Bolt taxi drivers in Ida-Viru County go out on strike
Bolt taxi drivers in Ida-Viru County have this week gone out on strike, in protest over the low fares they are able to charge via the platform.
While Ida-Viru County drivers had previously been able to set their own tariffs, within a certain range, since the end of last year fares have been fixed at among the lowest rates nationwide, they say.
"We had good tariffs, but they reduced the tariffs and we don't have a salary," said one driver, Valeri Piht.
Another, Andres Veski, put the drop at as much as half compared with the previous rates. According to Veski, who said he has been a service provider via the Bolt platform for five years, the trouble began when the company rolled out new software last autumn.
The strike went ahead without apparent fanfare, and it was only when people on social media groups in the towns of Jõhvi and Kohtla-Järve started complaining about the poor availability of Bolt taxis that it became clearer what had happened.
Piht said that although they were seemingly at work, ride requests got rejected. "There were 30–40 of us who were not accepting orders," Piht said, adding that he had done so more than a hundred times so far. Other drivers ERR spoke to said the same.
Bolt however has said that the drivers' actions in Ida-Viru County have not affected the service's functioning in the region.
The company is developing a function which would allow drivers to better set a suitable price range for themselves, Oscar Rõõm, head of Bolt's ride-hailing service, said. "Uptake of the previous function was very low, so the product team is working on developing a new system," Rõõm said.
Drivers have not grasped that higher prices also mean fewer customers, Rõõm added. "Our experience shows that hiking the price of the service can paradoxically often mean lower earnings for drivers, as the more price-sensitive customers then do not take as many rides. So the whole process is a constant balancing act between supply and demand," Rõõm explained.
Veski rejected this, saying a taxi service is not a universal service accessible to everyone.
A taxi doesn't have to be an everyday thing that everyone just hops into. Schoolboys and bums – people like that don't need to use taxis," he said.
Formerly Taxify and founded by the Villig brothers, Bolt has been operating in the ride-hailing business in Estonia since 2013, expanding to dozens of countries worldwide and into the car rental, e-scooter hire and couriering sectors as well.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
