In a statement, the company said that, with the introduction of taxis on the platform, it intends to “improve response times and increase the availability of vehicles on the app, especially during peak times”.

This service, which is already available in Madeira, offers the possibility of choosing between taxis or TVDE based on preferences and availability.

“Reintroducing taxis to our platform is a way of giving users more freedom of choice, simplifying access to different transport models in a single digital space”, said Mário de Morais, responsible for the transport service in Portugal through the Bolt app, quoted in the note.

The integration begins in the Porto region, resuming a partnership with Raditáxis, and other cities in the country will be integrated progressively throughout the third quarter.

The person responsible for Bolt in Southern Europe, Nuno Inácio, explained to Lusa on June 14 that the initiative is part of a six-month pilot project to improve the response to mobility requests in Porto, giving “Raditáxis members the opportunity to try out the platform and see what its benefits are”.

In practice, “the customer enters the platform, makes the request, sets the pick-up and final destination and can then choose between the various taxi categories”, he added.

In this initial phase, three types of taxis are available: normal, which will replicate the price of the normal taximeter, light, which replicates the prices of the Bolt, and a final category, for larger vehicles, the XL taxis, which will be a replica of the taximeter”.

Agostinho Seixas, president of Raditáxis do Porto, described the business to Lusa as a “disruptive step, as the cities themselves are growing and registering also disruptive needs”.