No taxi fare for Uber & Co.: New rules for taxis threatening existence from 2021

Criticisms of the Occasional Traffic Act amendment range from a “knockout for the taxi industry” to “endangering life.” According to this, travel agency providers like Uber can do without a meter.

LINZ. “That can cost thousands of taxi drivers from all over Austria their lives, who have always worked legally and paid taxes in our country,” says Eveline Hruza, spokesperson for the company Linz Taxi 2244. If it is up to the Minister of Climate Protection Leonore Gewessler (Greens), should also be in In the future, there will be no taxi fare for trips ordered “through the communications service”. The draft of the reform to the Occasional Traffic Law establishes that it must enter into force on January 1, 2021.

“Death blow for polluted taxi companies”

Wolfgang Scheckenreither, President of the Transport and Traffic Division of the WKOÖ. The WKOÖ warns that the planned adaptations would open the door to US tech companies like Uber in Austria. “That could deal the fatal blow to taxi companies that are already heavily burdened by the Covid-19 pandemic,” Schneckenreither continued. Hruza is “surprised” by the short-term changes in the Council of Ministers. The earlier version of the Occasional Traffic Act would be “taken completely ad absurdum.” In previous preliminary discussions, representatives of taxi and car rental companies always participated. Until now it was always planned that all providers had to adhere to the taxi fare. Now Uber & Co can continue to offer fixed prices online.

The amendment is the responsibility of the driver

“Instead of providing support measures for our troubled operations, Climate Protection Minister Gewessler plans to replace us with a publicly traded US company that does not pay taxes or create jobs,” says the president of the taxi specialist group. Gunter Mayrhofer. “This company does not own a single vehicle and does not employ not a single driver, but rather uses existing companies. However, since Uber often offers significantly lower prices than classic taxis, these companies have to cut costs.” In the case of Uber, this occurs mainly because of the “main cost factor: the drivers.” You have already heard from various federal states that Eastern European drivers are being hired and placed in massive housings. Mayrhofer suspects that the applicable provisions of the collective agreement on driving times and rest times would probably not be followed here.

“Don’t let them take it out of your hand”

Therefore, the president of the division, Schneckenreither, and the spokesman of the section, Mayrhofer, also address Governor Thomas Stelzer: “We also invite our governor not to tolerate this affront from Vienna. The competition to set fares for the taxi industry as a whole must not allow Upper Austria to be taken over by Vienna.