Digital checkers: a special legal regime may be introduced for taxis
The Center for Strategic Research, together with the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Transport, insurers and carriers, has prepared a program for an experimental legal regime for taxis. It involves the active introduction of artificial intelligence and digital technologies in the field of passenger transportation. Izvestia found out the details.
"Digit" instead of paper
According to the Center for Strategic Research (CSR), only 1% of the total number of travel documents (about 10 thousand copies) are issued daily by taxi drivers in electronic format. This was stated by the Director General of the CSR Pavel Smelov during a meeting of the Public Council under the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation.
— We see that travel documents are issued either as or not at all. "Paper is a serious barrier for taxi drivers, especially for the self—employed," he said. According to him, a similar pattern is also observed in the registration of daily technical and medical examinations by drivers.
The General Director of the CSR took the initiative to introduce an experimental legal regime (EPR) for passenger taxi transportation, which provides for the transfer of all paper documents — travel documents, inspection and medical certificates, as well as insurance — into electronic form. To do this, it is necessary to implement a single application for taxi drivers, in which they can digitally process all these documents.
He noted that switching to digital would not only simplify the process of completing the necessary documents, but would also eliminate drivers from entering the route without them. Such a measure will allow to bring to a new level the control and transparency of technical control and pre-trip medical examinations, registration of "vouchers", accelerate the process of obtaining insurance in case of an accident and, as a result, increase the level of safety of passenger transportation in a taxi, Pavel Smelov is sure.
As part of the EPR, Pavel Smelov also proposed to abandon the ban on the fulfillment of orders by carriers outside the region of registration. In his opinion, this will increase the accessibility and transparency of intercity transportation by taxi.
The experiments were considered successful
There are already 18 EPR systems in operation in Russia, four of them relate to land transportation, said Vladimir Voloshin, Director of the Department of Digital Development and Data Economics at the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation. As an example, he cited the EPR concerning self-driving cars.
— They are successfully operating and expanding: the other day, the movement of such unmanned vehicles was launched along the Central Ring Road, — he recalled.
According to him, experimental legal regimes were primarily created in order to test the effectiveness of certain legislative initiatives and to develop law enforcement practice. The representative of the Ministry of Economic Development supported the proposals to introduce EPR for passenger transportation.
The Ministry of Transport is not against EPR for taxis either. According to Dmitry Zverev, State Secretary and Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation, such a regime is a living tool that allows legislators to vary legal acts depending on market needs, certain gaps in related areas of law, and regional specifics.
Globally, the future of Russia's transport system lies in development, including digitalization, said Tatyana Gorovaya, Chairman of the Public Council under the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation.
— Automatic synchronization with the state information system of electronic transportation documents, operated by the Ministry of Transport, is important. We see the convenience of the proposed digital profile, because it contains information about electronic travel documents, data on medical and technical examinations, and all this is synchronized online," she said.
Passengers in the "plus"
Passengers will also benefit from the introduction of EPR, Pavel Smelov is sure. In addition to improving transportation safety, such a measure will help reduce the cost of travel, he believes.
— Using artificial intelligence, which will be able to estimate the amount of damage from an accident based on a photo, the insurance claim settlement process will be significantly accelerated: the victim can receive payment within 10 minutes after photographing the damage through the application. This will reduce vehicle downtime while waiting for the insurer's decision, which will reduce the carrier's costs by about 20%," said the CEO of CSR. As a result, this will reduce the shortage of taxi cars on the line and eventually reduce transportation tariffs, he stressed.
The Director of Corporate Relations and Government Relations at Yandex agrees with him. Taxi" Anton Petrakov. According to him, the digitalization of documents necessary for drivers and the transfer of these documents to government agencies will strengthen control over this area of transportation. And the refusal to link the carrier to the region where it is registered will reduce the shortage of drivers in a number of regions of the federation by 40-50%, he believes. In addition, if a single application for taxi drivers takes into account the profile of the driver and his emergency history, this will reduce the cost of carriers for CTP policies by about 30%, which will also have a positive impact on tariffs, Anton Petrakov noted.
Insurance companies are interested in any kind of digitalization, said Marina Lyashenko, an expert on the development of insurance market technologies at the Fintech Association. According to her, the introduction of EPR for passenger transportation "takes the relationship between carriers and insurance companies to a new level."
Be careful with the prohibitions
The introduction of digital services and EPR due to greater control over carriers and drivers will reduce accidents in passenger transportation, said Ilya Zotov, deputy chairman of the Public Council under the Ministry of Transport. He also considers it necessary to abandon the "binding" of carriers to a particular region.
— The driver will not travel from point "A" to point "B" in another region if he cannot legally take an order at point "B". This contributes to "carpooling" — illegal intercity transportation using messenger chats, he noted.
Sergey Semenov, Director of the Department of State Policy in the field of Automobile and Urban Passenger Transport at the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, believes that the issue of lifting the ban on carriers registered in one region to carry out orders in another should be approached very carefully. It is important that taxis do not replace official inter-regional bus transportation, he noted.
Sergey Aleksyuk, Head of the Department of Taxi Transportation Development at the Moscow Department of Transport, shares a similar point of view. In this case, it is possible to cross with intercity bus services, he stressed.
"Bombed" cannot be defeated by "numbers"
Digitalization of taxi transportation alone will not make this industry more transparent and increase the safety of such transportation, said Boris Laurent, a member of the Board of the Russian Motor Transport Union and a member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation. To do this, it is necessary, first of all, to stop clandestine and illegal transportation by the forces of regulatory and law enforcement agencies, he emphasizes.
— No EPR will help as long as passengers are greeted by "bombers" at the exit from the train station and airport, twirling car keys on their fingers. No "figure" can save you from them," Boris Laurent said.
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