Dispatch companies and regions

Menevä loses Kela rides from 1 January 2027, Valopilkku expands to new regions

5 October 2026, updated 1 November 2026 · Taksiuutiset editorial team

According to Yle, Menevä will be left entirely without Kela taxi rides from the start of 2027. Kela rides have made up almost half of the company's turnover, and the company is adjusting its operations.

Menevä's view

Yle reported on 5 October 2026 that Menevä was not among those chosen in Kela's tender. Menevä's managing director Tuomo Halminen considers the downward spiral of prices unsustainable for the whole industry. According to him, in its bids the company was at the limit where the whole service chain can still cope.

According to Halminen, the monthly pay of a driver of a specially equipped car used to be about 3,000 euros and has now fallen to almost half of that. According to Yle, losing the contracts leads to adjustment measures in both the staff and the network of drivers.

Menevä does not intend to leave the Kela market entirely. The company says it will offer to fill gaps where the chosen provider cannot get a car, for example in the evenings, at weekends or in rides that need a stair-climbing device.

Kela's position

Otto Talvitie, a special planner at Kela, reminds that only Kela's official contract partners may carry out rides reimbursed under the Health Insurance Act. If the chosen provider cannot arrange a ride, arranging a replacement ride is, according to him, the task of the same provider. According to Talvitie, failed rides can be sanctioned with money.

Valopilkku grows

One of the winners of the tender was Valopilkku Oy, which used the name Konnektio when it took part in the tender. The company includes, among others, 02 Taksi. The company estimates that covering the new regions requires between about 1,500 and 2,000 cars. According to managing director Petteri Niemi, 02 Taksi has a network of 8,000 cars, from which extra capacity is sought in rush situations.

Yle reports that Valopilkku states the commission of its dispatch service as 5.7 percent. According to Niemi, for many companies the commission is currently clearly higher. This is the company's own statement, which Yle has not compared with others in its article.

What this means for you

• The dispatcher and contract terms of Kela rides change in many regions on 1 January 2027. Compare the contracts in good time, including the commission and earnings prospects.
• According to Yle, Menevä still works until the end of the year as an official Kela ride provider in many regions.
• The customer chooses which of the region's two order centres to order the ride from, and according to Kela that order centre bears responsibility for the ride to the end.

Menevä's reserve capacity plan is the company's own, and Yle does not say that Kela has approved it. The article is based on the Yle article published on 5 October 2026, read on 1 November 2026.