Camera, taximotor: all cab passengers proposed to be videotaped
Cab cars will be obliged to be equipped with video recorders which will film the situation in the car's interior. A bill to this effect has been submitted to the State Duma. Deputies believe that this will improve the safety of both passengers and drivers. Experts agree, but call this proposal untimely and warn that it will lead to an increase in tariffs. Details - in the material "Izvestia".
Cab with a camera
For consideration of the State Duma introduced amendments to the law "On the organization of passenger and luggage transportation by passenger cab in the Russian Federation". The document is posted in the system of support of legislative activity of the Parliament. It assumes the mandatory equipping of cab cars with recorders that will record what is happening inside.
"In the cabin of a passenger cab and in the direction of its movement should be carried out video recording of the performance of passenger transportation. At the same time in the passenger cab cabin there should be information about video recording", - says the text of the bill.
The authors of the amendments note that the introduction of mandatory videotaping will enhance the safety of citizens when traveling in a cab, as well as the drivers themselves. As an example, they cite the recent tragedy in the Chelyabinsk region, when a female cab driver was killed by passengers. This led to mass protests in which about 150 people took part. The popular unrest was accompanied by shooting and burning of cars.
Video surveillance systems are successfully used in public transport, according to the explanatory note to the document. At the same time carriers are obliged to accumulate, process and store data in electronic form and provide access to information to law enforcement agencies. Such systems are not only a valid prevention of offenses, but also help to protect passengers in case of accidents or conflicts, say the authors of the initiative.
As an example, they cite Belarus, where mandatory video recording of the process of passenger transportation is already in place. It is designed to discipline the parties and provide additional security for citizens. Taxi fleets themselves will equip cars with recorders, according to the explanatory note to the bill.
"Expenses for the purchase of additional equipment by carriers are included in the taxable base, thereby reducing the tax burden for organizations," the authors of the amendments note.
The requirement to install cameras will help to avoid situations when passengers behave inappropriately - insult, humiliate, use physical force against cab drivers. And drivers sometimes molest and behave intrusively with cab passengers, Yaroslav Nilov, one of the authors of the bill and head of the State Duma Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans' Affairs, told Izvestia.
- This often provokes interethnic and inter-confessional discord, and this is unacceptable. Therefore, it is proposed to record everything that happens in a cab cabin. It will be a mandatory requirement for cab drivers, - said the MP.
In the event that the measure is not implemented, violators will incur administrative responsibility, added Yaroslav Nilov. According to Article 11.14.1 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation "Violation of the rules of transportation of passengers and luggage by passenger cab", the driver faces a fine of 1-3 thousand rubles. For an official the fine is 10 thousand rubles, and for a legal entity 30-50 thousand rubles.
No guarantees, but with an increase in fares
Video surveillance in cab cars is not a hundred percent guarantee of passenger and driver safety, said Irina Zaripova, chairman of the Public Council for Taxi Development.
- "If a person has an intention to murder, robbery or some other crime, he will simply tear off and throw away the video recorder installed in the cabin," she told Izvestia.
The installation of a recorder will certainly reduce the risk of disputable situations, Irina Zaripova agrees. However, in the current realities, with a high key rate, unavailability of credit funds, shortage of personnel and high insurance load, this measure looks untimely and ill-considered, she believes.
- There are already many different restrictions and requirements for cab drivers. Before introducing new mandatory rules, it is necessary to analyze and understand how the existing ones work. That is why we are in favor of adopting a strategy for the development of the taxi industry until 2035, which would systematize, among other things, legislative initiatives," Zaripova said.
The expert warns that the introduction of mandatory equipment of cab cars will inevitably affect the cost of trips.
- It only seems that the recorder is relatively inexpensive and does not play a special role in the overall costs of the carrier. But "a little bit of a recorder", "a little bit of the new OSGOP insurance".... So gradually accumulates a substantial amount, which as a result results in a noticeable increase in fares for cab services, - says Irina Zaripova.
In addition, the mandatory installation of recorders may violate passengers' right to privacy, she reminds. These devices are able to record personal conversations, including by phone, as well as the behavior and physical condition of passengers. The video recordings can later be uploaded to the Internet.
A record from the recorder in the cab cabin may become a proof of the rightness of one or another party to the conflict, but this device alone cannot prevent such a conflict, says Ilya Zotov, Chairman of the All-Russian Association of Passengers, Deputy Chairman of the Public Council at the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation. In his opinion, passengers will even lose from the introduction of this mandatory requirement.
- At whose expense will these devices be purchased? If at the expense of cab drivers, it is obvious that these costs will be compensated by an increase in the fare. And if any self-employed driver with a personal car does not want to film himself and the interior of his car, he will either leave this industry altogether or move into the gray zone. As a result, there will be fewer legal cab cars, which means that the waiting time of a client for a car will increase," Ilya Zotov told Izvestia.
In his opinion, the only party that will remain on the plus side in case of adoption of the initiative will be the manufacturers of recorders: they will get huge opportunities to sell their products.
