Unlicensed taxis already have regular customers in Helsinki

Sometimes the price of the ride home after a night out depends on one’s haggling skills. The attraction of using unlicensed cabs is not having to stand in a queue.

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By Sami Takala
     
      It is not just passing licensed taxicabs with a light illuminated on the roof that get the attention. The hands keep waving also at other cars driving past the crowded taxi pick-up points and restaurant fronts in downtown Helsinki in the early hours of Saturday morning.
      “Money! Money!” people shout to the drivers passing by.
     
The temptation to resort to an unlicensed cab is great when the number of available regular taxicabs is insufficient.
      There are private motorists out there who do not mind making some extra cash. They are more than happy to pick up those tired of waiting for the next available normal taxi, if one only understands to ask.
      The number of Helsinki’s "real" taxis remains unchanged at 1,400.
      New taxi licences have not been granted since the beginning of the year. The reason given is the declining use of taxis. For all that, there are not enough of them to go round on weekend nights.
     
For the unlicensed taxis, finding rides does not seem to be a problem, as the cars have their own customer bases.
      Teemu Oksanen often resorts to using an unlicensed minicab at the end of an evening out.
      “It is easier, cheaper, and more fun”, he says while requesting for a ride outside the nightclub Motellet in Helsinki’s Punavuori district.
     
Two young women approach a young man, who leans against a shiny BMW in the Central Railway Station car park.
      “Will you take us to Vantaa?” they ask.
      “Can you take us to Pihlajamäki?” asks in turn a young man of a twenty-year-old standing next to his Volkswagen.
      A short conversation follows dealing with the length of the ride and the price offered.
      “Yeah, I can take you there.”
     
At the railway station, which has at least two well-trafficked taxi ranks with healthy queues in the early hours, there are constantly a few private cars on the lookout.
      The drivers stand nonchalantly by their vehicles waiting for people to come and ask for a ride.
      None of them admit to offering unlicensed cab services, however.
      ”I am not a taxi. I am just waiting for a mate, who is in a bar”, an Iraqi man says.
      Gentlemen from Kosovo, Finland, and Turkey give the same answer.
     
All the same, I manage to get a ride and the driver is willing to accept a monetary compensation. After all, petrol is not free. Naturally haggling is part of the process.
      Many customers are happy to pay some extra for an unlicensed cab, simply for the privilege of not having to queue for a licensed one.
      In Punavuori one sees the same Fords, Nissans, Opels, and Renaults drive back and forth over and over again.
      According to a rough estimate, there are already dozens of unlicensed taxis operating on the streets of the Finnish capital.
     
According to restaurant manager Mari Ritasmäki of the Apollo nightclub, the unlicensed cabbies have already introduced safety measures against cheating customers.
      “When a friend of mine took an unlicensed cab, the driver said that his buddy would come along. Apparently some previous customers had run away without paying. So. they are starting to have some minor issues with their business activity.”
     
Getting a ride from an unlicensed taxi is not illegal, and the police are not really interested in people offering such services, either.
      ”In this city we have more pressing traffic monitoring issues”, summarises Inspector Dennis Pasterstein from the Helsinki Police Department.
      The attitude adopted by the authorities becomes evident also at the Central Railway Station.
      A patrol car driving by pays no attention to the drivers standing at the parking lot conducting their business.
     
With unlicensed taxis there is a attendant risk of getting robbed, but such crimes are not common.
      The police are notified of only a couple of such incidents per year. Typically a person’s bank account has been emptied at an ATM.
      Not all such crimes are necessarily reported to the authorities.
      “People may suffer from a moral hangover after having used an unlicensed taxi”, reckons Det. Chief Insp. Kari Tolvanen.
      In many cases the hangover the next day is also a very real one. Unlicensed cabs and a heavy night out go together like peaches and cream.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 23.8.2010


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Increase in robberies involving unlicensed minicabs (1.6.2004)

See also:
  Granting of further taxi licences in Helsinki halted (21.11.2008)

SAMI TAKALA / Helsingin Sanomat
sami.takala@hs.fi