Hamburg Airport, 10:30 p.m. – a good half hour earlier, a fully occupied plane from Mallorca landed on Tuesday evening. Hundreds of passengers leave Terminal 2, many want to take a taxi. But only one car is in front of the door, a little later a second and third roll up. It won’t be more for the time being.
Dozens of taxis rush past those waiting, occupied by passengers picked up at Terminal 1. The line gets longer and longer, at 11 p.m. it measures around 100 meters. The anger is great. It will be midnight before everyone can make their way home.
How does it come to such situations that can be observed on many evenings? In any case, Hamburg residents, tourists and out-of-town business people who are in town for a few days have been annoyed by long taxi waiting times for months. Even the classic permanent stands at the airport, at the main train station or at night in St. Pauli are understaffed.
The main reason for the misery: In the past two years, the number of taxis and drivers has fallen drastically. Around 3,200 concessions were registered with the Hamburg traffic authority at the beginning of 2020, meanwhile there are fewer than 2,700 searched.”
They have migrated above all to parcel services and food and food suppliers, which were booming in the pandemic months. There are fewer taxis on the streets, especially at night, because the drivers have changed industries. “They won’t come back either,” believes Alexander Mönch, Managing Director of Free Now Germany, formerly MyTaxi, whose app is currently used by around 1,800 chauffeurs in the metropolitan region to get tours, according to the company.
Some taxi drivers have gotten used to more regulated working hours in other sectors. Both Mönch and Lohse state that the supply currently does not match the demand, which has increased more rapidly than expected due to trade fairs, congresses, cultural events, rediscovered travel and the renaissance of nightlife. Lohse: “It’s comparable to the tense staffing situation at airports.”
Much depresses the mood of the taxi driver and the passengers. “The conversations during the tours are almost exclusively about topics such as corona protection measures, the war, increases in fuel costs, minimum wage increases and general inflation,” reports Free-Now Managing Director Mönch.
Long-established taxi entrepreneurs such as Werner Möllmann, owner of the Ladewig taxi team
One consequence: the nerves of the taxi drivers and passengers are not in the best of shape at the moment. “It quickly gets crunchy,” confirms Thomas Lohse, whose cooperative Hansa-Taxi includes around 400 entrepreneurs with almost 700 cars and 1,500 drivers. Before the pandemic, there were 2000 drivers.
Nevertheless, he is optimistic: “The situation will ease up.” New drivers who want to work full-time or part-time are currently being recruited, as well as students, pensioners and single parents who want to earn some extra money: “Our training courses are full.” week they last. In addition, newcomers must apply for a passenger transport license, present a personal certificate of good conduct and pass a health examination.
After four to six weeks, a newcomer can sit behind the wheel of a taxi for the first time. A local knowledge test has not been necessary since August 2021. Mönch: “Most drivers use a navigation system.” For him, the easier access, the flexible working hours and the tips are the most important arguments for the job of a taxi driver: “With e-taxis, the earning opportunities are even better because they are particularly popular with customers are often requested and the tip is usually higher here” – apparently the image is better here. There are currently 229 electric taxis in Hamburg, making them emission-free. Ascending trend.
Thomas Lohse also promotes his industry: “In addition to the minimum wage of twelve euros, friendly drivers usually get an additional three to four euros in tips per hour. A decent salary.” Next January, together with the authorities, the increase in the taxi tariff, which was made in June for the first time in five years, will be reviewed, which should take into account the operating costs that have already increased during the pandemic.
Since then, the basic fee has been EUR 4.20 during peak hours (7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.) and EUR 3.90 at other times. Skeptics warn that if taxis become more expensive, many customers could switch to public transport, e-scooters, e-bikes or car sharing.
In order to ensure a good supply of taxis at Helmut Schmidt Airport, which is used by an average of 45,000 passengers every day, Hamburg’s cab operators want to improve communication with the airport. Thomas Lohse: “We are in talks about this.” For Katja Bromm, spokeswoman for Hamburg Airport, who calls the long waiting times “unfortunate isolated cases”, the taxi trade is “a building block for the arrival and departure of passengers, people collecting people and visitors to guarantee”. One is in “close exchange”.
This is also absolutely necessary for tourism experts and organizers: the city cannot allow queues and annoyed drivers to become Hamburg’s business card. Uwe Bergmann, who has been planning incentive trips for companies all over the world for 25 years, has often received guests in Fuhlsbüttel and – after a long wait for the suitcases – looked in vain for a taxi in front of the building. That is not conducive to Hamburg’s image: “There is no second chance to get a first impression of a city.”
