Impact of Technological Changes and Taxi Market Regulation on the Taxi Vehicle Fleets—The Case Study of Slovakia

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the recent development of taxi services in Slovakia on two levels. The first is the area of technological change, which includes the use of digital platforms for the closing of the contract between the passenger and the taxi operator. The second level of perspective is the legislative change. Commonly used taxi digital platforms (applications) have started to require a taxi concession from self-employed drivers, and many other requirements. We will also analyze the issue of value-added tax. This article processes quantitative data on the number of valid taxi concessions. The data were obtained from the unified information system in road transport and supplemented with other statistical inputs. The article describes the distribution of more than 6819 issued concessions in individual regions and analyzes 12,477 taxi vehicles registered in these licenses for operating a taxi service. This article also includes the numbers of performed technical and emission inspections of taxi vehicles. With these data, it is possible to prove a sharp increase in interest in the concession due to the introduction of digital applications. A significant change in business conditions in this area can lead to an increase in the number of businesses by 70% in larger cities, while the issue of sustainability is questionable. In the last part, the article also deals with the issue of electromobility, and environmental aspects connected with taxi legislation changes.