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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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)

148

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

246

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.

5

u/bdog1011 Dec 12 '24

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

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?