Working for a better taxi industry

Taxiunionen Sverige is an independent non-profit association. It is not a trade union. It grew out of the need for drivers to be able to speak with one voice on questions no one can solve alone.

I became engaged in the association after my years in the industry, and was then elected chairman. I did not found Taxiunionen — I was trusted to represent it.

The association is not the story. It is the platform that made the work possible to organise: gathering drivers, formulating shared questions and carrying them to those who make the decisions.

Part of the work is representing drivers in negotiations, in consultation processes and towards public authorities. It is rarely about single rulings and often about making sure the industry's everyday reality is on the table when rules and conditions are shaped.

Taxiunionen submitted consultation work on SOU 2026:3, on the implementation of the EU Platform Work Directive. The submission concerned the situation of platform workers, labour rights, algorithmic management of work, transparency, and how the Swedish labour market model can apply to app-based work as well.

The association also participated in the consultation process on SOU 2025:67 on taxi operations at Arlanda, working with questions of fair competition, consumer protection, unified pricing, queue systems and better conditions for those who drive.

In parallel, Taxiunionen has engaged in dialogue with Transportstyrelsen, the Swedish Transport Agency. Those conversations covered app-based taximeters, digital working-time records, price transparency and fair competition. Being able to hold a constructive conversation with public authorities became, over time, one of the most important parts of the work: it is there that industry knowledge can become evidence rather than anecdote.

With Skatteverket, the Swedish Tax Agency, the discussions concerned the role of platform companies, tax rules, digital reporting and the need for regulatory clarity — so that the person driving knows what applies, and no operator can compete through ambiguity.

Taxiunionen has also presented industry perspectives in contexts connected to Trafikutskottet, the parliamentary committee on transport, on working conditions, consumer protection, pricing and digital regulation. That means the perspective was presented — not that any decision can be attributed to the association.

Participation is not the same as influence. Submitting a consultation response or taking part in a conversation means the perspective is present — not that the decision goes your way. That distinction matters.

Taxiunionen has also worked for unity within the industry. When the platforms divided drivers, a common voice became harder to build, and at the same time more necessary.

Arlanda is where the industry's questions are most visible. Many operators meet in one place, and a traveller often forms an impression of the whole industry from a single journey.

In a debate article in Altinget, “Put an end to the taxi chaos at Arlanda”, I described how the airport could have a fairer and more modern taxi system — with clearer conditions for those who drive and more comprehensible information for those who travel.

In autumn 2024, TV4 Nyheterna reported from Taxiunionen's protest at Arlanda. There I described how long shifts and platform pricing affect drivers, and why fair competition is a precondition for the industry to work at all.

The work at Arlanda has also involved a long-term dialogue with Swedavia about taxi operations at the airport: information for travellers, fair competition between operators, the design of the queue systems, and driver facilities during long waits. That dialogue mattered because an airport is a shared place — no single operator can resolve its questions alone, and it is in the practical conversation that conditions are actually shaped.

Taking part in the media has never been a goal in itself. It became necessary when the issues were being described without the people who do the work.

Debate articles, replies, interviews and features became another way of contributing: explaining context, adding industry knowledge and making drivers' everyday reality intelligible to readers, listeners and decision-makers.

The work has therefore run through several channels at once: consultation responses, meetings, dialogue with authorities, debate articles, interviews and public speaking. No single one of them is enough. Lasting change rarely comes from one activity alone; it comes from slow, sustained work across many arenas at the same time.

Every publication is gathered in the media archive, with outlet, date and a link to the original.

Representing other people is not about speaking loudest. It is about listening closely enough to convey someone else's reality without distorting it.

I have sat in rooms where no one agreed with me, and learned that opposition is rarely the problem. The problem begins when no one is trying to understand why the other person thinks as they do.

Trust is not built on promises but on coming back. The same questions, the same position, also when no one is watching.

Responsibility means answering even when the answer is uncomfortable: that something takes time, that a question did not get through, that you do not know yet. Anyone who represents others has no right to make themselves larger than the task.