Taxi firm resolves late pay issues

TAXI company Free Now says it has resolved issues around payments to drivers after weeks of reported delays.

A spokesperson for Free Now, formerly known as MyTaxi and Hailo, said the company had made two payments to its estimated 14,000 drivers, covering this week and last week.

In addition to the delayed payment and the early payment, the company has also given its drivers a 20% top-up bonus as a ‘gesture of goodwill’.

‘We have been in close communication with affected drivers over the past few days and have worked hard to resolve this issue. Again, we thank drivers for their patience and understanding over the past few days,’ the spokesperson said.

‘Free Now has a strong financial infrastructure which enabled us to act quickly and implement the payment through another provider as soon as it was apparent there was a further delay. Of course, it is deeply unsatisfactory that this issue arose; we have changed our payment provider to ensure this doesn’t happen again.’

Free Now said it made the delayed payment for last week through its original payment provider and the early payment for this week through a different provider.

Reports in the German media suggest that taxi apps, including Free Now, which is owned by German motoring giants BMW and Daimler, have been hit badly by the collapse of payments provider Wirecard.

Wirecard filed for insolvency in June following revelations that €1.9billion was missing from its balance sheet. The company’s chief executive, Markus Braun, was also arrested by German police ‘on suspicion of accounting fraud and market manipulation’.