OWING A TAX

Taxi traffic is very controlled in Finland. I would say that it will be next to impossible for you to obtain a legal taxi licence, unless you have at least a good understanding of Finnish (spoken and written).

Taxi permits are given by the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (http://www.ely-keskus.fi/en/frontpage/Sivut/default.aspx). Their number is limited (at the moment there are only about 9500 in the whole of Finland). To be eligible, you must have worked as a taxi driver in Finland for a minimum of six months (this is the theory, in practice we are talking about several years), and must have succesfully completed a special taxi licence holder course (a minimum of 120 hours) and have a special professional driver licence given by the police (the normal driving licence is not enough).

Due to the stringent requirements, most holders of taxi licence have more than one car that they run. Otherwise it's not worth it.

Your best bet would be to work for an established taxi licence holder and drive one of their cars.

Of course, if you want to take the risk, you can simply hang around the restaurants at closing time and offer your services as an illegal taxi, but it's not recommended.