The BEEP+ project, which had to provide new customers via an app and in collaboration with other companies, is part of the DTM bankruptcy. Nevertheless, the staff is still at work after DTM last week put down the books. Work continues and new rides are still being accepted, while the trustee is reviewing a possible restart.

Rising fuel prices and corona may have accelerated bankruptcy. In a response to our colleagues from the digital trade magazine Personen Vervoer Magazine, Koen Van Oorschot, who as CEO of Antwerp tax is also chairman of the Antwerp Provincial Taxi Union (Aptu), regret the bankruptcy. Manager Steve van Avermaet has given everything to save his business and tried to find solutions with various potential buyers. But they didn't get out. 

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“I regret the bankruptcy of our valued member DTM. But on behalf of the Union, I also point to the lack of government support that we have had to deal with for years. If we had closed the doors during the corona period, we would have received support. But we chose to keep the port running, transport people to the hospital, for example, and thus continue in the interest of the economy and society,” says Koen Van Oorschot.

The shuttle contracts for transport to the petrochemical companies in the port were important to DTM and may form the basis of any negotiations with a buyer or a possible restart. Ninety people work at DTM as drivers, in dispatching, the garage or administration. Another activity of Steve Van Avermaet was the rental of electric cars in Belgium in Green Mobility.

BEEP+

The Antwerp taxi companies DTM and VHF and the digital taxi platform BEEP for self-employed drivers have joined forces under the name BEEP+. They wanted to arm themselves for the future via one central dispatching and one booking app and to abolish the classic meter, but unfortunately this project may also come to an end with the disappearance of DTM.