The taxi starts the race by the customer digital

Mytaxi becomes Free Now to embrace other options movilidadPrecio closed, carpool or driving points: the key debate of the ordinance of the taxiFedetaxi will lau

The taxi starts the race by the customer digital
Mytaxi becomes Free Now to embrace other options movilidadPrecio closed, carpool or driving points: the key debate of the ordinance of the taxiFedetaxi will launch in October an app to compete with Uber and Cabify

the Summer of 2018. The taxi and the digital platforms and evidence of their misunderstanding with a crossing of the statements, representations and complaints. The Government tries to bring order with a royal decree that forced the city councils to regulate the VTC. In addition, it ensures that the taxi would have more flexibility. Summer of 2019. The taxi comes at Cabify. The patron of the guild, announces the launch of an application, and Free Now (the old Mytaxi) launches an ambitious plan discounts.

the mobility sector changes. The taxi goes to the amp and the amp is mounted in the cab. As a result, "the guild has more tools to compete", explains Jaime Rodríguez de Santiago, the new director general of Free Now. Your example is paradigmatic: he has changed Bla Bla Car for a project that is about "the other side of mobility, the urban".

The "project" was converted to an ambitious promotion under the arm. And now raises penalties for cancellation of 5 euros. Rodriguez Santiago believes that with this last action, traditionally own platforms of VTC, it prevents the "misuse of the application on behalf of our drivers, in order to avoid losing time, fuel and the possibility of accepting another race."

"the presence of The taxi Cabify is testimonial. In addition we charge half commission".

"In these moments we are studying precisely what standards apply to the time of cancellation to make it a policy fair and we will launch in the coming weeks. This is a standard practice in mobility and Free Now is probably one of the latest applications to implement it".

The director general of the platform Free Now ensures that all of these practices are being supported by the taxi industry. A collective that has, according to the officer, "appetite for change and doing new things". At least, to "roughly". "There are very different realities within the guild, but we have found that two-thirds of our drivers want to be flexible in their pricing conditions or desancos. It is also true that a 25% do not want to change anything, but the majority wants to be competitive. The best drivers are in the cab," explains Rodriguez of Santiago.

regulatory Changes

They have produced regulatory changes that support these "improvements". But you still have to reach many more. Madrid, for example, has to approve the ordinance to modify the conditions of the sector. A measure that, as has been published on ABC, you can include rates closed in advance for each path, or the shared taxi. "Let's hope that the new standard is in force before the end of the year", requested the director-general of Free Now.

that Is to say, from here to the end of the year the cab service can be compared greatly to that of platforms such as Cabify and Uber. But the approach between the two sectors is a double-edged sword: Cabify has opened its application to the taxi in Madrid and Valencia. "The presence of taxis in Cabify is testimonial, and is packed by owners of VTC, which also have taxi licenses. In addition, we ask for half the commission. Even so, I try not to focus too much on the competition, because it distracts you. Each driver is free to choose the application that you want, we don't ask for exclusivity," says Rodríguez Santiago.

what Might work Free Now with licenses of VTC? From the platform they explain that in countries such as Germany already operate with a species of VTC . But its director-general points out that "the market conditions are different, both regulatory and competitive. In practice, licenses have been liberalized, something that we don't expect in Spain." More than increase his offer, Free Now will focus on "providing low prices to its users in an increasingly competitive environment". Proof of this fierce competition in the taxi sector is that Fedetaxi will release its own application in the coming month.

"We have always defended that it is important that the industry realize the need to reinvent itself. The new application of Fedetaxi is a recognition of that need. We have always argued that competition is healthy, as long as they give the same rules for all, as it is in this case", explains the manager. A year ago, VTC, and cabs were in face of each other that need to have the same rules. Today, despite the fact that they continue to have different regulations, they seem more interested in attracting customers.

Date Of Update: 25 September 2019, 23:02