mytaxi say the fee will help increase driver availability.
Taxi e-hailing app mytaxi have revealed that a €5 passenger cancellation fee will be introduced in Ireland from the end of June.
The fee will apply to passengers who cancel a booking two minutes after it is accepted by a driver en route to pick up the passenger who made the booking.
Mytaxi say passengers are still welcome to cancel a booking request at any time, but it must be made within two minutes of the request being accepted if they wish to avoid the cancellation fee.
If customers have requested to pay by cash, the cancellation fee will be charged to the credit card associated with the account. If the charge cannot be paid, then the account may be suspended until the fee can be paid.
The fee is being introduced, mytaxi say, to “improve the efficiency of the service” and that it will result in an increase in available drivers to pick up passengers.
In the last six months, only 3% of mytaxi passengers cancelled on a driver after the booking had been allocated, which, according to mytaxi, illustrates that a very small percentage of their passengers will be affected by this new change.
The fee will be introduced in late June and, to give customers a chance to adjust to the charge, there will be an introductory period where passengers will be warned with a popup message on occasions that would qualify for a charge in the future.
Mytaxi say they hope this stage will help passengers adjust to the new process and reduce the volume of cancellations on the network.
More information, including frequently asked questions about the introduction of the fee, is available
here.
