The driver from the Tula region was recognized as the best taxi driver in Russia

The final of the VIII All-Russian professional skills Competition "The best taxi driver in Russia" has ended in Omsk. Ruslan Tesakov, a representative of the Tula region, became the winner of the 2025-2026 season. He received a new Lada Iskra car, a cash prize of 150,000 rubles and the title of the best taxi driver in the country. This was announced to Izvestia on August 3 by the organizer of the competition, the Public Council for Taxi Development.

Oleg Shvydchenko from St. Petersburg took the second place, he received 100 thousand rubles. The third place and 50 thousand rubles went to Julian Pleskanovsky from the Republic of Mordovia.

The federal final was held in Omsk for the first time, and 31 drivers from different regions of the country took part in it. Prior to that, the participants won the regional stages of the competition. The final consisted of three stages. In the theoretical part, the drivers answered questions on the legislation of the taxi industry, the history and geography of the Russian Federation.

At the practical stage, the participants competed in pairs. In three minutes, they had to complete a set of exercises: reverse into the garage, perform parallel parking, go through the "snake" with a variable step in reverse, make a 90-degree turn and stop exactly in front of the stop line.

The theme of the creative stage was "Childhood and children", in which the finalists talked about their regions, family traditions and childhood dreams, and the jury evaluated the culture of speech, the depth of disclosure of the topic, the originality of the idea, artistry and artistic design of performances.

The competition "The best taxi driver in Russia" has been held since 2018. Over 250 drivers from 48 regions of the country have participated in the federal finals in eight seasons.

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