Street taxi in Flanders: why must you be able to manage your own rides onboard?

In short: in Flanders, a street taxi (straattaxi) may pick up a passenger on the street to increase revenue. You are not limited to platforms only, or only to private clients you already know.

But as soon as a trip happens outside an app — street hail, call, hotel, etc. — the platform no longer handles it. You then need an onboard tool to record the journey, the price and the transport ticket, and to present them at a control. See also street taxi vs rank taxi.

This article explains what you must be able to do without an intermediary, how a day with direct trips is organised, and how to have the right tool to handle them correctly.

Even “100% platforms”: a street trip remains possible

Take the most common case for many operators.

The driver starts the day, connects to one or more platforms, and intends to accept only the trips they send. Platform trips can be managed and transmitted by those platforms.

Yet during service, someone may still:

• stop them on the street;
• call for an immediate trip;
• ask for a trip outside the app (hotel, regular client, WhatsApp, etc.).

Flemish rules allow this. It is not a grey area: a street taxi may be booked via an app or called / stopped without an intermediary.

In that second case, without suitable onboard equipment, the driver may be unable to:

• record the trip correctly;
• confirm the fare to the customer;
• record departure and arrival;
• produce the transport ticket;
• transmit the required information;
• include the trip in the duty sheet;
• present the data during a control.

So the question is not only:

“Which platform do you work with?”

The real question is:

“If someone hails you or asks for a trip without a platform, can you handle it correctly?”

What Flemish regulation provides

Article 33, §1 of the Flemish decree on operating conditions for individual paid passenger transport requires that every vehicle in service has equipment to securely record, store and consult the data in articles 34 and 35.

Those data mainly concern:

• the duty sheet (dienststaat) — see required duty-sheet data;
• completed trips;
• prices;
• distances;
• pickup and drop-off places;
• the transport ticket (vervoerbewijs) — see required ticket mentions.

Article 33, §2 separately requires that data processed by intermediaries also be recorded, stored and consulted securely.

There are therefore two different levels:

1. equipment available in the vehicle;
2. processing by any platform or intermediate dispatch.

Direct consequence: the fact that an intermediary manages its trips does not remove the need for a tool onboard for trips off-platform — including a single street hail. The legal detail is in “What equipment must be present in a Flanders taxi?”.

Why do you need a tool even if you only do platform trips?

Working mainly with Uber, Bolt or a dispatch does not change the street-taxi framework.

A street taxi is made available to the public. It may be booked via an app, but also called or stopped on the street. The official Flemish page distinguishes these situations — as in our guide street taxi / rank taxi.

When a trip is ordered via an app, the fare or fare structure can be communicated before departure.

When a taxi is stopped on the street without a prior fare agreement, the trip is calculated by the vehicle equipment according to the operator’s displayed tariffs.

That is the core point: as long as you can pick up a passenger on the street, you must be able to manage that trip onboard — even if you “prefer” platforms. For articles 33–36, controls and data retention, see “What equipment must be present in a Flanders taxi?”.

Two ways of working with a street taxi

1. The ordered trip

The customer books before pickup, for example via an app, by phone, a form, a hotel, a company, or directly with the driver. The fare or fare structure is communicated before the trip. A written confirmation may be sent electronically.

With TaxiGer, a direct request can become an instant booking before the trip starts. The driver can then create or accept the booking, communicate the price or estimate, start and finish the trip, generate the transport ticket, and transmit to Chiron when the connection is enabled.

2. The customer who stops a taxi on the street

The Flemish Region also allows a person to call or stop a street taxi directly. Without a prior fare agreement, the trip is calculated by the vehicle equipment according to the operator’s declared and displayed tariffs.

With TaxiGer, the driver can create an instant booking immediately before starting the trip — to formalise the request, communicate the price, record the trip, keep an audit trail and produce the regulatory documents.

That does not mean every street stop must become a TaxiGer booking. It is a simple, structured way to handle a direct request with a digital tool.

What is the duty sheet for?

