The Bombs Made Buzu

Taxi law

Have you heard what the taxi drivers are threatening? They say that if the law on taxis, which comes into force in September, puts them into unnecessary expenses, they believe, they will raise tariffs for passengers. Somehow it looks like blackmail … Have you heard what the taxi drivers are threatening? They say that if the law on taxis, which comes into force in September, puts them into unnecessary expenses, they believe, they will raise tariffs for passengers. Somehow it looks like blackmail …

They don’t ride a taxi - they are in a hurry

Two protests were held by Moscow taxi drivers in August. More precisely, one and a half - a handful of people came to the second. Well, many people know how hard the taxi driver’s bread is, they sympathize (however, it’s easy for anyone now). But here it’s different - the rebels were alerted: Federal Law No. 69 will do poorly for everyone.

“You have to understand,” explained the co-chair of the Taxi driver trade union, Andrei Popkov, “that the carrier entrepreneur will not put up with the extra costs and will transfer them to the passengers. Since September, tariffs may increase by a quarter, in large cities are likely to rise higher than in small ones.

Shifts, shifts. And we will pay as nice, because we don’t ride a taxi - they are in a hurry.

Driving past the money …

What kind of "excessive" expenses are we talking about? You will need to buy lanterns - "scallops" on the roof, put "checkers" on the sides, paint the body …

The paradox can be accepted if it is in a joke: "… Do you need checkers or go?" The law, however, reflects common sense: there should not be a taxi without specific attributes, as there is no store without a sign. Who will argue that the "species signs" and the "voter" on the sidelines are convenient and beneficial for the taxi driver: you can see the "checkers" from afar, have time to wave, and the car will not pass "by the money."

Taxi Act

Here is an opinion for readers of ZR. RU of the Director General of the Moscow company "New Yellow Taxi" Felix Margaryan:

- Only “bombers” can protest against equipment - they have no reason to “shine”.

(Do you know why they are invulnerable? Illegal abduction is punishable if the “leftist” is caught three times upon receipt of payment, and the amount for all episodes is at least 200 thousand rubles. But who will carry out the detention? The traffic police do not have such powers, other security officials they don’t patrol on the roads. Legal impasse.)

We will bargain

“Meanwhile, the equipment is not so expensive that it does not pay off,” Mr. Margaryan continues. - “Checker belt” is not necessary to apply with paint - you can use duct tape. By September 1, the law does not require repainting cars in a specific color. It says: at the discretion of the territorial administration. But after all, administrations can agree, especially if the taxi drivers themselves insist, stick the same film on the bodies, for example, in the form of banners - as long as the taxi becomes recognizable. Lantern with checkers on the roof can be bought for 200-300 rubles …

And the “counter” works in the passenger’s head: all this will cost us as much as a quarter higher tariffs. And no less? And let's bargain!

Not discussed by definition

I must say that the New Yellow Taxi and other companies did not send representatives to the recent First Congress of taxi drivers (according to a press release, 300 delegates from 44 regions of the Russian Federation), did not enter the Yellow Front organized on its sidelines, and did not join the demonstrators. Because they did not see a reason to protest against the new law.

“We were offered to discuss something that is not subject to discussion by definition,” Janusz Pinter, Director General of Formula Taxi Company, told ZR. RU. - First of all, I am talking about passenger safety.

Janusz Pinter. Taxi Act

Janusz Pinter: taxi safety is not negotiable. Janusz Pinter: taxi safety is not negotiable.

Mandatory, according to the law, is the daily inspection of cars, and if there are several of them in the company, then - a mechanic (who bears criminal, not even civil liability in case of accident victims, when it happened due to a malfunction of the car). Once every six months - a state inspection. Control of drivers' well-being - before each shift.

With the reliability of clunkers

It is understandable why small and medium-sized taxi entrepreneurs have strained: the mechanics, the physician and their jobs will have to be kept … But is the law wrong?

“Even with my experience, I can’t tell whether the driver is intoxicated or not, and the doctor can,” says Felix Margaryan. Janusz Pinter adds: “Even everyone’s face needs to be seen before the shift: did you get enough sleep?”

Cars wear out quickly, their runs are huge. In Moscow, for two years - 300-350 thousand km (therefore, cars in taxis are allowed to be used for no longer than five years). And this transport should be kept “in shape” … But still, haven’t you kept it, and haven’t spent it? Even the "bombers" look after the "nurse." So why with the release of the law, the maintenance of a car should suddenly rise in price?

What do you feel in an old, untidy taxi - rattling, on sitting out seats, smelling of gasoline? What you cheated. Meanwhile, almost half of the country's taxi fleet is over 10 years old. Passengers' money at tariffs increased by a quarter - are they also for updating the fleet? But we thought that comfort is a matter of course in a taxi, and for it a passenger, as well as for his safety, has long been paying for it.

