Route whip: a third of bus carriers in Russia operate illegally
The number of illegal bus carriers in Russia has exceeded 30%, the All-Russian Association of Passengers (OOP) told Izvestia. They do not have insurance for passengers, tax reporting, control over equipment and working conditions. The Ministry of Transport plans to launch a digital assessment system for carriers to get rid of illegal immigrants. The details of the reform and how it will affect the work of public transport are in the Izvestia article.
New control scheme
The Ministry of Transport plans to adjust the digital assessment system for bus carriers in order to remove illegal immigrants from the market, follows from the draft order of the department, which was reviewed by Izvestia. In addition, risk indicators indicating violations by carriers will be finalized. The existing criteria have an effectiveness below 75%, which is insufficient for control, according to the explanatory note to the document.
The new scheme for searching for illegal immigrants will be based on a digital register of licenses and a register of regular transportation routes, the explanatory note says.
— Now they want to bring together the register of licenses, which contains the numbers of the carrier's buses, permits for the regular route, data on the contracts of the OSGOP (compulsory insurance of civil liability of the carrier. — Ed.), information about bus stations, GLONASS tracks on the movement of transport, as well as information about passengers and crews, which along a number of routes should be reflected in the state transport security system," Sergey Khrapach, chairman of the Board of the Mezhregionautotrans association, told Izvestia.
Putting all the information together, Rostransnadzor specialists will be able to identify illegal immigrants or violators of licensing requirements with 100% accuracy and punish them, the expert notes.
According to the All-Russian Association of Passengers (OOP), the number of illegal immigrants in the market is now at least 30%. Most of them operate on routes between large cities and small towns.
— If such transportation from Moscow to the nearest regions in the illegal sector is minimal, then in the south of the country and in Siberia they are extremely popular, — Ilya Zotov, chairman of the PLO, told Izvestia. — This is caused by a shortage of legal routes or an inconvenient timetable and high fare.
Illegal immigrants do not have passenger insurance, tax reporting, control over equipment and working conditions. As a result, a chaotic market is emerging, which is extremely difficult to control, the expert noted.
According to the Public Consumer Initiative (OPI), common violations of bus carriers are the refusal to use cash registers, concealment of revenue, non-compliance with flight schedules, disembarkation of minors, non-compliance with traffic regulations and inspection rules. Moreover, according to the latest indicator, violations have doubled in three years, the OPI reported.
The transition to a risk-based control model is underway, the press service of Rostransnadzor told Izvestia. This is done in order to reduce the overall administrative burden on controlled persons and increase the effectiveness of control and supervisory activities. Inspections are planned depending on the level of risk of harm caused by carriers, the agency added.
Prior to the introduction of the risk-based approach, inspections were conducted at regular intervals. This often led to inefficient use of resources, Rostransnadzor noted.
Meanwhile, not all experts share the positions of the service.
"Due to the reform of control and supervisory activities, the relevant authorities have actually lost a number of powers," Anton Shaparin, vice President of the National Automobile Union (NAS), told Izvestia. — It is believed that if there is no harm to human life and health, then inspections of trucking companies are unacceptable without a prosecutor's sanction.
As a result, players who do not have the necessary documents appeared on the market, the expert noted.
According to Shaparin, now the authorities are trying to come up with "patches" — digital schemes that identify violators.
Izvestia sent a request to the Ministry of Transport and major bus carriers with a request to comment on the situation.
How illegal immigrants work in bus transportation
— The problem of the new methodology lies in the information provided by the departments. For example, about 360,000 buses have been entered into the register of licenses, and a third more according to other databases. It turns out that almost every third bus in the country is illegal, which, in our opinion, is impossible," Tatyana Rakulova, chairman of the Association of Passenger Carriers, told Izvestia.
In her opinion, working on the line on a daily basis, it is impossible not to get on regular Rostransnadzor raids. All statistics on violations in this area are based on erroneous data. It should be assumed that some of the vehicles are registered, but not operated, the market participant noted.
— Fines start from 100 thousand and reach up to 400 thousand rubles for each violation, — Sergey Khrapach noted. — Therefore, it is difficult to carry out transportation on regular routes without a license, and the assessment of illegal immigrants in 30% of the market is not based on objective indicators.
It is another matter if transportation is carried out on vehicles that are not subject to licensing, for example, on eight-seater minibuses using shared travel services. Such carriers do not fall under the control of Rostransnadzor, the expert noted.
— Bus carriers usually solve the problem of local control simply. They corrupt officials and keep driving," Anton Shaparin said. — The problem is pronounced in the southern regions of the country. The carriers there are affiliated with local diasporas, especially in the Chernozem region, Lipetsk, Voronezh, etc. Many instead of eight-seater minibuses put their extended 20-seater versions on routes. They also have large 40—seat buses in their parks that run long-distance trips.
According to US, all illegal immigrants have the same problems: poor quality of rolling stock, lack of technical control and gray ticket sales. All this communally creates dangerous situations in the transportation market.
According to the Scientific Center for Road Safety of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, buses are the transport with the highest level of risk, Anton Shaparin continues. But it is also impossible to cut off from the shoulder, so as not to deprive many settlements of transport links, where legal buses do not travel due to the low solvency of the population, he noted.
According to Ilya Zotov, it would be advisable to tighten control over illegal transportation by blocking websites and chat rooms that offer joint trips in minibuses with more than nine seats, additionally saturating the legal sector with a variable route network with affordable tickets.
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