Finnish logistics company Flovi changed in August how it pays the drivers who move cars from place to place. About half of transfers between locations now run on a bidding model, where a 15-minute auction is won by the lowest offer.
Sometimes the remaining pay is one euro.
Yle reported the change and has seen Flovi's internal data on pay from before it. A Pori–Espoo job then carried a proposed base pay of 63 euros and Helsinki–Tampere 60 euros, and every offered job could be negotiated upward. CEO Aapeli Kallunki said the change, made on the basis of driver feedback, is fairer because previously the fastest driver got the job.
He admitted that some pay has risen and some has fallen since the auction started, and that overall it has declined moderately. "Flovi does not itself set such low prices, it is always a bid made by the driver partner," Kallunki said.
Flovi's digital platform has 3,200 transport partners in Finland, of whom 1,200 to 1,600 are active depending on the season. About 400 of them make ten or more transfers a month. The company also offers car transfer services in Sweden, Poland and Spain.
After criticism from some partners, Flovi added a feature letting drivers set their own minimum, so jobs below that level are no longer shown to them.
Lasse Laakso, a student in Kuopio, uses the transfers to travel between Kuopio and Helsinki. "Transfer drives fit my own schedules better and I like driving," he said. His pay toward the capital region has been around 20 to 30 euros per transfer, and 80 to 120 euros heading north.
Akseli Ilvesniemi started this month and uses the platform to commute from the capital region to the Pori theatre three times a week. "People clearly want to get out of Pori. Pay for jobs from Pori toward the capital region has been bid down to almost zero," he said.