Pay in full, "commander"

The new law requires paying passengers only according to taximeters. Many will have to buy appliances. The rebels and they were attributed to architectural excesses. Even in taxis, the law proposes to establish cash registers that print checks, or (!) The driver will be required to issue receipts for payment.

Taxi Act

You can’t say that it’s like snow on your head. The state has been tightening revenue controls for a long time in order to levy the “right” taxes, and the taxi came in turn. And are protests appropriate if the law provides an alternative: if one cannot afford to purchase (install, maintain) cash registers, write out receipts. These forms will not be ruined.

Red flags

What "will stop earning"? To become a legal taxi driver, you will have to issue a permit from the authorities, and it will be valid only in the region in which it is issued. What to argue with this, if the licensing order in taxi transportation is a long-standing norm for all countries. I would also have to say thank you to the Russian state for issuing permits for free, and not selling licenses, as abroad.

Taxi law

Illegal carrier - not controlled by tax authorities. In addition, it takes away customers from those who are honestly legalized. The ban has the iron logic of entering foreign territory: with it the temptation to take bread from colleagues from neighboring regions disappears. After all, regional quotas are being introduced: for each territory, depending on the population, they will calculate how many taxis are needed, so that they are enough to fulfill all orders and not stand idle. Reasonable?

Taxi Act

Access to "garbage" closed

Another demand of the protesters is to “expand” one of the articles by 180º: so that the authorities would issue a permit to charge not “for a car”, as prescribed by law, but “for a person”. And also to be allowed to work on other people's cars, by proxy. Here is one of the protesters' documents.

Taxi law

One of the documents of the protesters. One of the documents of the protesters.

Why was the law made specifically for the car? The technical condition of a legal taxi can be checked by controllers on the line and at the place of registration. If you write out a permit for a particular citizen, an unscrupulous person will be able to carry people on the “wood” or, if his personal car breaks down, borrow a neighbor’s “garbage can” (and, among other things, it does not have a taximeter). And do not check!

In addition, there is a special insurance procedure for taxis: the policy is issued not only for the car and its owner, but also for passengers. And if an accident happened on the “left” car?.. For the same reasons, the law requires the taxi driver to use either his own car or being leased, but not accidental … It seems convincing. So no, the protesters object!

Taxi law

Taxi Act Taxi Act

Protection side

For the interests of passenger carriers advocates the leader of the Motorists of Russia Vyacheslav Lysakov. But without fanaticism:

- In vain, of course, staged shares. The latter generally, as I was told, looked like a bomber bombed. It makes no sense to wave sabers or banners when the law has already been passed, but has not yet entered into force - during this period at least something is impossible to change.

“The media made a big mistake,” Lysakov continued, “when they said that the protesters represented the position of all the taxi drivers in the country (and there were one and a half million of them). Meanwhile, only two small trade unions made a fuss. When I talked with the leader of one of them, except “down!”, I did not hear other words … And yet, I can agree with some requirements.

Vyacheslav Ivanovich was the chairman of the First Congress of taxi drivers, he is deeply “in the subject”. He believes that the law is damp - this is a consequence of the fact that it was adopted without discussion with the broad taxi drivers.

Vyacheslav Lysakov. Taxi Act

- I don’t understand yet why the TRP was scheduled for taxis once every six months, and not, say, a year? Is it legal to carry a car only if it is owned or leased? For many on the periphery, the price of full-fledged taximeters is too high (15–18 thousand rubles apiece), so is it possible to do inexpensive, without fiscal memory?

Moving from light to shadow …

“Life plots are perplexing,” shared Vyacheslav Lysakov. - The owner of the company from a peripheral settlement said that his drivers, all to one, work in personal cars. And not one wants, as the local administration requested, to repaint the bodies, much less paint checkers - this will reduce the price of the car upon sale. If nothing is done, the guys will leave the company and will “bomb” illegally.

Indeed, other regional administrations have sharply engaged in enforcing the law. Of course, it’s nice to see if taxis are equally good, but reality cannot be ignored … I agreed with the Ministry of Transport that we will bring together the heads of regions and try to decide together how to apply the law so that taxi drivers do not go into the shadows.

Taxi law

Question to Vyacheslav Lysakov:

- Doesn’t it seem to you that you are defending the interests of poorly provided taxi drivers from poor regions, but your carriers do not need your support from prosperous cities? Perhaps those who were ironic on the sidelines of the congress are right: a new law has been written for Moscow and St. Petersburg?

