On Tuesday, Free Now told its drivers that they should have received payments in their bank accounts for both the one that was due last week, along with this week’s payment.
It comes as the app had missed its fourth driver payment deadline in two weeks, with cash owed to some full-time drivers estimated at up to €1,000 each.
Customers can use the Free Now app to order a taxi and pay through credit or debit card, with the money then forwarded on to drivers each week in one payment with Free Now taking a commission of about 15 per cent.
Delays
However, the Irish arm of the company, previously known as MyTaxi or Hailo and owned by German car brands Daimler and BMW, had paid taxi drivers two days late the week before last when it missed its first Wednesday payment deadline.
The deadline was also missed last week, with payment then failing to be issued two days later on Friday as promised, and then delayed again over the weekend before being deposited just short of a week late on Tuesday yesterday.
With taxi drivers expressing concern publicly, there had been calls for State intervention as Fianna Fáil TD Cormac Devlin wrote to Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan on Monday, asking him to direct industry regulator the National Transport Authority to become involved.
Free Now has said the problem was due to delays at its payments processor, Germany-headquartered Wirecard Bank, and that it is switching to another payments processor in an attempt to avoid future delays.
