Date: March 27, 2007
Berlin says TUT
Climate change might be the hot topic of today – but we keep forgetting that the problem is not that new after all. And so are some projects which have been launched quite early in the debate, actually before the debate really started. Good luck for us, because these projects are now able to provide first insights of long term results other projects can benefit from. 
One of the success stories is a German project called “TUT – Tausend Umwelt-Taxis für Berlin” (A Thousand Ecological Taxis in Berlin). As early as 2000 the joint project was launched by the Federal Ministry of the Environment, the Berlin Senate, and several gas corporations.
The aim is to bring a thousand taxis and a hundred driving- schools vehicles on the streets of Berlin – powered by natural gas. The project is pretty close to completion – 888 taxis and 80 schools joined the fleet so far.
The key to the success lies in two strategies:
First, the project managers went right to the source trying to find out where to place the new natural gas stations in the city of Berlin: the taxi drivers themselves pointed out the best locations.
Second, they introduced an incentive program.
The motto: who comes first gets more! A subsidy of 3.100 Euros by the Federal Ministry of the Environment was granted to the first 400 cap drivers purchasing a new CNG vehicle. The later in the game the decision to participate is made, the less money can be expected.
The plan worked then and still works nowadays. New natural gas taxis are still joining the fleet – slowly changing the customer perception in Berlin. Some drivers even believe that they get more calls because of their green label than their colleagues without!
Fotos: Website
The aim is to bring a thousand taxis and a hundred driving- schools vehicles on the streets of Berlin – powered by natural gas. The project is pretty close to completion – 888 taxis and 80 schools joined the fleet so far.
The key to the success lies in two strategies:
First, the project managers went right to the source trying to find out where to place the new natural gas stations in the city of Berlin: the taxi drivers themselves pointed out the best locations.
Second, they introduced an incentive program.
The motto: who comes first gets more! A subsidy of 3.100 Euros by the Federal Ministry of the Environment was granted to the first 400 cap drivers purchasing a new CNG vehicle. The later in the game the decision to participate is made, the less money can be expected.
The plan worked then and still works nowadays. New natural gas taxis are still joining the fleet – slowly changing the customer perception in Berlin. Some drivers even believe that they get more calls because of their green label than their colleagues without!
Fotos: Website
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