In his challenging keynote-speech, kicking off this year’s international TAXIintell Update 2015 taxi & FHV conference on Thursday, April 23, industry specialist Jeremy Butler painted an interesting picture of the challenging environment the taxi and FHV industry is now operating in. To face the challenge, cooperation and the will to work together are needed. And on that score there’s good news: “just before I came here, I hosted a breakfast with a table full of industry representatives who would have happily stabbed each other in the back a year ago. Now they were sitting down to talk business.” (You’ll find his speech here tomorrow)

Not only Butler’s speech was full of such insights, many speakers provided the 80 attendees –themselves specialists from the operational side, from regulators, suppliers, research bodies, associations and the media from al over the globe- with worthwhile background info. Chairs James Cooper (Taxi Research Network – policy), Peter Schenkman (Keeping it Wheel – technology) and Niels van Roij (Independent Automotive Designer) guided the session specialists smoothly through 17 separate presentations. TIU programme 2015 web

Noortje Smit, Programme Manager of Amsterdam’s Taxi Team had everyone talking about TTO’s at the end of the day, after she had welcomed the participants to her city and had given a quick outline of the success of the TTO-approach. Noortje Smit

Pieter van de Glind (Share.nl) sketched the different approaches within the sharing economy, and paid particular attention to sharing mobility and what we can expect in that area. Pieter van de Glind

Talking about cooperation, Oleg Kamberski (IRU) mentioned the new approach from his organisation and the first successes of the Global Taxi Network GTN. Founding partners eCab (Niels Kaae) and Taxi.eu (Hermann Waldner, Zehra Bozanoglu and Milan Stankovic) talked about. progress made in different areas and particular cities). Both sessions ran out of time due to the spirited discussions afterwards. Oleg Kamberski  Niels Kaae   Hermann Waldner  Milan Stankovic

After lunch it was time to move to the other side of the pond, with Matt Daus (IATR) providing an excellent video-overview of the situation the taxi & FHV industry and the TNC’s are in over there. Tarek Mallah (Dial7/Karhoo) filled in the details for New York, where Uber has taken over the FHV market. This information in itself easily fueled the allotted discussion time. The networking part of the programme continued on Amsterdam’s canals and during a great beer tasting.

Networking and discussions didn’t ease off during Friday, April 24, the second day of the conference. Unfortunately, second keynote speaker Mark James was unable to join the conference at the last moment.

Mikael Hedlöf (CEO Samport) indicated a few different ways payment systems might develop and suggested being able to process a number of different forms of payment in the taxi. Leon van Lier (CEO Euphoria) made the case both for the taxi meter and for the app (plus additional equipment). How the battle will end? The audience was divided.  Peter Schenkman  Mikael Hedlöf  Leon van Lier

Marcel Bobeldijk (EDF) strongly underlined the need for inclusive thinking in providing the taxi service and in carrying it out in vehicles adapted to the needs of people with a mobility handicap. Arjan Schenk (Nissan) and Taylan Torin (Karsan) put the environmental question squarely in the headlights, somewhat underplaying the need for accessible transportation, which led to some interesting discussions.  Niels van Roij  Marcel Bobeldijk  Arjan Schenk  Taylan Torin

In a special presentation George Laszlo (TLRC) made the link between music and 20 years of taxi history. In next year’s TAXIintell Update he may do the same for taxis and the movies. That conference will be held in March or April 2016 in Amsterdam or….?  George Laszlo

Here are most presentations given at TAXIintell Update 2015. Others will be added as and when we receive them.

TAXIintell Update 2015 was organized by Challans & Faber Business Communications, Brussels and sponsored by Karsan, Taxi.eu, Ride Integrity, IRU Taxi Group, IATR, eCab, TCA Taxi, Karhoo and Taxi Butler.

Mediasponsors: www.taxiintelligence.com, Taxi Times.