Lynk taxi app boss sees fare hikes on soaring premiums
Chief executive Noel Ebbs told the Irish Examiner that the industry’s “big worry” was that it faces a huge hike in insurance premiums over which it has no control.
In 2013, premiums for Dublin and Cork taxi drivers jumped from €600 to €800 for existing and highly experienced drivers to €1,000, and subsequently leapt to €1,500, Mr Ebbs said.
Insurance premiums for existing drivers can cost as much as €2,000, he said.
It is worse for new entrants, including professional drivers who have made no claims of three years, whose current insurance costs can be as high as €8,000.
Mr Ebbs said that “legitimate drivers” entering the industry can barely make a living.
Regulated by the National Transport Authority, Mr Ebbs said that fare prices which are being reviewed this year will have to take into account the huge surge in insurance costs.
“We would prefer to see — rather than hiking up fares again — to have some sort of control over the costs because it [insurance] is a compulsory purchase whether you are driving a taxi or a domestic car,” said Mr Ebbs.
“There is absolutely no monitoring of awards of premiums. We can’t see the premium profitability [in the insurance industry]. The insurance industry is closed to us. It is very difficult to establish what premium profits are.
“Certainly the costs will be passed on. The industry doesn’t want to pass the costs on. We want to control these costs. The problem at the moment is 50% of the industry is in the legitimate industry and 50% is not in the legitimate industry, the casual drivers.”
In its second year, Mr Ebbs owns and developed Lynk software to run the app, and is on course to generate sales of €12m this year, he said. It charges taxi companies a license fee, and does not bill drivers directly.
With 2,500 drivers in Dublin, it plans following “a soft Christmas launch” to expand into Cork, with two taxi firms, in the new year.
His separate app company, now called Riide, which he owns with nine other investors, is “on standby” to launch with 15,000 drivers in the UK, where he hopes to be the No. 2 in the market with adapted software to meet British regulations.
Following a trade show in Phoenix, Riide is going into US and Canada, with another 15,000 drivers. Here, Lynk’s rivals include the UK’s Hailo and US giant Uber.
