MyTaxi users have to pay new €2 booking fee from today

Anyone booking a taxi with the MyTaxi app will be charged an additional €2 from Thursday as the company seeks to attract more drivers.

The introduction of a €2 fee will apply not only to pre-booked cabs but all taxis ordered through the app.

The company did not make a formal announcement of the change but in an email sent to customers on Wednesday afternoon, it described the €2 booking fee as “an industry-standard fee charged by all taxi providers in Ireland”.

The mail said that the company had previously “asked MyTaxi drivers to discount this fee for our customers” however, it said it was now moving “to align with taxi industry standards” by “no longer requesting that drivers discount the €2 booking fee”.

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A spokesman for the company told The Irish Times that the change was being rolled out in order to make MyTaxi "more attractive" for drivers.

The company's general manager in Ireland Tim Arnold said demand from consumers was growing at a faster rate than supply and that had lead to delays in people being able to get taxis at peak times.

“Last year for every driver who passed the exam, three drivers retired and that means there was a net decrease of 1,000 drivers last year,” he said.

“Last Saturday we carried more passengers then we have ever carried on a single day. In fact we carried 20 per cent more but even so we let maybe 30 per cent of other customer down.”

While its introduction might be good news for drivers, the booking fee is likely to further anger many of the taxi app’s customers who have been vocal in their criticism of MyTaxi since it took over from the Hailo taxi app earlier this year.