City council decides on new taxi fares
The city council passed a new taxi fare ordinance yesterday. The amendment is based on an application by the Chemnitz eG taxi cooperative on behalf of all members to amend the ordinance on transport charges for occasional taxi services in the Chemnitz compulsory service area (taxi tariff ordinance). The main reason given for the application was the introduction of the statutory minimum wage of €8.50 per hour from 1 January 2015.
The present amendment application submitted by Taxigenossenschaft Chemnitz eG on 16 June 2014 is based on a wage cost calculation of €7.50 per hour. The background to this was the ongoing negotiations between the taxi industry and the service trade union ver.di at the time the application was submitted in order to achieve a gradual introduction of the minimum wage through a collective agreement in the industry by the beginning of 2017. The collective bargaining negotiations broke down for the time being in mid-September this year. The minimum wage of €8.50 per hour will therefore also apply to the taxi sector nationwide from 1 January 2015.
This will improve pay for taxi drivers and replace the previous turnover-based hourly wage of €6 to €6.50.
The minimum wage will therefore help to create standardised pay for taxi drivers in Germany and ensure that they can earn a living without additional state aid.
The transport charges are set as follows:
Tariff level I (weekdays 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.)
Basic fare 3.90 euros
Price per kilometre
- 1 to 3 km 2.00 Euro per km
- over 3 km 1.70 Euro per km
Tariff level II (weekdays 20:00 to 05:00, Sundays and public holidays all day)
Basic rate 3.90 Euro
Price per kilometre
- 1 to 3 km 2.20 Euro per km
- over 3 km 1.70 Euro per km
The waiting time per hour for both fare levels is 24.00 euros, the surcharge for large-capacity taxis with 5 or more passengers is 5 euros.
The calculation is made by the fare meter. Any waiting of the taxi during the utilisation at the request of the customer or user is considered waiting time.
The proposed amendment amounts to a fare increase of 19.1 to 27.8 per cent and is therefore in line with the argument put forward by the BZP (Deutscher Taxi- und Mietwagenverband e.V.) that the introduction of the minimum wage will result in a necessary fare increase of around 25 to 30 per cent. It can be seen from this that the requested tariff increase results exclusively from the increase in labour costs.