Estonia, Tourism, Transport

The Basic category comprises of cars that are smaller or older than the vehicles the service is usually provided with.

"Many people do not care much what the car looks like or what the material of the seats is. Meanwhile, a price sensitive customer may consider it to be an important aspect whether they pay 6 euros or 4.95 euros for a ride from the Oismae district to Central Tallinn," chief executive of Taxify Estonia, Aleksei Kolesnikov said in a press release.

Kolesnikov noted that drivers' earnings in the new category should roughly equal those in the existing ones. Even though the fee per drive is lower, demand is expected to increase.

A vehicle in the Basic category has to have four doors and it needs to be able to accommodate at least three passengers in addition to the driver. The year of production in the Taxify category has to be at least 2005, the Basic group, however, admits cars produced starting from 2000.

Starting fee for vehicles in the Basic category is 99 cents, the price per kilometer 35 cents, increasing to 55 cents after 10 kilometers. The waiting time charge is 10 cents per minute and the minimum cost of a ride is 2 euros. Over all, rides in the new category should be lower by 10 to 20 percent compared to the Taxify category, the company announced.

The Russian on-demand transportation service provider Yandex Taxi, which has been operating in Estonia since May 2018, has also highlighted its low price as one of the main competitive advantages. The company provides a starting fee of 2 euros, which includes a 1-kilometer ride and 2 minutes of waiting time. Subsequent kilometers traveled cost 30 cents each with a waiting time charge of 10 cents per minute.