Seven times more dangerous: why taxi drivers drive very badly. Seven times more dangerous: why taxi drivers drive very badly Why are taxi drivers called
I'm a bagel all day long
I squeeze in my palms,
Ice all around, blizzard,
But I am not discouraged.
Taxi driver by profession
And know the fate
I drove, and you pay
Moscow is big.
How did you get started as a taxi driver?
Back in the 18th century in France, a businessman opened an inn for horse-drawn carriages. It was located near the chapel of St. Fiacre, the patron saint of amateur gardeners. Each carriage was decorated with a bas-relief of this saint and hired transport was called "fiacre". He then became the first hired crew. Fiacres were intended to transport people, when the carriages belonged to high-ranking nobles.
But already in 1896, the Automobile Club of France proposed to motorize fiacres, previously they were harnessed by horses. All the harness was removed from the fiacre, a gasoline engine was installed at the back, and a steering column and control levers were installed at the front. But then there were disputes on the subject of wages. And only in 1905 they invented a counter - a taximeter. He then resolved all disputes, and the crew began to be called a taxi or a taxi.
Taxis differ from personal vehicles in color, taxis are in most cases yellow and with a mandatory attribute - checkers. Where did these skewers come from? According to one version, they appeared on American taxis of the Checker Taxi of Chicago company. The word "Checker" in translation means - "checkered pattern".
The profession of a taxi driver is on the list of the most dangerous professions in the world. They themselves call it not a profession, but a vocation. And that you need to be born a taxi driver.
To date, the profession of a taxi driver is very popular not only among the male population, but also among the weaker sex. There are entire taxi companies where only women work. The secret is that they serve only women. Very convenient, isn't it, if you are a fragile young woman who needs to go somewhere late at night. You call a female taxi and calmly eat. At your service is provided comfortable transport, filled with the aroma of perfume, pleasant music and even an interlocutor in the person of the driver. During the trip, you can fix your hair, tint your lips and this will not embarrass you in any way. The external distinguishing feature of this service are pink cars.
There are quite a few taxi drivers who combine work in a taxi with the main one. It's not a bad extra income. Here is one very interesting example. In the city of Vinnitsa, in Ukraine, one young priest combines the work of a taxi driver with the service in several churches. He started working as a taxi driver after he had an accident. Of course, he came to Vladyka and asked for permission. Vladyka said that every work, every labor beautifies a person, if it is labor for the good of a person.
There are many interesting, and in some cases bizarre to the ridiculous, facts about taxis in different countries.
For example, in Australia, every taxi driver must have a bale of hay in the trunk. Once upon a time, when transportation was carried out in horse-drawn carriages, this law was adopted. Since then, no one has repealed the law, and modern taxi drivers adhere to it.
In Chile, taxis are stylized as cows, they signal with the voice of cows, mooing, and the seats are made in the form of a cow's udder. True, there are only 10 such cars.
In Vietnam, taxis are elephants. They transport their clients anywhere.
There are also rules for communication between taxi drivers and customers. They are different in different countries.
England
In London, the driver always sits behind a partition, and the luggage is next to him in the front seat.
Israel
In the promised land, only snow-white taxis drive. Everyone knows that Israelis do not work from Friday evening to Saturday evening, but there is an exception for taxi drivers. During this time, an additional fee applies. But only a tourist can use taxi services, because at this time Jews are not allowed to touch money.
China
Chinese taxi drivers charge the smallest fares in the world. For ten dollars you can drive a huge distance. This is probably because taxis in China do not always smell good - drivers often neglect personal hygiene and there is an unpleasant smell in the car.
Mexico
Taxi drivers in Mexico often act as tour guides. But you have to be careful. Due to the very high criminogenic situation, a taxi driver can take you to nooks and crannies where you can simply be robbed.
The profession of a taxi driver has both positive and negative aspects.
Positive is a constant good income, they are always aware of everyone latest news and events (not without reason there is a so-called taxi driver's mail), a huge opportunity to communicate with different people during the trip. Admit that a taxi driver can very easily take on the role of a psychologist. All sorts of situations provide him with such an opportunity.
But there are also negative ones, and, unfortunately, there are many more of them. First of all, it is very dangerous profession especially at night. There are many cases of robbery and even murder of drivers in order to seize vehicles and proceeds. A taxi driver must be able to repel criminal elements. Also, at the time of the trip, he is responsible for your safety, and this is a very big responsibility. This work is sedentary, diet and sleep are disturbed. Which leads to various chronic diseases.
I'm eating checkers on the roof,
I run into traffic jams
And let my Zhiguli breathe.
I go everywhere...
Often taxi drivers violate traffic rules. But look at our expensive and traffic jams. Constant repairs to the chassis and replacement of worn tires. True, they say that in Russia there are two problems - fools and roads. But this, of course, is not an excuse for them, but a consequence of nervous breakdowns.
So who are these taxi drivers really?
Each taxi driver has his own interesting and eventful life. Not everyone works all their lives as taxi drivers. Someone was a worker, someone was a teacher, an engineer, but, in the end, all of them are united by one word - "TAXI". For them, work has become the meaning of life, their way of being. The calendar even has a holiday - Taxi Driver Day (March 22). Taxi museums are open in some countries. They were created at the expense of the association. Moscow has the largest museum in the world.
