Economy mobility app
Free Now will soon be offering taxi rides at a fixed price
Status: 01:11 | Reading time: 3 minutes
Quelle: picture alliance / NurPhoto
Despite high losses, Free Now wants to set the prices for its taxi rides in advance in the mobility app. In doing so, the provider puts free competitors who work with taximeters under pressure. And Free Now also wants to create new offers for people with disabilities and women.
The mobility app Free Now from BMW and Mercedes-Benz wants to offer taxi rides at a fixed price this year. That said Free-Now Germany boss Alexander Mönch WELT AM SONNTAG. He expects that Hamburg and Munich will be the first to adapt their taxi tariff regulations. This will be made possible by the amendment to the Transport Act.
In contrast to trips by independent providers, as made popular by the US service Uber, the price of classic, cream-colored taxis booked via an app is not fixed in advance, but is determined by the taximeter. Mönch appeals to the mayors to regulate free taxi competitors more closely in addition to fixed prices: “Cities should use the new legal opportunity to set minimum prices for rental cars.” Fair competition is important so that the taxi industry remains economically viable.
A spokesman for the Hamburg transport authority confirmed that tariffs for fixed prices via app were currently being coordinated with the taxi industry. However, minimum prices for the often cheaper free taxi competitors do not make sense, since they would also apply to sick trips, for example. Free Now, which emerged from the MyTaxi app, likes to position itself against Uber as a European partner for the taxi industry and municipalities.
More about mobility
Because although the app has long since integrated car sharing offers such as Miles and e-scooters from Tier and rental cars, most of the revenue comes from arranging taxi rides. Only 30 percent of customers use sharing services, as a current user survey shows.
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Mönch wants to recommend himself as an accelerator of the mobility turnaround. That’s why he commissioned a study from the Zukunftsinstitut, a trend consulting firm. It will be published next week.
Accordingly, people want to make more use of interlinked offers – such as car trips to mobility centers on the outskirts of the city, from which local transport, e-scooters or taxis lead into the city. There is a need for change, for example for users with physical disabilities.
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Safety, motor, battery and Co.
Free Now, for example, has just launched an offer for wheelchair users in Hamburg with the traffic authority. Women, who often work part-time and are out and about with children, need more offers outside of the rush hour: “Traffic planning has so far been done by men for men,” said Future Institute expert Stefan Carsten.
Free Now can use new impetus: According to its own statements, the provider mediated trips worth more than one billion euros in 2022. That’s less than before the pandemic.
High losses at Free Now in the Corona year 2021
The US rival Uber is around 100 times larger worldwide – and after initial legal skirmishes also emphasizes that it wants to cooperate with the German municipalities. While Mercedes-Benz and BMW sold their car-sharing subsidiary Share Now to the Peugeot group Stellantis in 2022, they are sticking with Free Now so far.
Financially, however, they are not happy about it, according to data recently published in the “Bundesanzeiger”: High unscheduled depreciation for the subsidiaries bought together in many European countries led to a loss of 590 million euros at Free Now in the Corona year 2021 with sales of just over 27 million euros . According to the annual report, this was offset in 2022 by 100 million euros in fresh equity from the joint venture Your Now of the two car manufacturers.
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