A closer look at the ride-hailing landscape of the Western and Central Europe

A closer look at the ride-hailing landscape of the Western and Central Europe The ride-hailing industry has come a long way. Only in the span of 10 years, we witnessed its massive growth and more importantly rapid adoption by the customers.

Uber and Lyft’s success in the US sowed the seeds for an industry which is now expected to reach the market size of $218 billion by the year 2025.

Ride-hailing stats of Central and Western Europe If we look at the ride-hailing stats of this region then according to Statista, the overall revenue of the taxi and the ride-hailing segment is estimated to reach US$ 17,098m by the year 2020. The revenue is also expected to show an annual growth rate of 14% (CAGR 2020-2024) which will result in the projected market volume of approx. US$28,848 by the year 2024.

User penetration is also expected to increase from 19.1% in 2020 to 19.4% in 2024. If we talk about the average revenue per user (ARPU) then it is estimated to amount to US$270.72.

Uber’s struggles in Central and Western Europe Uber has gained immense success in the US to the point that it’s almost omnipresent there. However, its story in Europe is quite different. Uber has failed to gain popularity and traction in many cities of the continent. Regulators of various European countries have proved to be a roadblock for Uber as their services have been banned in Hungary.

Some of the Uber’s services have also been banned in cities of France, Germany, and Netherlands.

UberPop, which is the cheapest Uber service after UberPool has been the centre of controversies in Europe as it enables non-licensed drivers to drive a taxi and pick up passengers in their own cars. Courts of Germany and France have already banned this service in their respective countries.

Top ride-hailing players in central and western europe  Gett  Bolt  Hailo  Taxilo  Bike Taxi

Ola enters london market The ride-hailing company based in India, Ola had started its operations in Cardiff in 2018 and later on expanded its services in various other parts of the UK. Ola always had its eye on Uber which has appealed against the judgement that has suspended its license in London after recurring safety failures.

Ola says that they already have three million customers across the UK and their next goal is to become number one in London in a span of one year. However, it won’t be a cakewalk for Ola to dominate the London market as there are several competitors in the race.

What’s the current state of the market?

Ola was already operational in major parts of the UK which included cities like bristol, bath, birmingham, exeter, cardiff, liverpool, and reading. Currently, there are more than a dozen app-based taxi booking companies operational in the UK. This tells a lot about the growing ride-hailing market in the country. Even the number suggests so.

As per statista, the ride-hailing market in the uk is estimated to reach us$6,885m in 2020. This revenue is estimated to exhibit an annual growth rate of 14.5% (CAGR 2020-2024) which would result in a market volume of us$11,841m by the year 2024.

As mentioned earlier, uber has appealed against the suspension of its license. It’s important to understand that even after all the struggles that uber had in the region, they still have the most number of registered drivers in london as compared to any of their rivals.

Uber shows its might with more than 45,000 drivers in the capital of the uk as compared to the 35,000 drivers of bolt. Whereas, ola has around 25,000 drivers in london.

Ride-hailing in Germany The ride-hailing companies have introduced automation and digitization in the taxi segment of the country. Ride-hailing services has becomes an inevitable part of many living in cities like Hamburg, Berlin, and Munich. Over the past year, more than a million users have used ridehailing services in Germany. By the year 2023, this number could rise to 7.8 million.

The introduction of ride-hailing services by companies like Uber and FreeNow has received mixed reactions from the Germans. On the one hand, it has generated new mobility options for the citizens. And on the other hand, it has faced several societal and political backlash. Increase in pollution is one of the reasons for the backlash. Secondly, ride-hailing companies are being strongly opposed by local taxi drivers associations and companies.

Passenger Transportation Act Things in Germany looks quite unclear and confusing. It’s because the ministry of transportation has failed to revise the obsolete Passenger Transportation Act. If the act is revised then the e-hailing apps would be included in the law to form the statutory framework.

The amendments suggested to the Passenger Transportation Act implies that the government is getting closer to acknowledge the roadblocks that the mobility sector faces in the country.

However, it’s still far from devising a plan to combat those challenges.

Many other ideas that can help in moving towards the right direction are hardly ever addressed. For example, giving incentives to the companies which replace their diesel or gaspowered vehicles with a fleet of EVs or other eco-friendly alternatives.

How can Germany resolve its mobility sector issues?

Germany needs to come up with a plan that can successfully unite various agents of the mobility sector. The best-case scenario would be when everyone would end up earning profits with increased collaboration rather than just cannibalizing each other.

To achieve climate targets, the government must incentivize evs and carpool. This would help in reducing pollution caused by ride-hailing companies. The government must also factor in the needs of citizens and businesses while taking restrictive measures. They shouldn’t favour one side to the other.

They must revise the old laws as soon as possible if they want to offer their citizens a customer-friendly and innovative mobility alternative.

Conclusion The ride-hailing industry in Central and Western Europe is booming sparring some roadblocks caused by the regulators and local taxi companies. In this article, we tried to describe the entire ride-hailing scenario by discussing various aspects. The first was Uber’s struggles in this region.

We also had a closer look at the major ride-hailing players in Central and Western Europe. After that, we saw how Ola entered the already very competitive London market. At last, we discussed the ride-hailing scenario in Germany which included the debate over the Passenger Transportation Act.

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