The roles of a taxi driver are not few played in the cinema by great artists. Anatoly Papanov in the film " The Diamond Arm”, Arkady Raikin in the trilogy “People and Mannequins”. Why do you think taxi drivers are given so much attention in art? Yes, because taxi drivers are the most romantic profession.
Imagine how many passengers it carries per day, how many destinies it meets. Involuntarily, you have to pass through each of them. Isn't it true, any of them could write more than one story or feuilleton.
There are among the taxi drivers and special category"linguists". Such drivers are very popular in the capitals and major cities especially in resorts. Many visiting foreigners wish to be served by such taxis. . Learn languages future taxi drivers, and success is guaranteed to you!
And one more very important point. The taxi driver must know thoroughly all the streets and nooks and crannies of the city. Names of firms and plants, offices and shopping centers. Without it, it will simply be impossible to work. Of course in the world modern technologies there are navigators, but they are not perfect and often make mistakes in choosing the right route. Therefore, rely on the navigator, but do not make a mistake yourself!
I would like to wish our dear taxi drivers a green traffic light on the road, a profitable business, a lot of grateful passengers and a huge cash desk. And as a passenger, say thank you! - for hard work, for fast and safe driving on our bad roads and endless traffic jams.
Anton Serdyukov writes: I am a freelancer. There is a lot of free time between orders. So I decided to find a part-time job with flexible hours. An advertisement caught my eye: they were looking for taxi drivers. It seemed that this was an ideal option: you can work when it is convenient, plus they give you a car for rent.
At first I only taxied when I had free time, but then I decided to take it seriously and worked for 4 full days. It became clear that it was hard to combine two jobs, and I left. I’ll tell you how to get a job as a taxi driver, what the salary depends on and what are the pitfalls.
Choosing an aggregator
An aggregator is an Internet intermediary between a driver and a passenger. The client orders a car through a mobile application, and the system sends the order to the driver. The most popular aggregators in Russia are Yandex Taxi, Uber and Gett.
If you have your own car, you can work with the aggregator directly. If you don't have a car, you can rent one at the taxi depot. The driver pays a fixed amount for using the car, plus the aggregator takes a commission from each trip.
I chose between Yandex Taxi and Uber. I settled on Yandex: other taxi drivers said that it had better navigation and lower commission.
Some taxi drivers work with two aggregators at once so as not to be idle without orders, but I abandoned this idea. Firstly, the sounds of notifications in the application are already distracting from the road - and here there will be twice as many of them. Secondly, if orders for a trip come to both Uber and Yandex Taxi at the same time, one will have to be abandoned, and this lowers the driver's rating - I will talk about it below.
Having decided on the aggregator, I left a request on the Yandex Taxi website, and they called me back in a few minutes. Upon learning that I didn’t have my own car, a Yandex representative gave me a list of taxi companies in St. Petersburg where I could rent a car.
If I had Personal car, I would not mess with the taxi company. Firstly, I would save on taxes and instead of 13% personal income tax I would pay 6% according to a simplified system - you need to be an individual entrepreneur to work with Yandex Taxi. Secondly, as it turned out later, the taxi company sometimes delays payments, and Yandex transferred money to my colleagues who worked directly.
Agreement with a taxi company
After a call from Yandex Taxi, I went to the taxi company's website and left a request. They called me right away and set me up for an interview. They asked me to bring my passport and driver's license.
At the office, I filled out a questionnaire, the manager told me about the working conditions. Two hours after the interview, they called me back and said that they were ready to cooperate.
They signed an agency agreement with me for the provision of services for connecting to taxi services and a car rental agreement. Moreover, the fact that I rent a car to work in a taxi was not indicated in the documents. Nobody formalized any employment relationship with me - the vacation and the hospital taxi driver pays for himself. As well as income tax at 13%.
According to the car rental agreement, technical inspection, repair and insurance are the care of the taxi company. But if something happens to the car through the fault of the driver, you will have to pay for repairs at your own expense. In addition, the taxi driver must use his own money to refuel the car, pay for parking and washing, and also pay fines.
Before handing over the car, an employee of the taxi company, together with me, examined it and entered all the damage into the acceptance certificate. I advise you to take this carefully: if later on the car there are dents or scratches that are not indicated in the act, the cost of repairs will be withheld from you.
The rent may be fixed, or it may depend on the period for which you take the car: the longer it is, the cheaper it will be. On average in St. Petersburg, prices range from 1600 to 1800 R per day.
The car is always with the driver, every day it is not necessary to return it to the taxi company. When the rental period ends, the car needs to be washed: a dirty one will not be accepted back.
Agency agreement for connection to the aggregator. The taxi fleet creates an account for the driver in the Yandex-Taxi system for free and undertakes to pay him the money earned once a week
Working conditions
I managed to work in two different taxi companies - let's call them "Orion" and "Saturn". Their conditions were very different. For example, in Orion they issued a fuel card for a large network of filling stations and obliged them to refuel only there. In "Saturn" it was possible to refuel anywhere. Orion kept a deposit of 2000 R from the driver every week, which was given after the car was returned, provided that everything was in order with it. There were no pledges at Saturn.
