A Mobile Taxi App Comes to Ljubljana

Ljubljana’s taxi drivers not happy

18. avgust 2016 ob 12.26 • Ljubljana - MMC RTV SLO

In Ljubljana you will now be able to order a taxi with the HOPIN TAXI mobile app. Foto: BoBo

In Ljubljana you will now be able to order a taxi with the HOPIN TAXI mobile app. At the same time the LPP Ljubljana Passenger Transport Company is preparing to offer 20 electric vehicles for public use. Ljubljana’s taxi drivers are not happy.

HOPIN TAXI is a mobile app slowly spreading across all bigger European cities. It already represents serious competition to the more popular Uber online transport service. It takes only three clicks for a taxi to come pick you up, meaning an end to telephone calls and waiting on hold. Passengers can pay in cash or via credit card. Passengers can also rate drivers and thus prevent those they weren’t happy with from picking them up again. Drivers can also rate their passengers. With the mobile app one can also follow the route of the taxi being ordered.

Martin Winkler is the head and co-creator of HOPIN TAXI: "The main advantage is that the customer can see which car is coming to him. He can see where the car is and he can go out at the right time and not have to wait and look for the car."
"Local taxis" against
The more popular app for ordering car rides is Uber. But “local taxi drivers” around the world strongly oppose it. There have been protests against "Uber taxi drivers" in Argentina, Brazil, Portugal and Hungary. However, Uber is still spreading. It is not yet known when and if this app will arrive in Ljubljana. The company did inform us that its wish is to be present in all the modern, dynamic and progressive cities, such as Ljubljana. But that, of course, will lead to nothing good for Ljubljana’s taxi drivers.
Ljubljana’s taxi drivers are of the opinion that the mobile taxi apps represent a case of unfair competition. They are also not happy about the new services to be introduced by the LPP Ljubljana Passenger Transport Company in September. "Every 10 or 20 more taxi drivers will represent unfair competition. They won’t have to pay for their papers and taxes the way we will," stressed Tomo Žmavc, the head of the “Taksi društvo Ljubljana” taxi service.
From September onwards Ljubljana residents will be able to travel in electric vehicles made available by the LPP. Passengers will be able to call them, just like taxis. The LPP company informs that they will not represent competition to local taxi drivers. But then again, what is ordering a car ride, if not a taxi service?