Kela and special groups

Taksiliitto responds to Traficom's savings calculations: people cannot be combined in Excel

5 November 2026 · Taksiuutiset editorial team

On 28 October 2026 Taksiliitto, the Finnish taxi federation, criticised the calculated savings of Traficom's data pilot: the Disability Services Act sets limits on combining. According to Traficom, the taxi rides of Kela and the wellbeing services counties cost a little over 450 million euros a year.

What this is about

On 28 October 2026 Taksiliitto published a press release in which it takes a critical view of the calculated savings of Traficom's data pilot. Taksiliitto says that, according to Traficom, over 70 percent of the examined Kela and wellbeing services county taxi rides could have been combined under certain assumptions, and the realistic potential for combining would be about 35 percent. In our earlier article on Traficom's pilot the figures are gone through in more detail.

Traficom's newsletter page (dated 30 October 2026) says that the costs of the taxi rides organised by Kela and the wellbeing services counties are a little over 450 million euros a year. Counting school transport organised by municipalities with taxis, the total costs are almost 550 million euros. The agency says the costs grew in the 2020s by an average of 6 percent a year.

Taksiliitto's reasons

Taksiliitto's acting managing director Johanna Rautio reminds that, under section 29 of the Disability Services Act, transport service rides can be combined unless it causes an unreasonable lengthening of travel time or other unreasonable harm to the disabled person. Rautio also refers to section 28, which requires taking the individual need for mobility into account.

According to the federation, combining is also affected by Kela's tender model, in which two separate providers operate in the same region, and by customers' right to a preferred taxi. Petri Palviainen, managing director of Jyväskylän Aluetaksi, points out that the driver may have to escort the customer to the front door or inside, and that a schoolchild cannot be left alone in a taxi to wait.

What this means for you

• This is about a calculation and the discussion around it, not a new rule. Taksiliitto says it is ready to develop combining where it makes sense.
• According to Traficom, combining requires that the combining of rides of different parties is gathered with one operator. If you drive Kela or social and health care rides, follow whether the ordering parties make decisions on this.

Taksiliitto is a party to the matter: it promotes the interests of taxi entrepreneurs and dispatch companies. Its reasoning is the federation's view, not an independent assessment. Traficom's figures have not been checked from elsewhere in this article. Sources read on 5 November 2026.