2000 R held one of the taxi companies as collateral
In Saturn, they generally formally approached many things. For example, a taxi company is required by law to issue waybills to the driver. If a taxi with a passenger is stopped by a traffic police officer and the driver does not have a waybill, the driver may receive a fine of 3,000 R. In Orion, drivers received at the beginning of the week exactly as many waybills as they were going to work, and once a week the head of the convoy took the documents from them. In Saturn, they simply gave me a pack of waybills “with a margin”, no one followed their filling.
Every day, before entering the line, the driver is obliged to come to the taxi company and undergo a pre-trip medical examination. In Orion, I was fined 300 R for entering the line without a medical examination. In Saturn, they said that I can undergo a medical examination where I want.
Despite the fact that Orion worked strictly according to the law, I liked Saturn more. First of all, due to the lack of medical examinations: it is expensive to go to the taxi company every day both in terms of time and money. In addition, there was no red tape with waybills. Yes, and I refueled where I wanted. But this is my opinion as a driver - a taxi passenger may have a different opinion.
How did the working conditions in Orion and Saturn differ?
| Condition | "Orion" | "Saturn" |
|---|---|---|
| Car rental | 1600 R per day | 1800 R per day - daily 1700 R per day - from 10 days 1600 R per day - from 20 days |
| First day of rental | Free until 10am the next day | Free until 00:00 the next day |
| Taxi fleet commission | 5% of the order value | No |
| How to get rent | Debited from the personal account in the Yandex Taximeter application | By transfer to a bank card or in cash at the office of the taxi company |
| Fuel payment | With the help of a fuel card of a certain gas station network. The money is debited the next day from the driver's account in the Yandex Taximeter application | Cash at any gas station |
| Pledge | 2000 R per week | No |
| Waybills | Issued strictly by the number of shifts, carefully checked | An empty waybill is issued, fill out - if desired |
| Medical examinations | Spend every day, a fine for going to work without a medical examination - 300 R | You can go to any medical institution yourself. There are no sanctions from the taxi company |
| Car branding | Stickers "Yandex-taxi", branded checkers on the roof | Ordinary car without any taxi signs |
| Inspection at the taxi depot | Two times a week | No |
| Vehicle and transmission | Skoda Rapid, automatic | Hyundai Solaris, mechanical |
Yandex taximeter
Before taxiing, you need to install the Yandex Taximeter application. It only works on Android. The app will ask you to enter a phone number. If the taxi company has correctly connected you to the system, then you will receive an SMS with a password.
The main purpose of Taximeter is to transmit information about orders. In addition, the application shows how much the driver earned, where he went, etc.
To start accepting orders, you need to move the slider in the upper right part of the screen from the “Busy” position to the “On Line” position. When an order arrives, the driver has a few seconds to agree.
At this moment, the driver sees only the place where the passenger is waiting, and the time that must be spent to get there. Information about the final destination and the cost of the trip will appear only after the client gets into the car. This is done so that drivers do not choose only those orders on which they can earn a lot. If you agree and then reject the offer, it will affect the driver's rating.
The main page of the application "Yandex Taximeter"
Rating. This is the average rating given by passengers to the driver in the Yandex Taxi app. For example, if 30 passengers put a four, and 20 - a five, then his rating will be 4.4. Only grades from the last 60 days are taken into account.
The rating affects the distribution of orders. If at the time of the order there are several taxis at approximately the same distance from the client, Taximeter will give the order to the driver with a higher rating. In the end than less rating the less often orders come. If it drops below 4, orders will stop coming at all.
If you want passengers to give you fives, and your rating goes up, I recommend being polite, driving carefully and helping with luggage. Keeping up a conversation during the trip is worth it only if the client himself is determined to communicate: some passengers are annoyed by obsession.
Information about my rating, the percentage of accepted and completed orders in Taximeter
Arriving at the place of order, you must press the button "On the spot" in the application. If you arrived faster than the navigator calculated, you will have to wait until the time allotted for them to travel to the place expires. Only after this will the countdown of the passenger's waiting time begin - the first five minutes the taxi is waiting for the client for free. If the driver is late, the passenger will still get their free five minutes of waiting.
Most of the time, orders came to me smoothly, but there were periods of calm. If there are no customers, then it is better to rush to where there are not enough cars. On the map in the application, such areas are highlighted in color: the darker the area, the more taxis are needed there. The darkest - purple - color is the zone of increased demand. There are not enough cars here and there are double tariffs - you can earn more.
This is a weekday morning demand map. On the outskirts of the city, increased demand: everyone goes to work. In the evening - vice versa
If you want to take a break or it's time to finish work, the driver must move the slider to the "Busy" position. Taximeter will offer to search for orders on the way home: the home address is specified in advance in the settings. But then how lucky: I got a passing order only once.
Quality control
"Yandex Taxi" checks the quality of service not only with the help of passenger ratings, but also in other ways. They look to see if the car is clean and not seriously damaged. If you are transporting children, there must be a child seat in the cabin. They also check whether the car model, color and number match those entered during registration with the aggregator. The driver must always have a driver's license, vehicle registration certificate, OSAGO policy and a waybill with him.