Taxi regulation
Maxim Shusharin, the director of the managing organization of the cab ordering service Maxim, calls the idea of placing a video recorder in the cabin of a car with checkers sensible. But at the same time, the vast majority of taxi fleet owners have already installed such devices in their cars without the mandatory requirement of the law - at least to understand how the car's tenant behaves, he notes.
- However, outside the Moscow agglomeration and St. Petersburg, there are almost no taxicabs. In the regions, 98% of carriers are private drivers who provide services using private cars, mostly as part-time work. Forcing them to buy an additional device means once again hindering their legalization," Maxim Shusharin said in a conversation with Izvestia.
He stressed that the current law "On Taxis" contains quite a lot of unrealizable requirements on daily inspections, MTPL, MTPL, trip tickets and repainting personal cars in the color of cabs. The introduction of a mandatory registrar will be another one of them, the expert believes.
- All this provokes an exodus of drivers from aggregators. The gray market of transportation via chat rooms in social networks and messengers is growing in the regions. Drivers should not be burdened with new requirements, but urgently brought out of the shadows under digital control. This can only be done by simplifying the requirements," Maxim Shusharin is convinced.
Not to check
Stanislav Shvagerus, head of the competence center of the international Eurasian forum "Taxi", agrees with him. According to him, it will be practically impossible to control the fulfillment of the new requirement.
- Who will check whether there is a [real] recorder in the car or its moulage? And if it is a recorder, does it work? You can't put a controller in every car. In addition, questions will inevitably arise as to what kind of recorders should be used in cabs: is an ordinary device bought on a marketplace or car market sufficient, or is a specially certified device required? All this will further bureaucratize the taxi industry," he predicts.
Maxim Kadakov, editor-in-chief of Za Rulem magazine, also believes that there may be problems with the implementation of the initiative if the bill is passed. Besides, having a recorder in the car is not a panacea, he believes.
- In part, recorders can help prevent conflicts in cabs, although we know that robberies and shootings also happen on streets with cameras," he says.
Dactyloscopy, polygraph and cap
Igor Morzharetto, a member of the Presidium of the Public Council under the RF Ministry of Internal Affairs, agrees that the current legislation in the sphere of taxi transportation is highly regulated and bureaucratized. The introduction of another mandatory requirement for cab drivers and carriers will only exacerbate this problem.
- We already have the obligation to repaint cab cars in a certain color, which differs from region to region, and the installation of checkers, and a number of other requirements. Now they are planning to oblige cab cars to be equipped with recorders. With this approach, we can quickly reach the point of outright absurdity: for example, forcing cab drivers to undergo daily fingerprinting and polygraph tests, obliging them to carry passengers only in uniform or in a cap with emblems that cab drivers had in the USSR," he complained.
Conflicts are not rare
Conflicts and disputes between drivers and passengers, unfortunately, are not rare. For example, in late summer, a cab passenger in the Moscow region refused to pay the fare and beat up a cab driver. According to the regional prosecutor's office, the victim required medical attention. A little earlier, in July this year, in Moscow, a cab driver shot a passenger several times in the head with a traumatic gun during a conflict. The victim was hospitalized. In April, in the Volgograd region, two young men beat up a cab driver who died at the scene from his injuries. According to the investigation, the conflict arose because the deceased refused to carry passengers for free.
Both need protection from conflict situations that arise between cab drivers and passengers, convinced the chairman of the Union of Pedestrians Vladimir Sokolov. In his opinion, video recorders, which are planned to equip cab cars, will reduce the number of such disputes.
- Recently, much has been done to improve the safety of travel in cabs: it is a ban on the work of drivers to people who have an unexpunged or unexpunged criminal record, and the introduction of MTPL insurance for passengers of this type of transport. The proposal to install video recorders in cabs is also aimed at improving the safety of travel. Such devices in the cabin of cab cars will definitely not be superfluous," he told Izvestia.
The expert reminded that similar devices appeared in the salons of patrol cars of the State Automobile Inspectorate quite a long time ago and fulfill their function well. After their appearance, disputes between motorists and traffic police became noticeably less.
Elena Grashchenkova, a human rights activist in the field of passenger cabs, supports the initiative of deputies and senators. In her opinion, on the one hand it may seem doubtful from the point of view of personal space, but on the other hand - a video recorder in a cab is a worldwide practice.
- In the U.S., for example, it is not enough that in the cab hangs a sign that warns about video recording, and the driver is separated from the passenger. The video recording will allow to understand what really happened between the driver and the passenger during the conflict and whether it can become a reason for an audit in the taxi company. It is also necessary to have a warning in the cabin about the video recording: this will prevent possible violations on the part of both driver and passenger, - said Elena Graschenkova.
The introduction of video registration is unlikely to increase the price of cabs, as the rise in prices depends on the rise in the price of cars and monopoly in the field of cab transportation, said the human rights activist. Additional costs, in her opinion, can be placed on aggregators, as they are currently responsible for the quality of transportation.
