Environmental issues mattered in taxi tendering

A new era started at Finland’s busiest taxi stand at the Helsinki Airport in the summer of 2018. Due to an amendment of the legislation on taxis, cars from other parts of the country and not just from Vantaa could join the line. Finavia decided to arrange a tendering for the service providers to use three of the taxi lanes. The fourth was left for the others to use.

Hansel’s experts Ilkka Sihvola and Kirsi Kunnas-Leinonen assisted Finavia in the planning and implementation of the tendering. Around a million taxi rides are taken from the airport each year, and it was a tendering process worth more than €100 million.

“The cooperation with Hansel went very well. The project was excellently controlled and the tendering was professionally arranged. We were given plenty of options and alternatives on the implementation of the project, and the tendering was a success,” says Jukka Isomäki, Director at Finavia.

A price ceiling and a fixed price for rides from the airport to downtown Helsinki were specified during the tendering process. One of the decisive factors, in addition to the maximum price charged from the customers, were additional points awarded for low-emission cars and electric cars.

“Helsinki Airport has been carbon neutral since the summer of 2017, and the goal is to make the rest of Finavia’s airports carbon neutral by the end of this year. We set the bar high in our environmental work, and all of the partners operating at our airports, such as taxi entrepreneurs, have a major role in the reduction of emissions and the achievement of the goal,” Jukka Isomäki explains.

Right after the change took effect, the new arrangement confused customers and gave rise to lively discussion in the media. The rest of the year proved, however, that the taxi operations are also fluent with the new model, and the number of rides taken from Helsinki Airport increased from the previous years.

“The model has worked as planned and we have achieved the goals set for the tendering. The taxi legislation reform may still cause some confusion among customers who do not use taxi services often, but people’s awareness is continuously increasing,” Jukka Isomäki says.