To check all this, Yandex-taxi uses mobile and photo control. Once every three days, the application reminds you that it is time to go through photo control: right in the application, you must take a picture of the car from all sides, as well as an open trunk, interior and all documents. If you ignore the message, then in an hour they will close access to new orders.
I recommend taking pictures in quiet place, for example in a parking lot or, in extreme cases, on a street where there is no heavy traffic. Otherwise, you will not be able to take a good picture of the left side of the car and you will have to run out into the roadway, risking getting under the wheels.
With mobile control check the same. The difference is that the check is carried out personally and without warning. You receive a regular order, but after you accept it, the system asks you to arrive at a certain point for control, where Yandex-taxi employees are already waiting. In my case, it was usually a parking lot at a large shopping center. Controllers take pictures of the car themselves and check if all the documents are in place.
I went through mobile control twice, no problems arose. Interestingly, the driver receives a reward for passing mobile control - as if he had completed a regular order. Moreover, the aggregator does not take a commission. The last time I earned 64 R in 10 minutes: I spent 5 minutes to get to the checkpoint, the same amount for the procedure itself.
personal account
Each driver in "Yandex-taxi" open a personal account. Its status can be monitored in the "Taximeter" in the "Balance" tab. Through this account, all settlements between the aggregator, the taxi fleet and the driver are carried out. From here, Yandex writes off its commission, and the taxi company - money for renting a car.
When a passenger pays for a taxi using a card, the money is automatically credited to your account. Sometimes there are shifts when most customers pay in cash and there is nothing to write off from the account. In this case, you can replenish the balance yourself: in Orion I did this through a special terminal, in Saturn I simply gave money to a taxi company employee. If you go negative, the aggregator will disconnect the driver from orders. Therefore, it is better to replenish the account with a margin.
In addition to the balance, Taximeter automatically calculates earnings. This is the driver's revenue minus the commissions of the aggregator and the taxi fleet. Tips and aggregator bonuses, including so-called subsidies, are included in the revenue. A client can leave a tip in the Yandex-taxi mobile application, and they will be debited from bank card. The aggregator does not take commission from tips.
Subsidies are awarded for the execution of orders that cost less than 100 R. In fact, Yandex-taxi pays extra money for trips that are not beneficial to the driver. For example, for an order that will cost the client 79 R, the driver will be paid 21 R extra. This is done so that taxi drivers do not refuse small orders, and customers use the service even for trips over short distances.
Expenses
The main expenses of the driver, in addition to rent, are gasoline, aggregator commission and car wash.
For gasoline in four days of work, I spent 3330 R. Of these, only 2112 R - 13% of the revenue - fell on the fuel that I burned while fulfilling orders. The remaining 1218 R went to waste: I went to the taxi company and back, rode around the city in search of orders, etc. If you work in areas of high demand and do not move aimlessly around the city, you can reduce idle mileage.
Commission"Yandex-taxi" depends on the cost of the trip: the more expensive it is, the less the aggregator takes from the driver. Below 15%, my commission did not fall. The maximum that had to be paid was 28%. On average, for four days of work, I paid the aggregator 18% of the revenue - 2754 R.
Washing cost 300 R. For all the time that I worked, there was no rain and the car did not get dirty. At the beginning of each shift, I myself wiped the windows, shook out the rugs and cleaned the interior: a passenger will not give a high mark to a driver in a dirty car. I drove the car to the car wash only once - before returning the car. Moreover, I managed to save money: the drivers of the taxi company with which I collaborated were given a 50% discount.
How much can you earn
I transferred data on completed orders from Taximeter to Excel and analyzed my income and expenses. The result is a large table. I calculated that if I subtract the cost of rent, car wash, gas, and idling around town, my break-even point—the amount of time I need to spend driving to recoup costs—is 10 hours a day. In other words, for the first 10 hours of the shift, I sort of worked for Yandex Taxi, a taxi depot, a gas station and a car wash. And only at the eleventh hour did I start earning.
I also included in my income the money saved by having a rental car on hand at all times. For example, once I took my wife and children to the suburbs of St. Petersburg - a taxi would cost 863 R. True, it must be borne in mind that the first half of the day of rent was free for me - this is a taxi fleet bonus for new drivers. Otherwise, the real profit would be 900 R less.
How much did I earn in four days
How to earn more
If you put in the effort, you can actually earn two to three times more. Here are my life hacks for more efficient work.
Calculate working days. If you have gone to work, it is better not to interrupt. Every trip on business is an extra fuel consumption. I also advise you not to split shifts, because the less often you take and return the car to the taxi company, the more profitable it is. For example, it is better to take the car once and work for six days in a row than twice for three days with a break.
A trip to a taxi depot is the cost of gasoline. In addition, they only take the car back clean, so you will have to spend money on washing. Also, these trips take a lot of time. Leaving the car between shifts at home is also unprofitable, as rent drips.
Work in a high demand area. Experienced drivers constantly look at the map in the Taximeter in order to move in time to where there are not enough taxis and, as a result, you can work at an increased rate.
It is also worth considering the time of day: on weekdays in the morning people go from the suburbs to the center to work, and back in the evening. Saturday evening more orders in the center. At night, demand is lower, but people travel longer distances and the price of the trip goes up. In addition, it is faster to carry people in the evenings, since there are no traffic jams.
