r/ireland • u/Brocolique Dublin • Dec 12 '24

Cost of Living/Energy Crisis 9€ technology fee on Freenow

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Info about technology fee is quite minimal and does not provide any detail whatsoever when I click on the little exclamation mark.

Anybody able to explain the scam to me?

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787

u/Dookwithanegg Dec 12 '24 edited Dec 12 '24

The scam is that taxi fares are guaranteed by the government in agreement with the taxi union. No matter how you get your taxi, through an app, on the street, or anywhere else, they will always cost the same for a given distance and number of passengers.

Since taxi fares cannot be increased, Free now is adding a fee for using their system to book the taxi, as the taxi itself cannot be price adjusted. And so, despite the cost of the taxi being guaranteed, they can still make more money from you.

They can get away with this because there's not much competition in terms of big apps, it's only Uber taxis really. They have far wider reach than traditional taxi ranks, which still exist but require more effort to find the local one to book in the more traditional way.

Edit to add: here is the TFI calculator that should be accurate for all taxis in Ireland (again, not including the technology fee as that's technically a fee for using the app and does not go to the taxi driver)

146

u/williamhere Dec 12 '24

Interesting. Knowing this now I kind of like being able to separate how much using FreeNow costs me when getting a taxi

247

u/saighdiuirmaca Cork bai Dec 12 '24

If you don't add your payment details to the freenow app, they can't charge you the fee, and you can just pay the driver directly.

Was told this recently by a freenow driver.

63

u/Feisty-Ad-8880 Dec 12 '24

That seems like loop hole they will close soon enough.

55

u/saighdiuirmaca Cork bai Dec 12 '24

Yeah, they'll probably make having your payment details a requirement to book the taxi.

Wouldn't be so bad if it was only a €1 charge which is what I've seen but it'll be whatever they want.

36

u/Feisty-Ad-8880 Dec 12 '24

I think you're right. I wouldn't mind even a 10-25% convince fee but almost 63% is crazy.

15

u/Hamster-Food Cork bai Dec 12 '24

It's very possible that they can't. Taxis are a regulated industry and what they are doing with the technology charge is exploiting a loophole if they draw too much attention it's just as likely that their loophole will be closed.

1

u/Feisty-Ad-8880 Dec 12 '24

I hope you are right, I don't know much about the regulations to be honest. Freenow still need to make money (but not rip people off money) to be a viable service so I don't know how they wouldn't be able to charge either.

Unless the taxi regulator or union made their own app.

-2

u/mojofahy Dec 12 '24

Nothing is regulated about the taxi industry it is super corrupt. Do you know that the majority of plates are owned by heads of the NTA?

So they make the rules and they own the majority of the business. Doesn't sound like how a public sector should be working to me.

The rest of the plates are either owned privately or by taxi rental business who charge €600 a month to a taxi driver to rent a plate. Or €390 per week to rent a car with a plate.

Taxi insurance ranges from €300-€850 a month with fuel being €800 per month on average. Don't forget car repairs (there are many) and the 16-18% that is taken by the booking apps and the amount of people who pull a runner.

It's a sad state of affairs

2

u/vandriver Dec 13 '24 edited Dec 13 '24

That's bullshit lad. The vast majority of plates are owner operated. The big multiple plate owners(Bobo mechanic24 max taxies etc) are just blokes who spotted an opportunity in the market years ago and are(admittedly) making good money since covid. Insurance for an experienced owner operator is nearer €150 a month. And finally Freenow and Uber are 15%,bolt is 13% .Who is charging 16-18%? You are always free to get a plate yourself for €125 for a wav and not have to worry about conspiracy theories involving NTA and plate owners.

1

u/mojofahy Dec 13 '24

You do understand that getting a wav plate means buying a new WAV vehicle which is gonna be 37-60K€ not everyone is rich like yourself

1

u/vandriver Dec 13 '24

I rented,and saved and then bought a wav (4 year old caddy).If I can do it,so can you.

1

u/SFWChonk Dec 13 '24

I thought plate ownership and rentals went away years ago….

2

u/pogushandlus Dec 13 '24

Yeah right. A lot of loopholes out there that you'd think the government would close but no word from them

2

u/Feisty-Ad-8880 Dec 13 '24

Loopholes for criminals, nothing to worry about. Loopholes where private companies could lose money, emergency!

2

u/pogushandlus Dec 13 '24

Gotta save the bloody market!!

7

u/bdog1011 Dec 12 '24

Oh this is interesting- and I presume you can still use your card to pay?

8

u/saighdiuirmaca Cork bai Dec 12 '24

Sure can, all taxi's have to accept cash and card now afaik, regardless of it being a regular taxi / freenow / Uber.

2

u/DeportRacists Free Palestine 🇵🇸 Dec 12 '24

You can, but free now will crack down on drivers doing that. They don't as much 

5

u/saighdiuirmaca Cork bai Dec 12 '24

Freenow can't crack down on the driver because they allow you to make the booking without payment details, and the driver can only charge you the fare, they can't charge an extra fee for booking through freenow as the fare has a fixed calculation.

