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Every shadow is a discovery
The Public Council (PC) of the Department of Transport will discuss with local authorities possible amendments to key industry laws that are driving some self-employed taxi drivers into the shadow sector. To do this, the PC is requesting local information on the actual volume of traffic. However, despite the fact that almost two-thirds of the region rely on self-employed taxi drivers, the authorities do not have information on sales in this market, which complicates data collection.
On November 15, the Public Committee (PC) of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation will hold a meeting with representatives of regional authorities on regulating the taxi market. This was stated in a letter from the president of the PC, Tatyana Gorova (provided to Kommersant) to local authorities in mid-October. Here she asks for data on the passenger transportation market (number of taxi ordering services, valid work permits, size of the legal services market, etc.) to be provided for analysis.
The Ministry of Transport's OS confirmed the authenticity of the letter and announced plans to hold a meeting. The appeal was received by the transport departments of Omsk, Novosibirsk, Chelyabinsk and Nizhny Novgorod regions, as well as the transport committees of Udmurtia, Buryatia and St. Petersburg. The taxi ordering service "Maxim" reported that the questionnaire was sent by the local accreditation body.
Since the Taxi Law (580-FZ) came into force in September 2023, it has been repeatedly criticized by businesses for its demands.
Vladislav Obushinsky, director of the ANO Digital Platform for PR and GR, explained the problem by a reduction in the number of legal taxi drivers due to a sharp increase in requirements. In particular, the standard provides for daily medical and technical examinations of drivers working part-time on personal transport. The reaction was a shadow of the market. PressIndex analysts note that 234 groups and 29 chatbots for calling taxis are registered in Telegram, and 38 thousand specialized communities are registered in VKontakte (see Kommersant, September 30). Maxim says that some channels are already introducing fees for drivers. According to ANO Digital Platforms, more than 10 million people use chats and groups.
In response to the increasingly complex situation, the State Duma previously proposed amendments to the law that would simplify the procedure for checking the driver's health and the condition of the car and transfer some of the responsibility to the aggregator (see Kommersant, October 4). However, the amendments have not yet been submitted for consideration.
Igor Zhmakin, president of the Russian Association of Self-Employed Workers, said that without a market assessment, it would be difficult for regulators to analyze the current situation. But it is problematic to calculate the volumes in the region, according to GTK-Holding, which manages the automobile network. Maxim Shusharin, director of the taxi management organization "Maxim", believes that regional authorities do not have reliable data on the entire passenger transportation market. According to him, the OS can receive official data directly from the FGIS "Taxi". The Ministry of Transport of Udmurtia explained that there are practically no statistics on some issues.
According to GTK-Holding, in some regions, working as a taxi driver provides additional income for 70% of drivers.
Mr. Obushinsky estimates that there are 2-2.5 million drivers in the region, most of whom have their own cars and work part-time. But in fact, there are 650,000 specialists registered in the market, 21,000 of whom are licensed to work as taxi drivers. The Public Committee for Taxi Development estimated the size of the Russian taxi market at 1 trillion rubles per year. At the same time, according to Mr. Obushinsky, 57 entities directly depend on self-employed drivers.
Stanislav Shvagerus, head of the Competence Center of the International Eurasian Taxi Forum, draws attention to the fact that the legislation on taxis is regulated not only by 580-FZ, but also by various branches of law. According to him, transport requirements are currently established by 11 federal ministries and local authorities, and they only ensure their observance.