Moia will have to reduce fleet

The Shuttle service Moia may use, in Hamburg, only 200 of its 500 buses. The decision of the Hamburg administrative court. A taxi operator was against the new VW-service approach - many taxi companies are afraid of the new competition. Moia has already announced plans to appeal against the decision: "With 200Fahrzeugen no city is more Service." the Angelica Slavik, Hamburg Angelica Slavik

Born in Vienna, began as a freelance journalist for the daily newspaper The Standard, later editor of the business magazine Format. Since 2007, the süddeutsche Zeitung, most recently in the marketing Department mainly deals with the intersections of economy, society and pop culture. Since the beginning of 2015 economic correspondent in Hamburg.

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Just ten days of the new Shuttle service Moia in Hamburg Volkswagen in operation Wednesday, the company experienced a painful defeat in front of the Hamburg administrative court: Moia, so far, with 500 vehicles in the Hanseatic city on the move, it is allowed to offer its Service only to a limited extent. A maximum of 200 Moia-buses may be the way in Hamburg, decided by the court - until there is a final decision on the admissibility of the operating permit for Moia.

The mobility service provider Moia is a mixture of public transport and Taxi: passengers can book the Service via the App and share your journey with other guests, who want to be in a similar direction. A journey and will take longer than with a traditional Taxi, but it is also much cheaper. While the VW group, is part of the Moia, as well as the municipal administration of the new service as part of a modern mobility concept to understand, many are afraid taxi company the new competition. One of these taxi operators went against the court and scored well, at least temporarily, a partial success against the group. In summary proceedings, the admissibility of the operation was not clear approval for Moia, - was stated in the reasoning of the court. Until it was ready, appeared to be a continuation of the offer, with only 200 cars, two pages are reasonable.

"With 200 vehicles, is not a city Service."

In Moia, however, sees it differently: take the decision "with a lack of understanding", was called it in the organization. "With 200 vehicles, no city is more Service." The company announced that it would quickly appeal against the decision of the Hamburg higher administrative court. In addition, the Federal government should create legal certainty: "the fact That a single taxi company could have trumped the public transport interests of an entire metropolis", was "an intolerable situation".

The nervous reaction in Moia also shows the importance of the project for the VW group: New mobility offers a key component in the strategy for the future of the wolf Burger. Moia is the first major step in this direction. The buses drive with E-drive, to match the mobility needs of many people in the big cities - and they are, according to the diesel affair for the new, in every respect, clean page of Volkswagen.

The offer started full operation in mid-April in Hamburg. More cities should follow in Germany and in the whole of Europe. Legal problems do not appear for the first Time. In Berlin, for example, Moia has got no operating permit. Justification: There is no need.