Without a debate, the Federal Cabinet launched an amendment to the law for modern passenger transport law on Wednesday. The federal government wants to create a legal basis for new digital mobility offers and business models and to remove app-based services such as Uber and Free Now from the legal gray area. It is also intended to enable “needs-based brokering of driving services”, “which can be offered to several people with different destinations independently of route specifications through intelligent bundling”.

The federal government differentiates with the Berlkönig test “> in the draft law for” shared use “(ride pooling), and the” bundled transport on demand “outside the public with providers such as CleverShuttle or Moia. The Federal Ministry of Transport originally wanted to allow collective trips only to these new providers After protests from the taxi industry, taxi drivers are now also to be allowed to rent out individual seats along a tariff corridor with minimum and maximum prices. They could therefore offer ride pooling via app and benefit from their VAT privileges.

Obligation to return Transport service providers such as Uber and Free Now should, as before, in principle, after every trip to the Be have to return. However, the licensing authorities of the federal states and municipalities are given the opportunity to determine further suitable parking locations in municipalities with large areas of land and long distances. A minimum distance of 15 km between headquarters and other locations is planned for this. Taxis are still the only ones allowed to spontaneously pick up customers in the “Winkmarkt”.

The government wants to give the municipalities and approval authorities further control options. For example, you could set a “pooling rate”. All registered entrepreneurs and intermediaries would also have to provide extensive mobility data in the future.

The draft is now going to the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. The Federal Association of Taxi and Rental Cars $ (LB 3015522: is still not satisfied with it. According to him, it would be the task of politics to strengthen the taxi as part of local public transport. The draft law leave “the central problems of tomorrow’s mobility unsolved.” This will not succeed in mastering the undersupply in rural areas or the uncontrolled growth in large cities. Associations of the digital economy complained that new mobility services continue to be structurally disadvantaged compared to municipal providers and the taxi industry that would be detrimental to the environment and consumers. So there will be nothing with the mobility transition.

(anw)