France to set flat-rate for Paris airport taxis
The most-visited country in the world is close to setting a flat-rate price for taxi rides from Paris, its most-visited city, to the capital’s two main airports. A special express lane for taxis could also be coming to motorways, the French media is reporting.
French unions are close to sealing a deal that would see France enact flat rate-pricing in 2015 for the hundreds of thousands of trips taxis make to Paris’s two primary airports each year.
According to RTL radio, a trip from the northern half of Paris to Orly would cost €35, while it would be €50 to Charles de Gaulle.
For trips that leave from the southern half the capital it would be €55 to Charles de Gaulle and €30 to Orly.
As negotiations are still underway, the final prices could still fluctuate by a few euros and the final amount will be higher in case where the taxi is ordered ahead of time.
There's no date yet for when the new pricing scheme could be introduced, but officials are aiming for 2015.
In return for agreeing to the caps, which could mean a better deal for clients heading to the airport during traffic-locked mornings or evenings, unions representing taxi drivers have imposed one major condition.
They are demanding a lane reserved for them on the motorway which would allow them to zip past the notorious traffic that clogs the capital’s roadways, especially at peak hours.
It looks the unions will get at least part of what they want. Authorities have already started marking off such a lane on the A1 motorway, but no project is on the calendar yet for an express ‘voie’ on the A6 toward Orly.
The motivation behind the flat-rate pricing to protect the portion of Paris’s 30 million tourists each year who come into town in a cab. But also the flat-rate pricing was part of the agreement that ended France’s taxi rebellion earlier this year.
The set prices were included in a deal that was intended to make taxis more competitive against private car-hire services that include ride-sharing service Uber, which already offer capped pricing for airport runs.
France suffered several episodes of traffic chaos earlier this year when cabbies who’d spent hundreds of thousands of euros to meet government requirements unleashed called wild cat strikes intended to signal their outrage over the relatively minor restrictions applied to private hire operators.
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French unions are close to sealing a deal that would see France enact flat rate-pricing in 2015 for the hundreds of thousands of trips taxis make to Paris’s two primary airports each year.
According to RTL radio, a trip from the northern half of Paris to Orly would cost €35, while it would be €50 to Charles de Gaulle.
For trips that leave from the southern half the capital it would be €55 to Charles de Gaulle and €30 to Orly.
As negotiations are still underway, the final prices could still fluctuate by a few euros and the final amount will be higher in case where the taxi is ordered ahead of time.
There's no date yet for when the new pricing scheme could be introduced, but officials are aiming for 2015.
In return for agreeing to the caps, which could mean a better deal for clients heading to the airport during traffic-locked mornings or evenings, unions representing taxi drivers have imposed one major condition.
They are demanding a lane reserved for them on the motorway which would allow them to zip past the notorious traffic that clogs the capital’s roadways, especially at peak hours.
It looks the unions will get at least part of what they want. Authorities have already started marking off such a lane on the A1 motorway, but no project is on the calendar yet for an express ‘voie’ on the A6 toward Orly.
The motivation behind the flat-rate pricing to protect the portion of Paris’s 30 million tourists each year who come into town in a cab. But also the flat-rate pricing was part of the agreement that ended France’s taxi rebellion earlier this year.
The set prices were included in a deal that was intended to make taxis more competitive against private car-hire services that include ride-sharing service Uber, which already offer capped pricing for airport runs.
France suffered several episodes of traffic chaos earlier this year when cabbies who’d spent hundreds of thousands of euros to meet government requirements unleashed called wild cat strikes intended to signal their outrage over the relatively minor restrictions applied to private hire operators.
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