Zluckily there’s the airport chaos right now. Postponed and canceled flights, rushing travelers – there’s finally a lot to do for Frankfurt taxi driver Oktay Yalcin. The whole mess brings him a lot of sales. “One’s joy, the other’s sorrow, that’s the way it is.”
Yalcin has been self-employed since 2013 and drives one of the approximately 4,600 taxis in Hesse – 1,700 of which are registered in Frankfurt alone. However, he has not been able to drive much in the past two years, the consequences of Corona have kept tourists at home and business people in the home office. At the beginning of 2022, they seemed to be venturing out again – then came the war in Ukraine, and with it diesel prices rose to more than two euros at times.
“Customers feel sorry for us”
The 56-year-old taxi operator feels these costs every day because he is not allowed to pass them on to his customers. “Customers feel sorry for us,” he says. Because while the RMV increases its prices almost every year and logistics companies, for example, have a price adjustment clause in which the costs are automatically adjusted to the development of diesel prices, Yalcin has to calculate with the tariffs that the city of Frankfurt last set in 2016. At that time, a liter of diesel cost around one euro instead of the current two, and the minimum wage was 8.50 euros per hour – on July 1, 2022, this lower wage limit will rise to 10.45 euros, and in autumn to twelve euros. “We are eagerly awaiting a tariff increase,” says the entrepreneur. After all, Yalcin has little to worry about the minimum wage. Like most taxi operators, he is a sole trader. If he earns less on balance, then he has less left over to pay himself.
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Hans-Peter Kratz, state chairman of the Hessian taxi association and himself a taxi entrepreneur, calls it self-exploitation. Many sole proprietors would earn just four to five euros an hour. For months he has been appealing to the Hessian municipalities to raise taxi rates, but they hesitate.
Fuel surcharge already introduced in other cities
Kratz has a “Putin euro” in mind, as he calls it, a surcharge of one euro per trip on days when diesel prices are over 1.80 euros in the morning. The idea is not his, other cities have already introduced such a fuel surcharge for their taxis. The city of Trier decided on such a surcharge for its taxi drivers in mid-May, the regulation applies until the end of October. The Leipzig City Council approved the “Putin Euro” at the end of May. The Bavarian district of Ebersberg increased the basic price from 3.70 euros to 4.80 euros and also the kilometer charge slightly on June 1st. In Munich, the basic tariff has increased by 70 cents, in Cologne it has increased by 90 cents.
The Frankfurt taxi drivers currently have to manage differently. Almost every one of them is constantly checking the smartphone app to see where diesel is currently cheapest. Yalcin reports that the chance of this is greatest after 8 p.m. “But the price changes almost every minute.” Filling up the tank is no longer an option for him, he has to leave room in the tank if the price drops for a short time. With his four-year-old E-Class Mercedes, he consumes around 6.5 liters per 100 kilometers, with six to eight tours a day. When he has promoted a customer, he looks for a parking space where he can quickly hope for new customers. The aim is to have as few empty trips as possible, he says. After all, the airport is currently bringing in more sales, but only at peak times. And because taxis wait longer in front of the terminals than in the city center, he would be less active.
Taxi drivers must be operational
But he has to drive. Entrepreneurs cannot shut down their vehicles. Not only are their tariffs set by the state, they have a transport obligation and an operating obligation, so – in contrast to driving service competitors such as Uber or Freenow – they must always be operational. Because of these obligations and fare rules, the taxi industry sees itself as part of local public transport. The only part, however, that does not receive any subsidies.
The Frankfurt regulatory office says that there is an application for a tariff adjustment. First of all, the approval authority must check whether the tariffs are sufficient for the companies to be able to work economically. Then the office in the surrounding area and in comparable cities will query the local tariffs as a basis for comparison. A hearing procedure is then required, in which, among other things, the economic development agency, the Darmstadt regional council, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce and trade associations are involved, explained a spokesman. Ultimately, the magistrate must decide on the tariffs. It is not possible to predict when they can be expected to be adjusted.
