Flovi’s bidding system pushes some car-transfer pay to one euro

Flovi’s new bidding system has reduced payments for some car-transfer jobs to as little as one euro, Yle reports. The Finnish logistics company introduced the system in August, and says average fees have fallen modestly overall.

Flovi arranges transfers of cars, for example, for rental companies and car dealerships. Students, pensioners, immigrants and others have taken the jobs as a way to earn extra money. The company’s platform has 3,200 transport partners in Finland, of whom 1,200 to 1,600 are active, depending on the season.

For half of the transfers between Flovi’s locations, drivers now compete in a 15-minute bidding round. The driver offering the lowest fee gets the job. The company sets a starting fee for the other transfers, including urgent jobs and those involving customer contact, but drivers can negotiate it upwards.

Yle has seen Flovi’s internal records showing that, before the change, the proposed starting fee was 63 euros for a transfer from Pori to Espoo and 60 euros from Helsinki to Tampere. Drivers could negotiate the fees for all available jobs.

Chief executive Aapeli Kallunki said the change followed feedback from drivers and was intended to make the system fairer. Previously, the quickest driver got the job. Kallunki acknowledged that fees have risen for some jobs and fallen for others, but said they have declined moderately overall. He said the low bids are made by drivers, not set by Flovi.

Some transport partners have criticised the lower fees. Flovi responded by adding an option for drivers to set a minimum fee in the app. Jobs below that threshold are no longer shown to them.

Flovi says drivers often use the transfers to travel between places. A one-euro drive from Helsinki to Tampere would save 17.50 euros compared with the cheapest train ticket. Yle found a three-euro fee for a nearly three-hour drive from Pori to Espoo, which would save 41.90 euros compared with the cheapest train ticket. Passengers may still need to travel from the car’s drop-off point to their final destination.

Student Lasse Laakso, who studies in Kuopio, uses the transfers to travel between Kuopio and Helsinki. He said the jobs suit his schedule and that he enjoys driving. He has earned about 20 to 30 euros per transfer from Kuopio to the Helsinki region, while payments for trips back north have been around 80 to 120 euros.

Akseli Ilvesniemi, who began taking transfer jobs this month, uses the platform for journeys from the Helsinki region to the theatre in Pori. He makes the trip three times a week and has so far averaged about one transfer job per week.