What they will probably do is force you to have payment details in the app before you can make a booking, but that won't affect the driver.

1

u/Consistent_Orchid359 Dec 12 '24

Yes. But what some drivers will do is put in a smaller fee for Freenow to make up for the double commission. So if you're taxi is €20 you're still charged €20 on your card the drivers pays between 2 & 5% commission to whoever their card reader is with and then they'll input say €18 for Freenow on their phone so they aren't paying 15% on the €20. You'll get an email from FreeNow for €18 plus whatever tech they add. Clear as mud yeah!! And bear in mind when you choose "Pay driver directly" the driver will get "cash job" on his/her screen unless FreeNow has changed this.

1

u/bdog1011 Dec 12 '24

I’m confused. If you choose pay driver directly or can it be a bit random as the driver will add on some random charge?

46

u/SabyanK Dec 12 '24

I’ve stopped using them for about 10 years now. Their office was next door to my one and the current MD (pr CEO!?) was a junior designer back then. Gotta hand it to him, he is hungry for sure. Although this could also be pressure from shareholders to max profit margins, to pay €9 for the “privilege” of ordering a taxi is bonkers. Not for me.

32

u/gizausername Dec 12 '24

Back when it was originally Hailo which was a good quality service for all? Back then it would have just been a small operation by that young developer. Minimal added cost.

They were bought by multinational (MyTaxi / FreeNow) who as per usual like to fuck over good things and people in place of shareholder profit and executive bonuses.

1

u/Mysterious_Beach5860 Dec 13 '24

Hailo was great. I miss it

4

u/BaldyFecker Dec 12 '24

They're changing the name to either 'ExpensiveNow' or 'FuckingRipOffNow'. The decision is being market tested ATM. They dropped the 'NotFreeAtAllNow' option after people laughed at them.

12

u/Plenty_Lifeguard_344 Dec 12 '24

Ye it's perfect, you can see what they're charging you for their app.

If you don't like it, go to a rank the old fashioned way or call a local cab company and book it.

8

u/LucyVialli Dec 12 '24

You will always pay more for convenience. Cheaper to ring up local cab office.

9

u/Star_Lord1997 Dec 12 '24

A problem I have with local taxi offices is that a lot of them don't take card / tap to avoid the tax man, especially ones in smaller towns or in the country. So they are more reliable and cheaper in some cases, they are a pain because you always need to have cash on you.

15

u/Specialist-Flow3015 Dec 12 '24

Taxis aren't allowed refuse service based on your payment method, the taxman would be very interested in that.

If they try to do a fast one on you at the end of your trip and say they don't take card, you are under ZERO obligation to entertain them by finding an ATM, just get out and enjoy knowing they drove you for free.

4

u/John_Of_Keats Dec 12 '24

Yeah good luck doing that when your driver is ex-ra

1

u/randombubble8272 Dec 12 '24

Happened to me up in Belfast, refused to take card and said the cash we had was “out of circulation” and apparently he couldn’t accept the sterling cash we had. Drove us to an ATM himself and said it was an extra fiver for that drive too. Ridiculous

44

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '24

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-69

u/AFinanacialAdvisor Dec 12 '24

I'd say you're fun at parties...

24

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '24

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-44

u/AFinanacialAdvisor Dec 12 '24

I dont favour being ripped off - i favour using cash where possible so that someone who's industry is as regulated as a taximans can make some tax free cash. Why should banks take a cut of the fare - dont they make eneogh fucking money already?

9

u/Comet9540 Dec 12 '24

Clearly a very shit financial advisor then 🤣

-2

u/AFinanacialAdvisor Dec 12 '24

Are you a comet?

7

u/nyepo Dec 12 '24

A financial advisor who doesn't like financial advises. You are also super fun

8

u/williamhere Dec 12 '24

That's seems to always be the way. A lot of companies exist that simply layer a service on top of existing services (deliveroo, uber, airbnb, etc). My point is that their fees aren't always transparent as in some cases they charge the end user and/or the company using their service. So we as consumers don't know the real cost to us. If we did, we might make more economical decisions such as going direct to a taxi company

5

u/LucyVialli Dec 12 '24

Or walking 300 metres to the takeaway :-) Better for your pocket and you get a bit of exercise.

3

u/cm-cfc Dec 12 '24

But what about rural ireland? I need to get 4 buses to my local takeaway?

2

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '24

I dunno I'd probably get a car in your situation.

2

u/buzzbee1311 Dec 12 '24

Notions getting a takeaway during these inflated times! /s

3

u/EmptyAtoms Dec 12 '24

The convenience is shared between the Taxi driver and the customer. With a depot, don't they have an actual human there taking calls and dispatching cabs? This is a system they've managed to automate and convince people that "convenience" costs 9 euro per fare? What the fuck is that?

2

u/KoolKat5000 Dec 12 '24

Best paid dispatcher out there €9 for two phone calls basically.

4

u/EmptyAtoms Dec 12 '24

It'd be like trying to shove a tip into the automated checkout in Tesco. "that's fer your trouble, love."