When somebody say the word 'taxi' you probably think about 'streettaxi' which you can call or take on the street. But this word means a lot more (at least in The Netherlands)...

All kinds of taxi's
Every year all taxi's in The Netherlands together make about 70 to 80 million (70.000.000 - 80.000.000) trips. You can understand that for such a small country (with only 16 million people) this is a lot. To give you an impression about the diversity of the term 'taxi', we will put all types of taxi here:
1. Normal taxi on the street (the most well known type of taxi)

• Street taxi - you can call them and/or find at taxistops, in the street or near railway stations.
• Discotaxi - this type is specialized in transporting people to/from disco's, bars etcetera.
• Airporttaxi - this is transport from/to airports in Holland (mainly Schiphol airport). Many companies uses fixed prices for this type. It is then possible that they put several customers in one taxibus to reduce the price, but it is also possible that the taxi goes directly to the airport.

2. Contract transport

• Business taxi - VIP, management, guests of companies. This is all Business taxi...
  This type of taxi is mostly done by taxidrivers who speak more than one language (most times they speak English and/or German, but some of them speak also French and/or other languages). In many cases the taxi is more luxe then standard, and even limo's are used for this type of taxi.
• WVG-transport - This is based on a Dutch law calles 'Wet Voorziening Gehandicapten'. This means that everybody with a handicap (whatever that is) and people over 65 years (which in many cases have more problems in transporting themselves) can use this type of transportation. This is mostly done with special taxibuses and the price is very low, because the Dutch Goverment pays a big part of the costs. In other words, people who can use this type of taxi can be transported for a reduced price.
• Hospital taxi - This type of taxi is used for people who can't use the normal public transport. This is paid by the insurance companies and needs an indication of the doctor/specialist.
• Railway taxi - This type of taxi is limited to transports from/to the nearest railway-station for a reduced fixed price. To keep the price low several customers are put together in one taxibus when possible.

3. Regional taxi (in Dutch: Regiotaxi)

This is a special type of taxi-transport. The taxi takes over the tasks of the public transportsector, because the public transport does not come everywhere in The Netherlands. For this type of transport there are special budgets available, so people can use the taxi for the price of the public transport. In other words, consumers can use the taxi for the price of a bus/train.

The laws for taxi

All those types of taxi must follow the rules and laws which are combined in the law with the Dutch name 'Wet Personenvervoer 2000'. In this law everything concerning the transport of people is defined, including all rules for the taxiworld.

In the years after it became clear that additional laws were needed, because the quality and/or service of the taxi became worse. At this time some of these additional laws are there and some are still being prepared/changed. And that is a good thing, because a taxi in The Netherlands is not cheap so the consumer should get the quality and service they pay for...