Finland’s Taxi Monopoly – No Competition and the world’s highest prices

We have the most expensive over-regulated taxi monopoly in the world. We have taxi prices that are so high that almost every taxi is a big Mercedes. We pay out some €400 million each year for school taxis, taxis for the dizzy patients and taxis to for the very elderly and handicapped to manage their affairs and see their doctors. There is no price competition, no taxi sharing schemes, just really steep fares every time you use one. And even though the price of gas has fallen 30%, they still charge the same fare…

Uber has entered the Finnish market but 2 of their drivers have been taken to court. Terribly dangerous young men. According to the taxi lobby group, Finns are an endangered species because Uber drivers are unimaginably bad…

During 3 of the last 5 taxi journeys to the airport the drivers went through red lights, went way over the speed limit, did not stop at pedestrian crossing and on 2 occasions had really bad body odors. I have used Uber 3 times in Helsinki, and many times abroad and was satisfied with their driving skills and the clean cars and drivers. What I object to is that Uber claim that they are not responsible for the drivers’ insurance, the drivers’ licenses to drive nor the fact that the driver is sober and not high on drugs. Since Uber gets my money and there is no way I can check on the driver then Uber is definitely liable if something goes wrong.

Anyway it seems that most MP’s will not favor changing the taxi regulations, which is strange since driving safely is not a taxi drivers’ monopoly. Nor do they have a monopoly on using a GPS equipment. Nor do they have a monopoly on charging outrageous prices for a simple service that others like Uber can do far more cheaply. Why should this group of workers be excluded from austerity?

The True Finns support the present taxi monopoly – I wonder why? I cannot think of any good reason and they certainly have not come clean…

Transport Minister Berner want to break the taxi monopoly but she has admitted publicly that she has never used their service. I wonder why not…

Estonia plan to legalize Uber, but they are a small insignificant country we don’t need to take them seriously. They only brought us Skype, e-Residency, Transferwise and a few other major digital breakthroughs…