Is Free Now an Essential Service?

[Rat Catcher]

To be fair, my takings are down year on year for the second year in a row so one can understand why Free Now is seeking to stimulate demand.

The suggestion that the planned discounts will equate to a 19% increase in demand isn't an easy one to assess. Obviously some proportion of that will simply be moving existing demand from other ride-sharing platforms. If we take the full 19% at face value or base our analysis on the assumption that one works exclusively for Free Now the break even fare works out at €18.xx - 5 fares @ €18 = €90, 6 fares @ €15 = €90 - for drivers. For Free Now the break even fare is €8.xx - 5 fares @ €9 = €14.25 (€7.50 Technology Fee + €6.75 commission), 6 fares @ €6 = €14.40 (€9.00 Technology Fee + €5.40 commission).

Hence, it's clear that the benefit to the firm far outweighs any benefit to drivers.

The rest of the nonsense posted by BS is just that, nonsense... or BS, if you prefer! Are they suggesting that they employ incompetent oafs in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is, of course, always worth remembering that they vowed never to use PHVs in London... Twice! Their corporate philosophy is clearly based on the belief that they can fool some of the people all of the time.

The only interesting statistic is that 75% of drivers have no interest in converting to EVs. I would have thought that figure would be closer to 60%.

Obviously, taxis are relatively expensive, particularly in rural areas where clients are essentially charged Temple Bar rates to get home from the bar or down to the station. We can trace that regime back to entry liberalisation itself. Prior to that we had a significant hackney market which provided a cheaper option to clients who didn't need to use bus lanes and weren't bothered by the year in which their "taxi" was first registered. Maybe we need to return to something along those lines, perhaps with taxi licences restricted to EVs less than 3 years old and hackney plates available to all other participants in respect of any car that passes it's NCTS inspection?

[mercenary for hire]

I'm not so sure taxis are as expensive as we think.Ireland is expensive.I think we're close enough on price to other big cities and cheaper in cities that have surge pricing.The fact that Freenow add a €1.50 tech fee to every fare isn't helping keep the cost down.

If they're quieter than before it's because they have more drivers and passengers using their competitors.

They really don't have any advantage over their competitors anymore.

[Rat Catcher]

Free Now operates surge pricing. In fact a rock star recently reported being charged c.€40 for "Premium Services" up above in Dublin. Fares probably do compare favourably to big cities in other jurisdictions (not Belfast where licensed taxis are very cheap and there's no ride-sharing platforms) but many of those have cheaper options. For example, in London, you can hire a clapped out Prius from Free Now for a fraction of the fare a Black Cab would charge, even without bringing you "round the 'ouses"!

[mercenary for hire]

They can push the prices down in the UK because there's no real barrier to entry which leaves them a bit more desperate than us and will work for less.We might get back there eventually but that's not our situation yet..

[Rat Catcher]

Their actions suggest that's where they'd like to be. Given the lobbying funds available to them and other ride-sharing platforms that mightn't be as far fetched as we might like to think. Personally, I don't really care. I'd be happy enough to drive a hack if there were no vehicle age limits at this stage of my life. Lower fares with higher expenses probably won't be for me but we're all free to do other stuff and leave it to the 1st generation immigrants, I guess.

[watty]

In November 2023, The Examiner reported on FN's 2022 annual report:

[FreeNow] reported a cash balance of more than €20.8m, up significantly from just over €14m in 2021, with net current assets also up by more than €4m to €14.9m following efforts to restrucuture its costs.

The directors said they expect the company to stay in a profit position while still investing into the current business models to increase their activity in Ireland.

At the end of December 2022, the firm’s shareholder funds stood at €15.8m which included accumulated profits of €4.31m, up from €2.09m a year earlier.

So FN Ireland is hardly poor but they probably have orders from Germany to increase sales/profits by a few percentage points every year. 

In Oct 2024, The Indo reported:

FreeNow chief executive Thomas Zimmermann said this week at a conference in Munich that the taxi app company has now reached breakeven, 13 years after it was launched.

“With a clear focus on the cab business, we have reached break-even,” he said.

“Achieving break-even is a first substantial step and proves the efficacy of our taxi-first strategy,” he added this week “We are dedicated to our vision, prioritising growth and sustained profitability in Europe.”

In Germany, which is one of FreeNow’s biggest markets, the company has seen strong growth in demand for taxis, especially after introducing fixed-price fares in Berlin and Munich.

So how do they 'increase growth and profitability' in an Irish market where they probably have all the taxi drivers they're gonna get (market share on one side of the equation) while they're getting beaten up by rival apps for passengers (market share on the other side of the equation)?

They can't make the taxis nicer or faster nor the drivers more polite or smell better since they can't really control us that much (Embassadors excepted).  So they have to target the other side - passengers - and they must have the historical data by now on what works and doesn't to get passengers to use FN daytime, weekend days, and night-time.  I guess slashing fares works for them.  Ultimately, it's the old Quality vs. Quantity argument.  Better to get a small slice of a lot of fares (and work us to the bone) versus a big slice of a small number of fares (quality)?

Now they just have to figure out how to get us to work more jobs per hour for less money!  Dare I say, "Arbeit macht frei"  (works set one free) as discounted fares become mainstream
 

[mercenary for hire]

I don't think they're getting that much less though.The €1.50 tech fee more than compesates Freenow for the 45 cent the lose in commission,while the driver loses 2.55 per job.

They waited all this time to reduce the free waiting form 5 to 2 minutes.Something I've been moaning about for at least 5 years.I went to three minutes a few years ago as I thought 5 was way too long.They've no right to tell us when we can start the meter.

[Octavia1]

I don't think they're getting that much less though.The €1.50 tech fee more than compesates Freenow for the 45 cent the lose in commission,while the driver loses 2.55 per job.

They waited all this time to reduce the free waiting form 5 to 2 minutes.Something I've been moaning about for at least 5 years.I went to three minutes a few years ago as I thought 5 was way too long.They've no right to tell us when we can start the meter.

Start the meter  wen yu arrive merc ....  tink it was Ken put up the nta  rules fews ago that said Meter on at arrival of pic up ....... I've bean doin it ever since on all apps ....

[watty]

I was thinking cheaper for the customer, not the accounting tricks they pull behind the scenes to screw us out of money.  They have all the drivers they're gonna get so they can mostly ignore us for the moment.

[markmiwurdz]

lads,for your self respect going forward,do not touch those new yellow pack jobs,it accelerates the race to the bottom to warp factor,the puc is the only thing that makes a lot of daytime jobs worth doing.

[Rat Catcher]

Hard to consider taking one below €20 estimate... but will they be labeled or will we just be told after pick up?

[markmiwurdz]

The puc covers the commission so without it you're pissing against the wind.

[Rat Catcher]

Probably more about maintaining margins, Watty. Takings are down year on year for the second year in a row for me... as are the tourism numbers. Add to that reduced market share due to charging the highest fares in the market and something has to give.

[Rat Catcher]

Someone sent me this on What's Application:


... presumably to make me feel better about my own takings being down...

[Octavia1]

Ther will be no American tourists this year ... I tink yis all realise that ...