The number of taxi licenses in Oslo increased by 51% after the taxi reform was introduced in November 2020.
“The government, together with the Progress Party (FRP), has ruined the everyday lives of thousands of Norwegian taxi drivers,” Center Party (SP) leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum told E24.
He believes that the Conservatives (H) and the FRP are so market-oriented that they forget about the people.
“The government knew that this reform would create chaos in the big cities and make the offer in the districts worse,” Vedum stated.
Price wars
According to researcher Jørgen Aarhaug at TØI, the increased number of taxi licenses has also led to price wars with artificially low prices.
State Secretary John-Ragnar Aarset (H) in the Ministry of Transport rejects the criticism.
“This is normal in almost all other areas of society. Only Vinmonopolet today is left with a pure monopoly,” he told the newspaper.
“The market didn’t work before”
Aarset was supported by Bård Hoksrud (FRP), who sits on the Norwegian parliament’s (Storting) transport committee. He believes the reform was necessary because the market did not work in the first place.
“Both the Consumer Council and the Norwegian Competition Authority were clear that the market did not work before. The reform was not necessarily aimed at the industry, but intended to provide good services to customers,” he said.
Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews
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Ah, populists again, “let’s reduce the number of taxi’s so people get less service for higher prices and the select few taxi drivers enjoy a better life, with no extra effort what-so-ever”. You sometimes wonder if it’s actually 2021.