Take all incoming orders. Then the rating will grow, and this will immediately affect the number of orders. If you need to take a break, it's best to stop Taximeter so as not to reject orders.
Connect to the second aggregator. So orders come in more often, the car is idle less, gasoline is not wasted.
Save fuel. I spent almost a fifth of my earnings on gasoline. If you have a choice, it is better to rent a car that consumes less fuel. When there are no orders, it is better to stop and wait. Only for such an idle ride in four days it took more than 1000 R.
You can take passing orders not only when returning home, but also on the way to the taxi depot - for this, in the settings of Taximeter, you need to change your home address to the address of the taxi depot.
Pay for long-term car rental. If I paid rent for 20 days in advance, then one day would cost me 200 rubles less. According to my calculations, this would cut the break-even point by almost one hour. An hour a day is 20-25 hours a month!
Find a partner. While one driver is working, the other is resting. This will cut your rental costs in half. If you work on the same machine together for 10-12 hours, the break-even point will be not 10, but 5 hours. And then for 12 hours of work you can get the same income as working alone, but 14-15 hours.
Do not violate the rules of the road. A speeding ticket can leave you without a day's wages.
Insurers complain about taxi drivers: cars with checkers get into an accident 6-7 times more often than ordinary drivers. Experts believe that the reason is low tariffs for services. But not everything is so clear
Taxis in Moscow have become more likely to get into accidents - drivers in pursuit of earnings are heavily processed. The problem is that the services themselves do not control the working hours of drivers, but the situation may soon change for the better.
A recent incident on Ilyinka is indicative, when a taxi driver who fell asleep after two days of continuous work knocked down pedestrians. At the same time, in the Order of the Ministry of Transport Russian Federation dated August 20, 2004 N 15 Moscow On the approval of the Regulations on the peculiarities of the regime of working hours and rest time for car drivers, the maximum length of working hours for drivers is prescribed - no more than 40 hours a week.
“Forcibly manage the mode of work and rest of drivers is impossible. Most work simultaneously with different services. Disconnection in one will lead to the fact that the driver will take orders in another service. Everything should be within reason, - explained the head of the public relations department of the Maxim service, Pavel Stennikov.
The company "Vezet", one of the largest taxi aggregators in Russia, said that at the moment the prospect of data exchange is being discussed between the companies so that drivers disconnected for incorrect actions cannot connect to other services.
“The same applies to the rest regime. Now the applications are built into the function of shutting down after a certain period of driving - however, it is clear that nothing prevents the driver from taking orders in another after completing work with one application or simply working from the curb, ”said Alexander Kostikov, corporate relations director of the Vezet group of companies.
Low prices are bad for health
The fact that it is sometimes dangerous to use taxi services is evidenced by the data of major players in the insurance market. Thus, according to the statistics of SPAO "RESO-Garantia", in Moscow the frequency of payments under OSAGO, when a taxi driver is guilty, is 42.9%. The same indicator for ordinary drivers is 5.8%. In cases where a taxi driver is an injured person, the frequency of payments for motor insurance is 25.7%, while for ordinary drivers it is 4.0%.
“In other regions, the proportions are the same. That is, the frequency of accidents among taxi drivers is 7 times higher than that of ordinary drivers,” explained Elena Zlygoreva, Deputy General Director, Head of the RESO-Garantia Retail Insurance Department.
Similar figures were given in the Renaissance Insurance company. They noted that the frequency of insured events for OSAGO taxi (72%) is 6 times higher than the frequency for passenger vehicles with a personal or commercial purpose of use.
“This is due to the increased intensity of operation of light vehicles used as taxis, as well as the agreement of the taxi driver with his guilt without trial to reduce downtime vehicle at the time of the accident,” suggested Dmitry Usanov, director of the corporate auto insurance department of the Renaissance Insurance Group.
According to IC AlfaStrakhovanie, the frequency of losses for insured taxi cars reaches 40-45%. “That is at least one accident for two insured taxi cars. And this is from among those who are known to us as taxis. Loss ratio (that is, the ratio of payments to fees - editor's note) for this category varies from region to region, but in general it exceeds 155-165%, ”explained Yury Nekhaychuk, official representative of AlfaStrakhovanie JSC.
“We need to cut off the drivers. Worked eight hours - all "
At the end of June, deputy Ivan Sukharev prepared a request to the Ministry of Transport with a proposal to equip all taxi cars with tachographs without fail. According to the parliamentarian, the device will reduce the risk of accidents by identifying the driver and monitoring the time of his work and rest. A year ago, Roman Samsonov, head of the department for organizing control over the transportation of passengers and cargo, of the department of technical supervision of the GUOBDD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, came up with the same initiative.
Vyacheslav Lysakov, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on State Construction and Legislation, thinks otherwise. According to him, in the case of taxis, everything needs to be regulated, and not a simple decision to equip everyone with tachographs.
“We need to cut off the drivers. He worked his eight hours - everything, should not be eligible to receive an order from another aggregator. A single base is needed, where the work of a particular person will be noted. This needs to be solved technologically and programmatically. Taxi is not shuttle bus, but a chaotically moving machine. Therefore, there is a working day, there is a waybill, there is, in the end, a system of orders that should block processing,” Lysakov suggested.
