Date
1 February 2021

Tag

Active

Country
Sweden Sweden
Geographical scope
National
Type
  • Type

    Regulation of passenger transport

    Legal

Description

In June 2018, a new category of taxis was approved by the Swedish parliment, which is exempt from the taximeter requirement. These taxis must be affiliated with a dispatch centre, which will register data on each ride and organise booking, fare, payment and the route, instead of a taximeter. The amendments to the taxi regulation were expected to be implemented in September 2020 and January 2021, but the implementation was postponed to 1 June 2021.

In Sweden, all passenger transportation is classified as a taxi service, without an independent private-hire vehicle industry (such as limousine transport).

Uber entered Sweden in September 2014, providing services including Uber X, Uber Black and Uber Pop. The launch of these Uber services has caused concerns among lawmakers and social partners in Sweden. Uber Pop was suspended in Sweden in May 2016, after almost 30 drivers were sentenced for providing passenger transportation without taxi licences or taximeters. Although Uber X and Uber Black could continue to operate in Gothenburg, Malmö and Stockholm, Uber drivers must now register the details of each ride in the taximeter.

In 2016, a report from the Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation (Näringsdepartementet) ‘Taxi and Car-Pooling – Today, Tomorrow and the Day After Tomorrow’ (SOU 2016:86), concluded that it was necessary to distinguish between taxi services and car-pooling. The Swedish parliament approved a new category of taxis in June 2018, exempt from the taximeter requirement. These taxis must be affiliated with a dispatch centre, which will register data on each ride and organise booking, fare, payment and the route, instead of a taximeter. The amendments to the taxi regulation were expected to be implemented in September 2020 and January 2021 but the implementation was postponed to 1 June 2021.

Although Uber in Sweden initially acted as a mere facilitator for independent drivers, it has extended its services. Uber drivers who do not own a car registered for passenger transportation can become ‘fleet partners’, meaning that they can use a car owned by someone else (that is, a ‘fleet owner’, as termed by Uber) to pick up and drive passengers through Uber. In Sweden, Uber also gives drivers the opportunity to lease or buy a car through the company.


Additional metadata

Keywords
platform characteristics and business model
Actors
Government
Sector
Transportation and storage

Sources

Citation

Eurofound (2021), Uber and taxi regulations in Sweden (Initiative), Record number 2883, Platform Economy Database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/platformeconomydb/uber-and-taxi-regulations-in-sweden-103354.