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Munich Taxler: "Now everything is dead again"

2020-12-01T23:01:05.475Z


Many companies that are forced into lockdown receive generous taxpayer support. However, an entire industry could come under the wheels, whose businesses have also collapsed, but which comes out empty-handed.


Many companies that are forced into lockdown receive generous taxpayer support.

However, an entire industry could come under the wheels, whose businesses have also collapsed, but which comes out empty-handed.

Munich

- The Federal Association of Taxi and Rental Cars has now drawn

attention to the existential situation of the industry

in a letter to Federal Minister of Economics

Peter Altmaier

.

12,000 out of 55,000 companies are threatened and 80,000 out of 250,000 jobs.

We spoke to

Jörg Wohlfahrt

, board member of

Taxi-München eG

.

Your federal association gave frightening numbers in its letter to Peter Altmaier.

A quarter of companies and jobs in the taxi industry are at risk.

How is it in Munich?

We have the same situation in Munich.

We have seen a 70 to 80 percent drop in sales since April.

In summer it was a little better at times.

But now everything is dead again. The colleagues who come to us are desperate.

Causes of the lousy are: No tourists, no business people, no private trips and the bars are closed.

The people should stay at home.

And they do.

You just have to walk through the pedestrian zone to see what's going on.

How threatening is the situation for the individual companies?

Endangering existence.

The profit margin in the industry is between five and ten percent of sales.

Sales have slumped to 20 to 30 percent compared to the previous year.

This means that there is a 70 percent shortfall.

This not only removes the ten percent that we had in profit.

Does that mean: The taxi companies lose money month after month.

The taxi companies make losses across the board.

You would be dependent on grants.

Is there no state aid for you?

No there are none.

We are not not - like others - forced into lockdown.

We could go.

But nobody is driving with us anymore because everything else is in lockdown.

You are even obliged to drive.

We have an operating obligation.

That means: We cannot simply stop for a few weeks.

But even if we could, that wouldn't help us.

Above all, there are fixed costs that have to be paid month after month.

The loan for the vehicle continues.

And with 500 to 600 euros a month, that's the largest item of fixed costs.

Variable costs, such as vehicle taxes, can be saved by deregistering a car.

Are taxis deregistered in Munich?

We have 231 multi-car companies.

Together they have around 1,760 taxis.

Around 80 percent of these have just been shut down.

The 930 sole proprietorships don't shut down, they just have their taxi to live on

Is that possible despite the operating obligation?

As a rule, we can have the district administration department exempt us from the obligation to operate for three months.

This is currently being handled very generously and in some cases even approved for a year.

But it is no way out of the fixed cost trap.

+

Jörg Wohlfahrt, Member of the Board of Taxi München eG

© fkn

Are there any cases of companies that have already given up?

I am not yet aware of any specific cases of bankruptcy.

Because there is currently the delayed insolvency notification.

So this wave won't reach us until the beginning of next year, when the regulation expires.

We ourselves also have an alarm signal: There are a lot of deferrals in the contribution payments for us as the switching center of the taxi cooperative.

But at some point you have to pay for this service.

If not, vehicles must be blocked for the placement, otherwise those who still pay will be disadvantaged.

But if the arranged trips fail, it's even worse for business.

The situation in the industry is therefore bleak.

Even more: it is critical, very critical.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2020-12-01

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