According to a survey conducted by VTsIOM, with the advent of taxi aggregators, every second user (51%) began to turn to the services of the taxi industry more often. At the same time, the main criteria for choosing a taxi in favor of the respondents named the cost of the trip and the waiting time for the car.
However, it low rates For taxi services, Blue Buckets traffic coordinator Petr Shkumatov called the main reason for the high percentage of accidents: “The main reason that taxi drivers fall asleep at the wheel is processing. They are forced to work 16-18 hours a day in order to earn at least something. Obviously, such a driver poses a threat to others.”
If the taxi driver is not an individual entrepreneur, he will have to pay a commission not only to the aggregator, but also to the taxi company where he works. For example, in Moscow, for the "Economy" tariff, the fee of the popular online service "Yandex.Taxi" is 18%.
Thus, from an order worth 350 rubles. including VAT, you will have to pay 80.83 rubles. or 23.09%. The commission for the fleet is also added there, on average, about 5-8%. At the same time, according to Dmitry Usanov, director of the corporate car insurance department of Renaissance Insurance Group, the cost of an OSAGO policy for a taxi is approximately two times higher than for a similar car used for personal purposes.
The current legislation does not impose on aggregator companies responsibility for the quality of services provided. They are not recognized as transport companies and officially provide only information services. In fact, these are just sites that broadcast information about the carrier on the Internet.
June 2016 individual entrepreneur Elena Grashchenkova called a taxi through the Yandex.Taxi application. On the way, the car got into an accident, as a result of which the woman received multiple injuries. Today she continues the treatment of a complex joint injury and has been waiting for the motivation for the decision of the Tushino court for two months. The trial court was defeated.
“We hit the road, but somewhere in the fifteenth minute the driver began to behave inappropriately. At a speed of 70 km / h, the car began to cling to the right curb. The driver looked into the distance with wide-open, glazed eyes and did not take any action, ”recalls Elena.
According to her, representatives of the contractor company, whom Yandex calls the proper defendants, did not appear in court. And the same driver, after an accident, got into a taxi "Lucky" without hindrance, and already there on the flight he was arrested with a large batch of amphetamine.
Why Professionals Quit Taxi
“Professionals have left this market or moved to comfort plus and business class, where you can still somehow earn money. And in the economy class, which represents a large part of the taxi market, there are people who, for the most part, cannot be considered professional drivers,” explained Petr Shkumatov.
According to him, low wages have led to the washing out of taxi professionals. Already in some regions every second driver is a migrant. All this, according to Shkumatov, leads to a sharp decline in the quality of services and, above all, safety.
Professional qualification requirements for taxi drivers are contained in the Federal Law (FZ) N 69-FZ "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation". This is the first thing transport companies and taxi aggregators are required to check when hiring a driver.
“There are a number of requirements for a driver stipulated by law, namely: age over 21 years, driving experience in category B for more than 3 years, a driver's license issued in Russia, Belarus or Kyrgyzstan. The car must be issued with a permit for the transportation of passengers and luggage by passenger taxis,” said Alexander Kostikov, director for corporate relations of the Vezet group of companies.
According to the first deputy chairman of the State Duma committee, Vyacheslav Lysakov, aggregators often transfer orders to drivers who do not have permission to operate. A new draft law, which the deputies have already submitted to the State Duma, is called upon to impose a punishment for this and solve a number of other problems. According to Lysakov, last year's bill had to be rejected - the document prepared for the second reading came into conflict with the concept adopted in the first reading.
“Every day people fall asleep at the wheel, but they only write about cases that happened to taxi drivers. But this does not mean that the industry is regulated, there are significant gaps,” Vyacheslav Lysakov believes.
The deputy said that it was proposed to solve these problems within the framework of the draft law on regulation of taxi activity, which was submitted to the State Duma. It covers all issues - control, admission, defines punishment for illegal drivers and punishment for aggregators for transferring orders to persons who do not have permission to operate.
An integration system between online services could be a significant contribution to improving the safety of taxi passengers. How soon the aggregators will be able to exchange data is still unknown. But work in this direction, according to Natalia Rozhkova, head of Yandex.Taxi PR projects, has already begun.
“In order to control how much time a driver has spent driving, large online services and dispatch services should start exchanging data on completed orders. We initiated such an exchange in June. Comparing the data from all major market participants, we can say for sure how long the driver was driving, fulfilling the orders of all aggregators, and how much he was resting, ”Rozhkova promised.
According to her, Yandex.Taxi, for its part, is ready to open the data and participate in the exchange of such information.
Story illegal taxi driver
about how to earn three thousand euros, which cars you can’t get into and whether they really leave used condoms in the back seat.
How to become a bombil
Personally, I have become bombilla over ten years ago. Everything is very simple. He graduated from the university in 1991 and worked as an engineer in an architectural bureau. In 1998, the bureau closed, and I was left without a job. Three months later, without money, he got into his Volga and went to taxi. In general, there are two ways to become a taxi driver: “I tried it - I earned a hundred dollars overnight - I liked it” and “I sat without work for two months - I thought I could get by for a week, I didn’t find a job - I became bombilla". The second option is mine. Well, there are, of course, visitors from provincial cities or Tajiks. But this is a different story.
