“In Amsterdam there are about twenty incidents a day that have something to do with a taxi,” says researcher Henk Verwerda of Buro Beke. That is a of the conclusions in the report ‘Taxi! Malicious activities and (subversive) crime in the Amsterdam taxi industry’ that was presented this week. According to the survey, 53 percent of taxi drivers in the city have experienced a criminal offense in the past three years.
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After extensive research, it emerged that the Amsterdam taxi industry is extremely vulnerable to subversive crime. The parties involved are sounding the alarm, ‘it is code red in the Amsterdam taxi industry’, is the conclusion of the report.
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There are more than 4800 taxi drivers in Amsterdam. According to the report, there are just too many. Verwerda: “We soon found out that there are an awful lot of taxis driving around, far too many actually. It is a market that is actually more than saturated.”
And because of that large number of taxis, crime could easily look around the corner. Rob Nap, a taxi driver in the city for 30 years, can imagine something like that. “There must be a few things going on. I also see those guys in those Hyundai’s driving around with a balloon and then happily continue on.” uber. I can imagine that there will be criminal cases and accidents.”
With the report, the Tax Authorities, the Public Prosecution Service, the Municipality of Amsterdam and the police would like to join forces to ensure that the taxi industry in the city becomes more reliable. That is why the municipality will introduce a new taxi system from next year. What that will look like is still unclear.
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