Overview

• Taxi drivers from Essen and surrounding cities staged a two-hour protest on May 7, citing unfair competition from ride-hailing platforms like Uber and Bolt.
• The protest called for binding minimum fares, caps on hire-car licenses, and stricter enforcement of return-to-base obligations for hire-car drivers.
• Taxi operators report revenue losses of up to 50% due to dynamic pricing by ride-hailing platforms, which they claim undercuts municipal taxi fares.
• Essen city officials have commissioned a legal study to explore implementing minimum tariffs for hire-car services, with results pending.
• Despite the protest, public transit services remained unaffected, and some taxis continued operating to serve customers.