KNV Zorgvervoer en Taxi has officially requested State Secretary Jansen (Public Transport and Environment) to start a pilot for the Central Taxi Transport Database (CDT) as of January 1, 2025.
In a letter, the industry organization urged this step, to give carriers extra time and space for the necessary transition to the new system. The Central Taxi Transport Database (CDT) is intended to better monitor and regulate the working and rest times of drivers in the sector.
This database should eventually lead to more transparency and supervision in the taxi sector, where the government has wanted to exercise extra control for years. However, the introduction of the system has already suffered several delays, mainly due to problems in the legislative process and technical obstacles during implementation.
implementation date
KNV now wants the State Secretary to no longer wait until the legal implementation date of 1 July 2025, but to make a pilot possible earlier. This should give carriers the opportunity to start testing the systems earlier and to better prepare the transition to the CDT. "This way, carriers do not have to wait until 1 July 2025, solutions can be better tested and carriers have a longer lead time to switch to the CDT," KNV said in their letter to the State Secretary.
An important requirement of KNV in this request is an exemption from the requirement to have an on-board computer taxi (BCT) present during the pilot period. This would mean that carriers would temporarily not be required to have the BCT operational in their vehicles, giving them more room to flexibly organise the transition to the CDT. According to KNV is too short a transition period not only costly, but also problematic for the operational side of many taxi companies. “Our sector cannot handle this,” the organization writes, pointing to the existing challenges that taxi companies face.
smoother transition
The proposed pilot should contribute to a smoother transition to the CDT and also offers an opportunity for large-scale testing. KNV emphasizes in the letter that this is essential to ensure that the ICT systems function properly and the sector is sufficiently prepared for the final introduction of the database.
De letter from KNV comes shortly after the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT) took an important step in the development of the CDT. Last week, the first ICT service provider was successfully connected to the database, which marked the start of the Second Practical Test. This is a crucial phase in which systems and processes are tested in practice in order to be able to detect and resolve any bottlenecks in time.
The introduction of the current BCT in 2014/2015 has caused enormous problems and costs. Conservative estimates are that it cost the government over €45 million and the sector over €24 million. In particular, the high level of security and the way in which work could be done made it complex.
KNV Zorgvervoer en Taxi advocates a new on-board taxi computer (BCT) that only registers the working and rest times of drivers, without additional functions, unless entrepreneurs want to add them themselves. The data must be delivered to the ILT in near real-time, with lower costs and less administrative burden than the current systems. Driver identification must be made more fraud-resistant, and enforcement of compliance with the rules must be given priority, both online and on the street. The system must be flexible for carriers and tested extensively before it is finally introduced, with clear communication from the government to the sector.
Social Fund Mobility
With regard to the Stichting Sociaal Fonds Mobiliteit (SFM), KNV emphasises that close cooperation between the ILT and SFM is of great importance. SFM plays a crucial role in monitoring compliance with the collective labour agreements in the taxi sector, whereby they also use the data from the current taxi on-board computer (BCT) for checks on working and rest times. It is essential that ILT shares the data collected via the new BCT with SFM, so that both organisations can work together effectively to improve supervision and enforcement. This ensures a closed system and consistency in compliance with the rules.
Although the ILT's technical preparations for this practical test had been completed since August 1, 2023, it took until last week before the first set of data on working and rest times was delivered. This delay was caused, among other things, by the fact that ICT service providers that had already participated in the First Practical Test were not automatically transferred to the second phase. This meant that each company had to go through the connection process again, which led to a slower start of the Second Practical Test.
certification
ICT service providers themselves are also concerned about the requirements imposed on them under the CDT. For example, these companies must comply with strict information security standards, including ISO 27001 certification. This certification is mandatory due to the sensitive nature of the data stored in the database, but it is particularly important for smaller software companies for considerable pressure. Although this requirement has now been relaxed for companies participating in the Second Practical Test, it remains uncertain what the final admission criteria for definitive connection to the CDT will look like.
With the planned introduction of the CDT on 1 July 2025 in sight, there remains a lot of uncertainty for the parties involved about the technical and legal aspects of the system. With their proposal for a pilot, KNV hopes to convince the State Secretary of the importance of a phased and well-prepared introduction. Whether this request will be heard and will not arrive much too late at the government, is not yet clear.
