Taxi drivers' expenses for car maintenance have become known

Taxi drivers who use private cars spend up to 25% of their monthly income on car maintenance. This is stated in the results of a study by analysts of the online platform Uremont, which Izvestia reviewed on May 15.

Experts have studied the cost structure of taxi drivers in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Sochi, Krasnodar and others. The sample includes data on drivers who use personal cars at the Comfort rate for Chery Tiggo 7 Pro, Geely Atlas Pro, Hyundai Sonata, Kia Optima and K5, as well as Belgee X70. It turned out that taxi drivers spend up to a quarter of their income on car maintenance every month with an average salary of 100.9 thousand rubles.

A taxi car travels 60-80 thousand km per year, which is three to four times more than the average private car. The oil and filters on a taxi car have to be changed not once a year, but every two to three months. The most expensive item was the replacement of oil, filters and consumables (pads, belts, candles), on average it takes 15.6 thousand rubles. Among the listed cars, the amount varies from 10 thousand to 25 thousand rubles. It is noted that every fifth taxi driver has experienced a breakdown over the past year, which "ate up" weekly earnings.

"Spending is especially painful if they are also trying to deceive the taxi driver in the service — to impose unnecessary work, replace spare parts with more expensive ones, or simply inflate the receipt. It turns into a vicious circle: in order to cover the repair costs, you need to work harder, and the more you work, the more often the car breaks down," said Alexander Petrov, Partner Relations Director at Uremont.

Experts also pointed out that the increase in the VAT rate to 22% prompted most car service stations to raise prices for each line of services by an average of 1 thousand rubles in January this year. A small part of the SRT is still delaying the moment, trying to take "quantity," they noted.

On a short shoulder: taxi drivers will be able to issue one-day insurance policies

What will the adopted amendments to the law on liability insurance of carriers lead to?

On March 4, the Ministry of Industry and Trade published a list of domestically produced cars that fall under the approved parameters of the law on taxi localization. The ministry recalled that this list suggests the possibility of regular updates, taking into account models that will be produced in Russia under the SPIC with commitments to deepen localization.