Geek time – Is the taxi trade disappearing? Taxi Times Update 2015-02-23

What`s new in the taxi world? Our bilingual ‘update’ summarises the international news of the last days and hours. As some of the links are in foreign languages, we recommend using a website translator.

International News

Geek time – Is the taxi trade disappearing? If you believe the prediction of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), by 2020 the taxi trade will have disappeared from big cities.

http://www.noobpreneur.com/2015/02/09/12-industries-may-not-exist-2020/

Uber launches a print magazine: The drivers are the target group.

http://www.wired.com/2015/03/uber-puts-magazine-make-nice-drivers/?mbid=soci

Number of the day

0,009 %

The percentage of complaints about taxidrivers at Frankfurt’s regulator

http://www.taxi-vereinigung-frankfurt.de/images/PM.pdf

Automobile news

Nissan Leaf launches other taxi careers: The electric taxi is now in service in Blackpool, England and in Auckland, New Zealand.

Blackpool: http://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/2015/2/27/fleet-of-nissan-leafs-for-blackpool-taxi-firm/54970/

Auckland: http://www.3news.co.nz/business/whangarei-gets-nzs-first-electric-taxi-2015030318#axzz3TKfxGM6Q

The Vito is coming to the U.S. as the Metris: Mercedes-Benz will now launch the model, used by many taxi companies in Europe and particularly in Germany, on the U.S. market.

http://www.caranddriver.com/news/mercedes-benz-metris-news

News from Germany

Taxi inspection in Hamburg: Sixty-four taxis were inspected, six of which were immediately withdrawn from circulation.

http://www.bild.de/regional/hamburg/razzia/behoerden-stoppen-taxi-trickser-40014946.bild.html

Laughable: A taxi operator had no phone service for 12 days. The telephone company wants to pay €17.01 in damages.

http://www.rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/grevenbroich/taxi-nummer-faellt-aus-1701-euro-entschaedigung-aid-1.4923205

Frustrated customers: Night passengers in Chemnitz often have to wait up to half an hour at the weekend.

http://www.freiepresse.de/LOKALES/CHEMNITZ/Warum-nachts-kein-Taxi-kommt-artikel9131841.php

Our last words

Smoke signals: American Indians used to communicate using smoke signals. But there are more advanced ways now – such as our Taxi Times update, which over the last three months has gained over 500 new subscribers from three different continents. One of them calls himself ‘stadtindianer-taxi’ (‘urban Indian taxi’). Do they lasso their passengers over there?