation for all taxi license holders. Introduction of a central license with associated objective requirements for those who wish to operate a taxi centre. The centers are charged with duties relating to the collection, storage and transmission of information to public authorities, including location data for taxi journeys and prices for taxi services. The centers are obliged to have a complaints system, as well as ensure that a sufficient proportion of the taxis connected to the center are equipped for transport for people with reduced functional abilities, in accordance with the current rules on requirements for universal design. Taxi license holders must ensure that payment for all licensed transport is registered in a taxi meter at a taxi center to which the license holder is affiliated. – Not necessary The taxi operators who are not connected to a central office are happy to operate through apps. Bolt, Uber, Yango are some of the newcomers. – They can still operate. But they must follow Norwegian rules and the Norwegian system, says Vedum. Haven’t they done it yet? Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum (Sp) says there are Texas conditions in the taxi industry. Photo: Terje Bendiksby / NTB – It could quickly become an over-representation. The platform company challenges part of the basic thinking in the Norwegian working life model. How then? – They have a looser connection to working life, that you may work a little in your spare time, a little in the evening. We don’t always know who is behind it, says Vedum. They will now put an end to this. According to Nils Ola Widme, business policy director of the NHO association Abelia, the central affiliation obligation, which the government is now introducing, is not necessary. – It is old-fashioned and unnecessary. Ensuring a clean economy in the taxi industry could be done in a better way with more modern requirements for the digital taxi meters, as the previous government proposed. Does the taxi industry get away with it? – They must do it. It is the licensee who is responsible for ensuring this. It is a requirement for the platform company. Nils Ola Widme, business policy director at Abelia, says that central connection for the taxis is old-fashioned and unnecessary. Photo: Ilja C. Hendel / Ilja C. Hendel The industry has collapsed Jarle Kanaris is a taxi driver for City Taxi and is highly critical of the current state of the industry. – The taxi situation in Oslo is full of major challenges. Most of it is collapse. Tax fraud has been introduced again: – The exemption has meant that the authorities no longer have control over whether everything is reported to the tax authorities. Jarle Kanaris says that the taxi industry has collapsed and that the government’s measures are not sufficient. He is positive about the government’s demand for a central affiliation obligation, but believes that the government’s measures are not good enough. – It is not sufficient. They do nothing with the regulation of the number of taxis, they do nothing with the obligation to drive, and nothing with the maximum price. Tightening up little by little It is not the first time the government has tightened up on the taxi industry. – There are an enormous number of companies and over-representation, where you can park an enormous number of cars in some parking lots, while in smaller places there is no one in the whole area who can drive a taxi, says Vedum. From 1 January 2023, the government tested new measures for the taxi industry. From the new year, these requirements will be. These measures will become a requirement from 1 January Guarantee from a bank or insurance company for license holders All taxis must have a roof light License holders must use vehicles that are registered as taxis in the Vehicle Register in their licensed operations Licensees, before starting taxi operations, must document to the licensing authorities that the vehicle is registered as a taxi Approved taximeter From 1 June this year, requirements for professional competence were also introduced for taxi license holders. The taxi committee, which is appointed by the government, delivered the first part of its report in 2023. The next part will come in 2024. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB Possible catch for the summer After the right-wing government’s release from three years ago, the number of taxi licenses has increased from 7,000 to 18,000 throughout the country. In the government’s Hurdalsplattformen, it is stated that the government must look at a ceiling on how many taxi licenses a person has. But here they may have problems with the EEA rules. – We will also look at boundaries. And that is what the taxi committee is working on, which will come up with its recommendation towards 2024, says Nygård. Nils Ola Widme in NHO believes that a cap on the taxi license will not go through. – It is a classic obstacle to establishment that will be illegal under the EEA Agreement. It is quite certain that the government will not introduce it, says Widme in Abelia. But taxi driver Jarle Kanaris says that this is necessary to get the taxi industry back on its feet. – There is room for maneuver there, but then Nygård must have wanted it. The Stoltenberg government did so in 2012. The taxi committee delivered the first part of its report in 2023, and will come up with the second part in 2024. Here they will look at the duty to drive, regulation of the number of taxis, control and supervision, among other things. Kanaris is also critical of this process: – They fragment the introduction of the rules, which makes it unnecessarily complicated.
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The government tightens the grip on the taxi industry – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