Article 34 sets out what the dienststaat must contain at the start of service (operator, date, vehicle, plate, driver, start time, mileage, location when not using a taximeter), during service (breaks, trip count, final prices, distances, places), and at the end of the day. The driver must be able to generate a copy and present data in a readable form identical to the originals. See the street-taxi duty sheet guide.

The transport ticket after each trip

Article 35 requires a transport ticket to be given to the passenger or customer at the end of the trip without them having to ask — with operator details, vehicle, driver, sequential trip number, times, places, distance, fare, total price and complaint information. It cannot simply be handwritten. A taxi that accepts a direct trip must be able to produce this document even when the trip does not come from a platform.

Transmission to Chiron

Chiron is the central Flemish taxi trip database. Operators must send trip information to Chiron. Platform trips may be transmitted by the platform; trips created in TaxiGer can be transmitted by TaxiGer. Each source remains responsible for the trips it handles — the goal is not to send the same trip twice. See also Does Chiron replace the documents?.

A concrete working day with TaxiGer

Situation A: the driver mainly works with platforms

The driver opens service in TaxiGer (driver, vehicle, start time, mileage, location). During the day they run platform trips.

If they receive a direct request — that is a trip taken on the street directly — they can create an instant booking in TaxiGer.

At the end of the day they close the duty sheet and keep the required data. How platform trips appear in a global duty sheet depends on how those data are made available or imported into TaxiGer.

Situation B: the driver also has their own customers

Private bookings are recorded, priced, started and finished in TaxiGer with a transport ticket and Chiron transmission. Platform trips stay in their own systems. Direct requests (phone, WhatsApp, hotel, street) become an instant booking in TaxiGer before departure.

Instant booking restores the driver’s independence

A driver who depends exclusively on platforms lets those platforms control access to customers, the passenger relationship, commissions, assignment rules, visibility and much of commercial activity.

With TaxiGer’s instant booking system, the driver can formalise a direct trip without sending the customer to a third-party platform: confirm the request, communicate a price or estimate, start and close the trip, produce the transport ticket — while meeting administrative obligations.

Regulatory equipment becomes a commercial tool

The obligation can feel like a constraint. It can also become an advantage: work with several trip sources, accept your own customers, reduce platform dependence, manage direct bookings, produce documents, structure activity, keep a trail of trips, prepare for controls, and grow your own clientele.

How TaxiGer helps

TaxiGer brings together digital duty sheets, an instant booking system, trip start and end, transport tickets, driver and vehicle tracking, archiving, Chiron connection, and documents accessible during a control.

For large fleets, TaxiGer can offer tailored solutions adapted to the company’s organisation, trip sources and transmission needs. See TaxiGer features.

The question to ask every driver

If someone stops me on the street or asks for a trip without a platform today — which the law allows — can I handle that trip correctly?

Can you confirm the trip, communicate the price, record departure and arrival, hand over the transport ticket, transmit the required data, include the trip in your activity, and present the information at a control?

If the answer is no, these direct trips remain difficult to accept and document correctly — even if most of your activity still goes through platforms.

Request a demonstration

TaxiGer helps Flemish operators manage services, direct trips, documents and regulatory transmissions. We first analyse your licence type, vehicles, drivers, platforms, private bookings, declared equipment and Chiron method — then show the solution adapted to your activity. For large fleets, TaxiGer can propose a tailored organisation.

Contact TaxiGer for a demonstration →

Also check with the municipality that issued your licence which equipment or software is listed in your file.

Read next

For the legal detail (articles 33–36, controls, retention, platform vs vehicle distinction):

What equipment must be present in a Flanders taxi? →

FAQ

Official sources

• Flemish Government Decree of 9 June 2023 — articles 32 to 36 (fares, equipment, dienststaat, vervoerbewijs)
• Flemish Decree of 29 March 2019 — service categories and fares
• Vlaanderen.be — Taxi: soorten en voorwaarden (straattaxi)
• Vlaanderen.be — Rittendatabank Chiron