Lister

By Linda Hansen
Translation: Tanja Cim Olesen

"You want taxi, you want taxi?"

This is what it sounds like on the platform at Roskilde Station, when the trains let the festival-goers out onto the platform. While the approved taxis with signs, permissions and taximeters are nicely parked outside on the taxi rank, the pirates have moved out onto the platform.

Three Swedes busted

According to Roskilde Police, the fight for roping in taxi customers has become more aggressive. Last year, the hunt for customers did not take place all the way inside the station. Already Friday the police caught three Swedes who shuttled back and forth between the station and the festival site.

"We do have focus on pirate taxis. And we catch them if we can. They get a huge fine and if they can’t pay we confiscate their car,” the police says.

The hunt for customers is well organised. Outside the station, the pirate fleet is waiting – consisting of old vans or cars with German, Swedish or Polish number plates. On the platform and in the tunnels under the station, men and women rope in customers with shouts, wild gestures and a firm hold on the arm.

A risky saving tip

A cab ride from Roskilde Taxa to the festival site costs around 130 DKK. So a pirate trip for 50 DKK per person may sound tempting, but the advice from the police is crystal clear: Don’t!

"We can only encourage people not to drive in pirate taxis," are the words of warning from the police.

Henrik D. Hansen, a cab owner from Roskilde Taxa - not surprisingly - agrees with the police.

"You run a great risk. Besides the pirate taxis not being insured, the drivers use vehicles intended for goods transport. For instance they may stuff 10-12 people into a van."

It does not take much to imagine how fatal it can be if the car crashes, Henrik says.

The tax authorities curb piracy

When we visited the station Sunday, the pirate fleet was all gone. The authorised taxi drivers explained: the tax authorities have just been there to catch the pirates. So the old cars were gone and the many customer hunters from the platform were waiting behind the station for the coast to clear.