Free Now going to charge users a €1 'technology fee' per trip

coylemj

Just got an e-mail with an update to their Ts & Cs, it includes the following...

• A technology fee of €1 will apply to all taxi trips booked and successfully completed via the FREE NOW app.

Won't be long now before they copy parkingtag and easytrip and start screwing us with a monthly 'admin' fee. At which point, I'm out.

bk

Great opportunity for Uber, Bolt and Lynk to grab market share.

lil5

1 Euro/trip. Having a laugh. What a joke. Wonder if it's an Ireland‐only rip-off charge.

Lifelike

How is this legal? I thought that maximum taxi fares were set by the NTA and that the prescribed charge for pre-booking or hailing via an app was €2 and as far as I’m aware they already charge that

ShamanRing

Delete your app and account now, and move to uber. If enough do it, they might drop the charge.

Padre_Pio

Technology Fee is a joke.

Asking users to pay for features before they're implemented.

TallGlass2

One thought that comes to mind, why 1 € ? Plus they charge the driver 15%, the thing with these apps is the lads running them would want to becarful how they thread, people do not want to be shafted getting from A - B and generally want the lowest fair, when people start seeing 1€ fees on top of a 2€ booking fee along with the actual taxi fair, its going to be a cause of Freenow = Expensive = last resort.

Also would the NTA not come out with an app, why don't the drivers push them on this? I mean all I care about is getting a taxi, I couldn't careless if the app is fancy, once it works and is functional and gets me a cab... Drivers get the benifit of no surcharge and the public do not get shafted.

the boss of me

Many people tell me that the only reason they use FN is because they don't carry cash and drivers don't take card payment. Well from Sept 1 all drivers will be required by the NTA to provide card payment. So use your heads and if possible avoid using FN as much as possible. Flag down a taxi on the street or walk to the nearest taxi rank. It'll save you €3 per journey and will likely be quicker.

FlubberJones

Yep, I'd seen this, and FN is history as far as I'm concerned

podgeandrodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119355330#Comment_119355330

NTA came out and said the same max fare applies, but operators are free to charge anything they like for using their platforms. Seems like a bit of a cop out letting people add admin or tech fees to a statutory fare...

But as others have pointed out, if anyone has sense, they will cease use of Free Now, Now (haha), if only for the principle of the matter.

today would be a great day to uninstall the app if you have it on your phone - i'd say they are monitoring it.

devnull

Well it's not free now is it?

Bad jokes aside, it's been going downhill ever since Halo merged into MyTaxi, so it's not a big surprise.

ironictoaster

The app is effectively redundant anyways if are not doing a longish journey. I was told to get out of a taxi last Friday after I changed the destination from a shorter destination via the app. Are drivers penalised for cancelling fares?

€1 tech fee, €2 admin fee, €5 fee if you cancel, yet zero penalty if the driver cancels or ghosts you.

To claim this is to help add other mobility options on to their service is laughable. With any luck this fee will drive people towards other mobility options - I.e walk, or use a cheaper competitor.

Cop out by the NTA too. They clearly don’t have much clout or comeback if companies can easily get around the set fares.