On December 18, the Senate approved the abolition of the BPM refund scheme for taxis. The reason for this measure is to encourage the taxi industry to switch to more efficient vehicles. Fully electric vehicles are exempt from BPM.

Taxi carriers, who purchase a new taxi vehicle from 1 January 2020, are faced with considerably higher purchase costs. This applies to taxi companies that have to pay BPM, but also to taxi companies that decide to switch to electric vehicles. These vehicles are currently even more expensive than diesel vehicles. In addition to costs, the availability of electric vehicles plays a role. There are signals from the taxi industry that this offer is not available for (wheelchair) buses.

Social partners in healthcare transport argue for a postponement of the abolition of the BPM refund scheme for taxi vehicles until the availability of electric (wheelchair) buses and the costs are at an acceptable level.

Taxi Social Fund (SFT) has asked CE Delft to research to investigate the effects of the abolition of the BPM refund scheme for taxis. The main question that is answered in the study: will the abolition of the BPM measure lead to more electric buses in target group transport?

The outcome of the market survey indicates that the BPM measure for taxi vehicles has a net cost-increasing effect in healthcare and target group transport. As a result, the transport offer for the disabled, pupils and the elderly is under pressure.

The use of electric (wheelchair) buses reduces the occupancy rate, which means that more buses and drivers are needed to do the same work. Together with the higher purchase costs and costs associated with the charging infrastructure, this means that the costs for healthcare transport will rise due to the abolition of the BPM refund scheme.

The use of electric (wheelchair) buses is complicated by the very limited availability of these vehicles. Only two electric models are available, which cannot perform all necessary journeys in healthcare transport due to a range of 100 km.

The full transition to electric transport within target group transport is currently not possible, although the sector would like to. The costs in particular for the extra deployment required and the lack of availability of suitable vehicles mean that this measure has major consequences for the healthcare transport sector, so that implementation of the abolition of the BPM refund scheme is currently not realistic.