Health group: medical examination for cab drivers will be replaced by questionnaires
Due to difficulties in meeting the requirements of the law "On Taxis" that came into force a year ago, a significant number of drivers have gone into the "gray zone", market participants say. The proposed changes in the legislation, which provide for the abolition of mandatory pre-trip medical examination of certain categories of cab drivers, as well as inspection of the technical condition of vehicles, are intended to legalize them. Details - in the material "Izvestia".
Mission Impossible
At the moment, passenger transportation by passenger cars involves more than 2.5 million drivers, of which about 640 thousand have the status of self-employed. This was reported by Maxim Shusharin, director of the managing organization of the Maxim Group of Companies, during a round table discussion on the problems of the cab industry and ways to solve them. At the same time, only 36 thousand drivers are currently registered in the cab register, i.e. only 1.4% of cab drivers, he noted.
Maxim Shusharin said that there are now two models of cab operation in the country. These are cab fleets, involving the lease of cab cars by drivers, and self-employed drivers using personal cars. At the same time, the first model is more typical for large cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg, while in the regions the practice of private drivers is much more widespread, he said.
- The law, which came into force last fall, established the same requirements for both drivers working on rented cars and those who work on their own cars. At the same time, a self-employed person who uses his personal vehicle as a cab as a part-time job does not have the opportunity to have his car technically inspected and undergo a medical examination before "going on the line"," Maxim Shusharin emphasized.
The director of the managing organization GC "Maxim" said that sometimes the nearest place where a self-employed person can undergo a medical examination or get a stamp that the car is in good working order may be several hundred kilometers away. At the same time, the need for cabs in small towns is not less, and often even more than in large cities. Often it is possible to get from the village to the district center only by cab, because there is either no public transport at all, or it rarely runs, he notes.
Digital "bombshells"
Due to the difficulties with the implementation of the requirements of the law "On Taxi" and strict regulatory measures, a significant part of drivers go into the "gray zone" of transportation, says Arseny Scheltsin, director of the Autonomous Nonprofit Organization "Digital Platforms". According to him, in fact, they are becoming the very "bombshells" against whom the law, which came into force more than a year ago, is designed to fight. However, now such "bombshells" are going digital.
- Various chatbots and groups in messengers are gaining popularity in the regions, which offer to use the service "Taxi without intermediaries". The client writes a message from where to pick him up and where to bring him, and in response he receives a message about the car that will arrive and the cost of the trip. What kind of driver will be behind the wheel and whether he has a license at all remains a mystery," said Arseniy Scheltsin.
According to his data, there are thousands of such unofficial cab ordering services in Russia, through which up to 1 million trips are made every month. For example, in Krasnoyarsk region experts of ANO "Digital Platforms" counted 151 such chat rooms with an audience of almost 420 thousand people, in Bashkiria there are more than 300 "services" with more than 210 thousand subscribers, in Tyva the audience of 137 "cab operators" is almost 123 thousand people.
- According to our calculations, in 2024-2026 the Russian budget risks to receive more than 88 billion rubles in the form of unpaid taxes from cab drivers who have left legal transportation or will go to the "gray zone", - said Arseny Scheltsin.
Control on trust
In order to allow self-employed cab drivers to work legally, the State Duma has prepared amendments to the law "On the organization of passenger and luggage transportation by passenger cab", which involves changing the rules for passing daily medical examinations and checking the technical condition of the car such cab drivers . According to the author of the amendments, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Protection of Competition Sergei Lisovsky, it is proposed to introduce a "presumption of responsibility" for the self-employed, in which they will be spared from these now mandatory procedures, said the parliamentarian.
According to him, it is assumed thatbefore receiving an order from the aggregator, a self-employed cab driver working on a personal car, will have to fill out an electronic questionnaire in which he confirms that he is sober, has no health problems, and the car is in normal technical condition. If an accident occurs later and it turns out that the information in the questionnaire is incorrect, this will become an aggravating circumstance, Lisovsky emphasized.
"The model established in the law is designed for taxi fleets, but does not take into account that these rules self-employed drivers simply can not fulfill. In some cases it is necessary to drive several hundred kilometers to the point of technical inspection or medical examination. You can't put a technical inspection station in every village, and you can't put a paramedic to examine drivers. The introduction of questionnaires and the principle of presumption of responsibility will solve this problem," the deputy said.
The possibility to conduct remote medical examinations of cab drivers using telemedicine is not a solution, Lisovsky believes, as the creation of such points will require serious expenditures, primarily from regional budgets.
- We have calculated that only in the Kemerovo region it will be necessary to install at least 194 such terminals where cab drivers can check their health before starting work. Each of them costs about 700 thousand rubles. This is 220 million rubles just for their purchase and installation. In addition, about another 60 million rubles is needed annually for their maintenance, as well as for renting space in shopping centers and gas stations where they can be placed. This is a serious burden for the regional budget," said Sergey Lisovsky.
The abolition of compulsory medical examinations and technical condition checks for self-employed cab drivers will not affect safety, the deputy is sure. Since the driver uses personal transportation, he himself is interested in its serviceability. After all, otherwise the motorist will lose his source of income, and his family - the vehicle, he notes. At the same time, the procedures, which are mandatory for public transport, do not guarantee 100% safety, said the MP.
- Last year in St. Petersburg, a bus fell into the river, although the condition of the driver and the bus itself should have been thoroughly checked before it was released on the line," Sergey Lisovsky gave an example.
Changes with hindsight
The cab industry, which ranks third in our country in terms of passenger transportation, is highly regulated, said Stanislav Shvagerus, head of the competence center of the International Eurasian Forum "Taxi". According to him, in one way or another the functions of control over cab cars and their drivers are assigned to 11 federal government agencies.
- This over-regulation needs to be reduced. Now the requirements of the law go back to the times of the USSR, with classic taxi fleets. [The law] needs to be brought in line with current realities," he is sure.
Anton Shaparin, vice-president of the National Automobile Union (UAU), agrees with him. He also believes that the law "On Taxis" needs to be finalized. However, the changes should not cause this law, which has been in the works for a very long time, to stop working, the expert emphasizes.
- Obviously, the requirements for daily medical examinations of cab drivers and technical condition checks are now unworkable and unnecessary. They lead to an increase in the number of "gray" drivers. There is a rational grain in the deputies' proposals to replace the current procedures with questionnaires. These amendments may well become the basis for resolving issues with self-employed cab drivers," believes the Vice President of the NAC.