Types
I think there are few professions where such a spread. For example, I know a restorer of medieval Venetian frescoes who is now a taxi driver in Moscow. On the other hand, there are private traders from Lipetsk or, even worse, from Karaganda in the style of “Will you show me the way, right?” There are some crazy taxomaniacs who are always driving. They live on chips and cigarettes and often sleep in the car. By the way, now there are already women working as bodyguards, in special forces, God knows where, in the government, but there are very few women taxi drivers. This is hard work: constant psychological pressure, and sometimes life-threatening. Not to mention car accident, fights with drunks and competition in fish places. In addition, you sit almost motionless all day among the exhaust gases, and then you sleep off for fifteen hours. This is, of course, very harmful.
earnings
Moscow private traders as a whole earn decently. If you work hard and don't do stupid things, you can earn up to 3 thousand euros per month and even more. Another thing is that a significant part goes to gasoline, and you constantly have to eat and drink coffee on the street or in cafes, in Moscow this is not cheap. Plus police bribes, plus every little car repair. As a result, from 20 (if you don’t really try) to 80 thousand rubles remain for life. In addition, the car wears out much faster than if you just drive it to work every day.
Competition
Of course, there are separate groups like the mafia. Usually ethnic. In the South-West, for example, the Azerbaijani mafia is in charge of everything, you won't get through there. But the Moscow Tajiks and Uzbeks are quiet, they don’t climb across the father. On the other hand, individual private traders who do not belong to any company can agree on some rules of the game, for example, who stands where near clubs or at airports and whose turn it is to carry. This is similar to how cars that do not have an advantage pass on the streets: every driver understands that he himself can find himself in the same situation and stand for an hour with the turn signals on. Experienced taxi drivers all know each other, they know the security guards of clubs and traffic cops. But it is not so difficult for a beginner to break through, if there is a desire. Every now and then, people from the Moscow region or from the region come, tax for a week and leave. Of course, we do not like them and try not to let them in. best places. It does not come to fights, but conversations are often tough.
Pricing
Everyone thinks that the price depends on the outfit and the degree of sobriety of the passenger. It seems like a well-dressed and drunk trip will cost much more than a sober, but clearly not rich. It's a bullshit. By and large, the price depends on whether there are competitors or not. At four o'clock in the morning, a trip from Lublin to the center will cost a thousand rubles, because there are few cars and there is nothing for a person to choose from. On the other hand, a trip from the center to Lublino at the same time will be even more expensive: it is obvious that it will not work to pick up a passenger on the way back, you will have to go empty, because of this, the price is higher. And, of course, your phone is important (and not at all a jacket), the presence of a girl and the place from which you leave. A trip from the Central Department Store to Bolshaya Gruzinskaya can cost as much as from Kruzhka on Kurskaya to Pechatniki, although it is three times further there.
Passengers
The wildest trip was when I was carrying two large families - four adults and seven children. One child sat on the lap of an adult in the front seat, six on the lap of an adult in the back. Of course, I would never take this company, but it was early in the morning, I felt sorry for them, and the money was needed. Then there were two drunken students who jumped out right on the go so as not to pay. There was some bald man who paid $100 for me to go pick up a bunch of flowers for him. This is one of those unusual ones that have been recently. In general, not even the strangest ones are remembered, but the most interesting ones, with whom it was pleasant to talk. For example, I was carrying an emigrant who returned to Russia after 20 years. He had a very strange accent: this is probably only the case with Russians who have lived abroad for a long time. I also saw in broad daylight how three people in hoods fired at a minibus with the inscription “Iceberry” on Nizhnyaya Maslovka and ran away. I don't know what it was. And once I found a used condom in the back seat. I hate it when they litter in the car.
Service
I always smoke out the window and make sure to turn off the music if a passenger asks. I try to tidy up the car and wash it more often. Rather, I need this myself in order to maintain some kind of order in myself. Passengers do not expect anything good from a car caught on the street, they generally do not care. Many people take pictures of their rooms or my face before the trip, I don’t interfere with them. We are very afraid, but we are also often afraid. Especially if you are driving somewhere in Medvedkovo at night and three men in black down jackets stop you. I was attacked twice, once I was stabbed in the back.
dangerous cars
The old simple rule: don't get into tinted cars. Especially if it's a Zhiguli. Another good rule: don't drive Tajiks. Maybe everything will be all right, I myself know many good taxi drivers from Georgians and Armenians, but it’s better not to experiment with all sorts of southerners, especially if you are a girl and you need to go to the outskirts. Probably taking pictures of the numbers on the phone and sending the photo to the computer is also good way avoid problems, although it is inconvenient to do it every time. It never hurts to look before you sit down. Firstly, to make sure that the car was not from Chechnya or Dagestan (if it bombed from the Caucasus, in no case do not go - this is iron). Secondly, if the taxi driver pesters or threatens, the best answer is: "Your number is such and such." Well, if you see that something is wrong (the driver does not drive the shortest route, chooses dark lanes, some strange music plays, the car smells strange), then the best thing is to ask to stop somewhere in a crowded place, pay and catch another car.