- It does not seem. Just now we are forming a working group with regulatory, arbitration functions, it will collect proposals, analyze, prepare recommendations for changing the law. We will take into account the interests in them, I emphasize, and small, medium, and large businessmen working in a taxi. We have already agreed that both houses of the Legislative Assembly will consider our proposals at the same time so as not to delay the adoption of the amendments.

Your doc

Edit is what. See article 11.14.2, paragraph 4: “Passengers boarding a vehicle provided for the carriage of passengers and baggage on request, without the need for passengers to present documents proving their right to travel in this vehicle (wow, will you have to draw up a special document? And which it - author's note), or in the absence of the list of passengers in cases where the presentation of these documents or the presence of the said passenger list is a must (in any of these cases - ..? ed), -.. shall entail the imposition of administrative fine th …"

I understand what is written, as everyone probably understands: for a family with suitcases to reach the airport, you need to get documents - you just don’t get there by phone call, you don’t even get in the car … And if it is understood otherwise, please explain humanly.

Reality can not be beaten by law

Author's opinion: I’m not sure that the law on taxi will give what it’s adopted for. And he was adopted to make the service civilized.

In commercial fishing, it is always like this: income is preceded by investment. Some money is needed to knit brooms, others to develop kimberlite pipes, a taxi has its own “cost”. Not enough money to play by the rules - don’t take it. Indeed, taxi drivers themselves will lay their bones against changing the rule for passengers: do not get into a car without money to pay. But our carriers want to do business in Russian for themselves: we’ll invest what we have and don’t go too far. And how do you drive them into the framework of the rules? Increased fines? This is a separate topic, about it in more detail below.

Taxi Act

Already an entire organized movement, out of its best intentions, is fighting to lower the bar of the requirements of the law (which is clearly drafted according to the criteria of "normal" countries). And this movement will certainly achieve something, say, taximeters without fiscal memory. With that, diligent tax payment guarantees will weaken. It turns out principle with the prefix "pseudo-". Something like this happened more than once, in the last - when the permission for the production of Euro 2 was extended. Lingered in a shaggy outgoing? In all cases, an excuse you can’t argue with: crushed circumstances.

Why not shoot

Taxis are not only checkers and wheels, but also safety equipment, gadgets for drivers, taxi parking, advantages where service cars are most in demand … I’m not sure that officials will rush to give the taxi for granted priorities. Even in Moscow. There are dedicated lanes for public transport, but the city hall doesn’t let a taxi into them: it is not public transport.

“Admiral, why don't guns shoot ?!” - “There are a hundred reasons for that. First: there is no gunpowder.”So it is with the taxi law: even if all of the above obstacles did not exist, he still wouldn’t“shoot”: it does not spell out who will control the execution, who is authorized to punish slobs and saboteurs. In our country, and with established control, things aren’t so hot, but without him we’ll be completely seam. Someone says that they will be appointed by the traffic police (I think it’s a lie), someone recalls the transport inspectorate, the federal service for the supervision of transport … So, under the new law, fines from 5 (for the driver) to 200 thousand are not terrible rub (for a legal entity). Who will impose them?

So let's wait to put the words “taxi” and “civilized” next to each other.

Taxi law

Taxi Act Taxi Act

How is that American?

That's what the president of Zip Taxi Inc. said. from Boston (USA) Mr. Peter Zaslavsky.

The city authorities once sold 850 taxi licenses. They became a commodity in the market, went into free circulation, their price is regulated by market conditions, usually grows over time.

The license is not on a piece of paper. It is made of a metal plate in the form of a plate measuring 15x20 cm. It shows the license number and the current year: the authorities update the plates annually. For each exchange, the owner pays $ 300 in annual tax to the city treasury.

If I got a license for the first time, I am obliged to buy a new car in white (this is the local rule) color, equipped with a factory set of safety equipment (the set is approved by the authorities), with the interior quite spacious and comfortable.

The car should be retrofitted: place a Taxi lamp on the roof, write on the sides which company the car belongs to, on the wings - the license number. Between the front and rear seats is a bulletproof partition. There are hidden buttons in the driver's seat, including alarm beacons on the roof - a signal for the police that something is threatening the taxi driver.

Taxi law

Before starting work, a taxi driver must attend 3-day courses in subjects: the geography of the city, legal rights and obligations, traffic safety, and so on. Then pass exams to representatives of the city authorities. The certificate obtained after the courses must be strengthened in a prominent place in the cabin so that passengers can see it and can read the name.

All Boston taxis have a common fare approved by the authorities: the price per mile in the city is one, outside it it is higher (taking into account the payment of the distance that the car, returning, will travel empty). Passengers are required to obey this rule. It is forbidden to take passengers in a foreign territory (it is better not to come across the violators of the "Sukhorev Convention" in the field of view of local taxi drivers).