The second Ukrainian congress of taxi drivers was held recently. Approximately 500 businessmen came to the House of Trade Unions of Ukraine to meet with Serhii Tihipko, vice-prime minister for economic affairs, and Mykhailo Brodsky, the State Entrepreneurship Committee chairman, to tell the authorities what they think about the draft “Law on Improving Traffic Management in Connection With the Preparation and Holding of the UEFA Euro-2012 Final Tournament in Ukraine.”
The document proposes to introduce a quota for taxis in cities, enforce uniform outward appearance of all taxis, make taximeters obligatory, and introduce uniform technical requirements for taxis. At the same time, the bill’s authors propose to increase the rate of the unitary tax for taxi drivers from 200 to 1,000 hryvnias per month (pension fund payments and income tax would be absorbed into the unitary tax). According to Brodsky, the adoption of this document is expected by January 1, 2011 (with transitional provisions for three years).
“We have virtually no taxi market. 60 to 70 percent of taxis are illegal. People get in a car without knowing if the driver is sober, healthy, or whether he is a thief. They are also vulnerable to being cheated, because there are no taximeters. We have a completely wild market,” the State Committee chairman Mykhailo Brodsky explained to The Day’s journalist why the law is needed. Therefore, he said, even before January 1, 2011, the taxi market will be put into order. By that time, all taxis will have taximeters, and all drivers will be forced to ensure passenger safety.
For his part, the head of the Taxi Driver Union of Ukraine Vasyl Popyk says that the taxi market should be regulated by other methods: creating a network of taxi parkings, developing a system of access to such parkings, and increasing the control and prohibition of illegal taxi businesses. Today, according to co-chairman of the public organization Ukrainian Taxi Serhii Kolomatsky, everybody works as part-time taxi driver, especially at night: MPs’ and cabinet members’ drivers, ambulance and patrol service personnel...
Brodsky says that after the law’s adoption, nobody will hrachuvaty (that is, to moonlight as an illegal taxi driver), as the bill will significantly increases penalties for such persons. However, the State Committee chairman thinks that the confiscation of illegal drivers’ cars should be introduced only after legal taxi drivers start paying all their taxes. “Taxi drivers say ‘you should remove illegal competition to legalize the market,’ but they avoid any liability for themselves — they do not want to introduce taximeters, or to pay taxes. They only want a fare hike,” wrote outraged official in his blog.
As for prices, they will rise, nonetheless, as Mr. Kolomatsky confirmed in his comment for The Day. The installation of taximeters is a cost by itself. “Good taximeter costs 1,500 dollars, it must be set, serviced, provided with tape for cash registers — all these costs are small when taken alone, but together they are considerable,” he explained. Mr. Kolomatsky also said that nowadays, Kyiv has the cheapest taxis in Europe. In the future, he said, if the taxi market will develop smoothly, the fare increase rate will be five percent, ten percent, or 15 percent, at most. At the same time, if the government will try to come down on the taxi market, the fares may double or even triple, added Mr. Kolomatsky.
In addition, the Taxi Driver Union leader, Mr. Popyk, told the The Day that if their demands were ignored, strikes might take place in October 2010. For this purpose, taxi drivers have created the All-Ukrainian Taxi Drivers Coordination Council, and this council will become a strike committee if necessary.