Taxi depots
Until recently, I thought that there are no taxi drivers with a license at all. What the hell is she for? It is not clear what benefits it gives the passenger, nor what is the point of getting it for a taxi driver. If, for example, all legal taxis were of one color, as in New York, this is still understandable: when getting into a yellow taxi, the passenger is sure that at least his throat will not be cut. What is the meaning of Moscow licenses is not clear. As for taxi companies and taxi calling services, I can’t even say that they have some kind of competition with them. We just serve different clients. Drunk youth in "Solyanka" will not call a taxi by phone, and going to the airport, you are unlikely to go outside with a suitcase and catch a private trader.
Licenses
No thirty thousand fines bombed don't win. All these repressive measures only lead to the fact that the most adequate part of private traders leaves the business, and those who have nothing to lose or who are not going to pay fines in any case remain. And it gets worse every year. They don’t follow the cars, there is a garbage dump in the cabin, the prices are raised shamelessly. I myself recently caught a taxi - only troughs on wheels stop. This was not the case before, the bombers were almost important people. The only way to get Moscow taxis in order is to make buying a license and complying with the rules more profitable for taxi drivers than working underhand. If, for example, those who have a license can put some special badge on the roof or something like that, and the passenger will see that he is getting into an official taxi. He will know that it may be more expensive, but at least comfortable and non-gangster. If there are many such taxis, no one will simply get into broken nines, and bombed will disappear by themselves. For example, I would gladly pass some qualification and work legally. It's uncomfortable to work outside the law for years. But for now, it’s easier for me to negotiate with the traffic police than to mess around with a license.
Recently, the use of mobile applications for ordering a taxi is becoming even more profitable than buying your own car.
Here are the various rules and tricks of drivers that all taxi passengers should know in order to avoid controversial situations.
10. A traffic light is a friend, and a traffic jam is a mother.
The slogan of many taxi companies is the phrase “It is not the speed of the driver that is important to us, but the safety of the passenger”. But many unscrupulous taxi drivers, for profit, interpret these rules as: “Take the longest road. Remember that the traffic light is your friend, and the traffic jam is your mother. Therefore, it is better for you to tell the driver a convenient route yourself.
9. The driver should not start the conversation first
According to unspoken etiquette, the driver should not impose a conversation on the passenger. If the passenger spoke himself, then yes, the conversation should be supported. But if you feel awkward at the unexpected outpouring of the soul of a taxi driver, you are quite right to politely decline the conversation.
Well, in general, most people really like to talk to taxi drivers, especially, as the latter say, on the topic of money issues, new purchases and personal problems. But they, oddly enough, are not interested in politics.
8. Drivers get fired for rating
4.6 - almost perfect score on a 5-point scale. But the figure is perfect everywhere except for taxi apps. A driver with a rating lower than 4.6 will be deactivated by the system. Therefore, before putting a bad mark, ask yourself the question: does the person really deserve it? And take ratings seriously - this is not a social network, but a human work.
7. You also have a rating
It may come as a surprise to many, but passengers also have their own rating (we are talking about Uber). You can view it in the settings or ask the driver. If suddenly you, being a particularly violent passenger, now feel a surge of shame and suspicion, do not worry: this rating does not really affect anything, except that picky drivers (and there are almost none) will not accept your orders.
6. Taxi driver doesn't know your final address
In mobile applications, the client's destination is requested immediately, but the driver sees this information only upon arrival at the passenger's. There was a case when in the USA a person ordered a car from Uber to another state. By the way, the trip left him at 6 hours and $ 583. Therefore, if your driver is dissatisfied with the final stop, do not be surprised, but in the case of an extraordinary route, better notify him in advance.
5. Your phone number is also unknown
Despite the fact that mobile application drivers can contact you without any problems, they do not have your phone number as such. Communication is carried out only with the help of a common application system.
4. Minimum distances are the norm
Have you traveled anywhere for 50 rubles? It would seem that the taxi driver is working at a loss with such routes, but in fact modern companies there is a certain minimum for a trip that the driver will receive in any case: for example, he drove for 50, but he will receive 100. There is one thing: some taxi drivers like to lower the rating of a passenger when they think that he could cover the same distance on his own two feet.
3. Passengers are paxes
Pax (from English persons approximately) is the international documentary designation of a passenger on board an aircraft. Used mainly in the jargon of pilots and - attention! - avid taxi drivers. So, between themselves, they discuss not passengers, but paks.
2. You are not trapped by the driver, but the driver is trapped by the system
The feature of taxi applications is that the system manipulates employees. For example, while exiting the application, a notification pops up from the series “You only have $15 left to $300. Are you sure you want to exit?”. Such messages exploit the behavioral feature of people, forcing them to work as hard as possible towards an invisible goal.
Another feature is that managers sign with female names and send messages in a rather informal way, such as: “Hi, the match will end in this place soon. Will you come?" What can I say - on a subconscious level, men have a need to satisfy a woman's request.
1. Taxi drivers can pre-set the meter
Some drivers cheat passengers: upon arrival at their destination, they first turn on the meter (which is against the rules) and only then call the client, from which the client pays for the waiting time, which should not be counted in the first 10 minutes.
Therefore, in any case, be kind, get out to the taxi on time: from the rules of etiquette and saving your own and other people's time. Good luck!