In Sweden, taxis offer backseat therapy sessions

Taxi Stockholm is offering cab therapy sessions to customers suffering from winter blues.

Regular readers of Springwise may remember cab service Taxi Stockholm, which has been featured before for its Taxi Trails app, which uses heatmaps of cab journeys to give tourists an idea of the most popular locations in the Swedish city. Now the company is back with another innovation, offering cab therapy sessions to customers suffering from winter blues.

According to TheLocal.se, the company carried out a survey that found that many customers see taxi rides as a time for reflection. Taking inspiration from the fact that many people enjoy having a chat to a taxi driver while traveling from A to B, the company has hired a number of qualified psychologists to join customers in the backseat.

Passengers taking an hour long ride or a short ten-minute trip can take advantage of the service, which aims to provide advice for any life problems they have. Mia Fahlén, one of the therapists taking part in the project, said there could be plenty of interest for the scheme: "A lot of people are lonely. There are so many single people in Stockholm."

Considering the typical costs of therapy sessions, the campaign could encourage more people to use Taxi Stockholm and air their grievances. It's clear that the project is also an effort to compete with services such as Uber. Are there other extras that taxi companies could offer to make journeys more enjoyable or useful?