Taxi drivers say they are in dark about changes
Taxi drivers gather near the Dnipro River to protest plans to reform their business.
(Ganna Bernyk)
A city working group may shake up the local industry.
The city wants to bring order and regulation to Kyiv’s chaotic yet highly competitive taxi services, but officials aren’t saying exactly how.
The lack of transparency is fueling fears among taxi drivers that the changes will hurt their incomes – or even put some of the dozens of existing firms out of business. Others fear that the city will drive up fares by requiring more rigorous inspections of cars, forcing drivers to charge a minimum fair of Hr 64 ($8) or creating special zones for taxi stands.
About 100 taxi drivers staged a protest on April 18 to call attention to the issue. At the protest, a stream of cabs circled the government buildings, flying banners in the colors of Ukraine’s national flag.
But officials say the protests were misguided and that any changes will be gradual.
“The city administration’s working group is created at the initiative of the public and is aimed at driving the taxi market out of the shadows,” said Andriy Antoniuk, deputy head of the city administration’s civic council and co-head of the working group.
A better regulated taxi industry could generate more taxes for the municipal government, but Antoniuk said that the working group is so far not considering the installation of meters, common in Western cities.
Currently, aside from the dozens of firms that are in business, Kyiv customers also have no trouble hailing a so-called “gypsy cabs” – drivers who are willing to stop and take people to their destinations.
Regular taxi customers who know the city well learn the rate they should negotiate, while foreigners and others unfamiliar with Kyiv often end up paying more in the absence of meters or standard fares.
The haphazard state of the industry means that a customer could get anything from a mechanically unsound Soviet-era Lada to a modern Mercedes.
Such measures, many drivers say, would put many Kyiv cab drivers out of business, as well as putting prices beyond the reach of most Kyivans.
At the protest, drivers and taxi business owners said they were frustrated by the lack of information available. They said it looked like an attempt to carve the market up among favored firms that have been invited to take part in the working group.
“I’ve been on the market for 11 years. Why do I get to know about the creation of a taxi business regulation working group and taxi reforms from television news,” said Vasyl Ivantsov, owner of Grand taxi firm. The working group does include some firms, but they are mostly from the top end of the market, he said.
Ivantsov said that moves to standardize taxi services quickly could be fatal for the Kyiv market, as most taxi drivers can’t afford to use expensive cars. He said taxi parking lots are a great idea, but expressed fears that “only elite services will be able to use them.”
Taxi drivers said they are prepared to adopt new standards if the state creates favorable conditions for them. “But we don’t believe they will. If the authorities introduce changes without helping us to meet the requirements, we all will lose our jobs,” said Oleksandr Lunin, a taxi driver from Premium taxi firm.
The taxi drivers and firms said their cars regularly undergo technical check-ups on their vehicles, pay taxes and work legally. They say they are working to combat illegal “gypsy cabs” by reducing prices.
Working group co-head Antoniuk said he has never heard of Grand and Premium taxi firms or the other protesters.
“I am sure they work illegally and it is just unsafe to use them,” he said, naming Etalon and Limuzyn taxi services, known to be among the most expensive in Kyiv, as trustworthy firms.
In response, protesters promised to collect over 100,000 signatures in support of their position from both drivers and clients if authorities do not include them in the reform discussions.
“We don’t demand anything special. We don’t want to kick anyone out of the market,” taxi-firm owner Ivantsov said. “We just want all the market players to remain and all the changes for the better to be introduced together.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at shevchenko@kyivpost.com