Price monitoring of taxi services
The statistic contains the renewed taxi price index by the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, a review of the distribution of realised prices as well as the price development of additional services for special groups. The statistic is updated monthly. Exceptional updating cycles have been marked separately. The information is produced by the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom.
On the index
The index is based on the realised price information reported to Traficom by taxi transport licence holders and dispatch centres. The date of the amendment to the Act on Transport Services in June 2018, at which time the maximum price regulation concerning taxi journeys was waived, was selected as the base number for the index.
The price index for the taxi services in all of Finland is calculated as a geometrical average based on regional comparable prices weighted with the population of the region. The price indices are given for continental Finland and by region.
Real development of the realised average prices of taxi journeys by region in continental Finland as an index
The statistics have been retrospectively corrected for December 2022.
Distribution of realised taxi journey prices
The graphs examine the distribution of prices within an individual month by journey length and area based on the data.
The boxplot graph presents the data in indicators that divide the graph into four sections of equal size: the minimum, the bottom quarter, the top quarter and the maximum. In the top quarter, for example, 75% of the observations are located below this value. In the graph, the outer edges of the box illustrate the top and bottom quarters. Typically, the box will include the median value of the observations, i.e. the middle point of the data, as additional information. The ends of the line, or whiskers, illustrate the maximum and minimum values in the data. The actual minimum and maximum values of the data can, however, differ from the end of the line, if the data contains extreme values. Extreme values are illustrated as dots, if necessary.
The data has been grouped by municipal population in the graph. In addition to this, the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa), Tampere, Turku and Oulu have been illustrated separately. These separate areas are not included in municipalities with more than 50,000 residents.
Price monitoring of additional services for special groups
Of additional services offered to special groups, three are under review: assistance, stretcher installation and assistance with stairs. The statistic is updated once a year and it is based on the annual monitoring of taxi operators.
Explanations:
The price index is used to monitor the development of realised prices of market-driven taxi services. Market-driven taxi services operate without state subsidies, i.e. they are so-called typical taxi services, in which the consumer orders a taxi to travel from point A to point B and pays for the service themselves.
In addition to market-driven taxi services, the taxi market includes taxi services reimbursed by the public sector. This has typically included travel expense reimbursements paid based on the Act on Disability Services and Assistance and the social welfare act (sosiaalihuoltolaki) (SOTE) or the Basic Education Act (628/1998). Journeys reimbursed by the Social Insurance Institution Kela are often referred to as ‘Kela journeys’ and journeys in accordance with the Act on Disability Services and Assistance and the social welfare act (sosiaalihuoltolaki) reimbursed by the municipality are referred to as ‘SOTE journeys’. The share of journeys reimbursed by the public sector varied between 40 and 45% in 2015–2020.
Real change, i.e. actual change in the price of taxi journeys, with the change caused by the increase in the value of money between the base date and the calculation date, i.e. inflation, deducted from the price of the taxi journey. The impact of inflation is observed in statistics by deflating the price changes with the consumer price index.
Nominal change illustrates the price in accordance with each point in time compared to the price of the base date.
In the statistic, order method refers to the way in which the taxi journey was ordered. App orders have been completed using apps provided by the operators. As indicated by their name, other order methods include other order methods, such as hailing a taxi at a taxi stand or calling a taxi by phone.
In the statistic, a comparison travel class has been created based on the length of the journey. As a rule, the comparison travel classification follows the drafting principle of the generally used example journey (10 km and 15 minutes). In order to allow for comprehensive examination, comparison classes for journeys of 2, 5, 15, 20 and 25 kilometres have been generated in addition to the length of the example journey.
Assistance means that the customer needs assistance with the journey from their departure location to the vehicle at the pick-up point or from the vehicle into the building at the destination and transport requires a car that meets the requirements for accessible vehicles in accordance with the regulation issued by Traficom on 14 May 2020 (Autojen ja niiden perävaunujen tekniset vaatimukset (technical requirements of cars and their trailers)).
Assistance with stairs is assisting the customer with stairs in the manner mentioned in the assistance section in a building by either pulling them manually or using a special CE-marked stair climber.
Stretcher installation means collecting and installing the stretcher needed for transporting the customer into the vehicle prior to the actual journey.