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The free service helping foreign companies to establish in Stockholm

Work-life balance, a history of producing billion-dollar startups, good commuter transport links and leading sustainability initiatives are just a few of the myriad reasons why the Swedish capital has become such a magnet for foreign investment in recent years.

Published: 24 June 2019 05:00 CEST

The free service helping foreign companies to establish in Stockholm

Photo: WeWork Stockholm

For companies from abroad looking to expand in the Swedish capital, a free service provides assistance in everything from finding prime locations to helping arrange tax specialists, accountants and banking services.

Japanese clothing giant Uniqlo and WeWork, an international shared coworking space company, are two companies to have recently taken advantage of this service. The Local spoke with Uniqlo’s Tomokazu Yokoyama and WeWork’s Wybo Wijnbergen to find out how it helped them to swiftly establish in Stockholm.

Find out how Invest Stockholm can help you to establish your business in the Swedish capital

This article was produced by The Local Creative Studio in partnership with Invest Stockholm.

How to avoid taxi scams at Stockholm's Arlanda Airport

Check the comparison price

Tourists and foreigners are often the target of unlicensed taxi operators, so if you’re getting a taxi in Sweden, always check the window for a yellow and white sign with the jämförpris or comparison price, as well as yellow registration plates at the front and back of the vehicle.

This is a legal requirement and will show you the price of a 10 kilometre journey taking 15 minutes at different times of day, although beware that they are allowed to add an extra fee for pickup/dropoff at stations or terminals, as well as a waiting fee.

Don’t be tempted to get in a taxi without these yellow registration plates – it’s an illegal taxi and can be expensive, or in the worst case scenario, dangerous.

Keep an eye on the company you’re travelling with

At Arlanda, there are different sections in the taxi queue for different companies. The first queue, closest to the exit, is for friåkarna, or the independent taxis. The second queue has small companies which are linked to a central ordering station, followed by Taxi Kurir, Sverigetaxi, Taxi Stockholm, with taxis to Uppsala and Västerås in the last queue. You don’t have to take the first taxi in the queue.

The taxi companies in this zone have an agreement with Swedavia, who run Arlanda Airport, which means that the maximum price for journeys in the marked zone below is regulated – 800 kronor for a standard-sized car for 1-4 people, or 1,275 kronor for a larger car.

The taxi zone at Arlanda – journeys within the dotted line shouldn’t cost more than 800 kronor for a small car. Photo: Swedavia

As you can see, there are many Stockholm suburbs which are not included in the taxi zone. So if you’re going to be travelling to a destination outside of the taxi zone area, you’ll be paying the meter rate – which is why it’s important to check the jämförpris before you get into the car.

Do the prices really vary that much?

Yes.

A number of taxi passengers have in recent months complained of extremely high prices when travelling to destinations just outside of the taxi zone area. Many of these passengers thought they were getting into a Taxi Stockholm cab (with a basic jämförpris of 349 kronor), only to realise upon arrival that they’d actually got into a cab run by a different operator with a much higher jämförpris.

“Some people come into our reception crying because they’ve paid five or six thousand kronor,” Taxi Stockholm’s CEO Pernilla Samuelsson told public broadcaster SVT.

According to Samuelsson, the company has had issues with so-called “copycabs” for a number of years. In 2022, Taxi Stockholm sued a copycat company which was using a name and logo which was almost identical to theirs and won. The company was forced to change its name and pay Taxi Stockholm six million kronor in damages.

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