Taxi platform Uber is planning to make it more attractive for drivers to work for the service in the Netherlands, the AD said on Monday.

Currently some 2,000 to 3,000 drivers work for Uber in the five big cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Eindhoven. However, Uber wants to spread the service to the rest of the country and needs to recruit three to four times more drivers, the paper said.

Uber is therefore changing some of its conditions to make the job more tempting – drivers will now be able to switch on their meters after a passenger has kept them waiting for two rather than five minutes. The cancellation time for passengers has also been cut from five to two minutes, the paper said.

Uber is also planning to help drivers set up a pension scheme via Brand New Day, by picking up the bill for advice and administration.

The service earlier dropped plans to introduce its Uberpop service in the Netherlands because of legal issues, but says licencing its drivers remains a major issue.

‘Every month 500 to 600 people apply to work for us but only a few are left over,’ Uber Nederland manager Thijs Edmondts told the paper. ‘The cost and the waiting lists [to take a taxi driver test] are the main reasons.’