At its today’s sitting, the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) passed with 86 votes in favour the Act that regulates the platform-based taxi service. The Act establishes providing the carriage of passengers service through an information society service, where both the ordering and the calculation of price take place via an IT platform, as a separate category of taxi service.

The Act on Amendments to the Public Transport Act, the Traffic Act and the State Fees Act (188 SE), initiated by 26 members of the Riigikogu, eliminates the requirement of passing a taxi driver training course, and every carrier will have to take care of the organisation of the trainings.

As a result of the amendments, a flexible and balanced taxi regulation which takes into account different interests, and which at the same time does not make any compromises regarding the rights of passengers, will be created in Estonia.

The provision of taxi service will be made flexible and it will be possible to provide the service also “through a platform” via an information society service. If a taxi is ordered and the price is calculated through an information society service, taximeter will not be mandatory upon the provision of such service. Also, the price limits established by the local government will not be applied, because the passenger will see the price of the ride already when ordering the taxi. In other cases, a taximeter will have to be used, for example if passengers are picked up from the street or the taxi stop, or if a taxi is ordered through a call centre.

The amendments made during the second reading concern the elimination of the requirement to pass a taxi driver training course, and the right of taxi drivers to provide services through an information society platform. The Act makes it possible to provide taxi services on the whole territory of Estonia, taking into account the requirements in force on the territory of each local government.

The Act enters into force on 1 November this year.

Riigikogu Press Service
Kati Varblane
Phone: +372 631 6353, +372 51 69 152
[email protected]
Questions: [email protected]