By the end of 2024, about 130 thousand taxi drivers will be missing in Russia. The shortage of personnel is growing, among other things, due to the tightening of migration policy and regulation of taxi activities. Because of this, drivers are moving to other areas with comparable incomes, but fewer demands and expenses.
This was announced at the session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) by Anton Petrakov, Director of Corporate Relations and Public Relations at “Yandex Taxi”, reports RBC.
“The situation is not improving, - states Petrakov. - We must not only provide an opportunity to earn money, but also compete for personnel with other industries. We have to create added value, help people pay taxes and so on”.
The more acute the shortage of drivers, the faster taxi prices rise, especially at the end of the year and during peak hours, when demand increases many times, Petrakov emphasizes.
“Prices will rise, they will differ by tens of percent from year to year. If this problem is not solved, it will not be solved,” - he said.
To restore the influx of drivers, the company is discussing with regulators an experimental legal regime that will allow digitizing and simplifying some of the requirements, said Petrakov.
“We need to give some additional window for the use of technology, remove barriers to entry into the industry, - believes the representative of “Yandex Taxi”. - There is quite a serious regulation, which is often quite difficult to implement. We know for sure that travel documents and medical examinations can be digitized. You can make short, up to a minute, daily insurance policies”.
To solve the problem, it is necessary to whitewash the market, Petrakov continues.
“For those migrants who are already in Russia, it is necessary to create comfortable conditions for legal work and quick resolution of issues with documents. We will increase investments in attracting and retaining people. To motivate these people to get on the line during peak hours,” - Petrakov added.
Separately, Petrakov touched upon the issue of the self-employed in the taxi industry. From the beginning of April to the end of August 2024, self-employed drivers who work with the “Yandex Taxi” service paid 2 billion rubles in taxes to the budget through the auto-deduction function within the service.
Taxi is not the only industry whose representatives actively complain about the shortage of personnel. Earlier, Vera Moskvina, executive director of the Guild of Housing and Communal Services Management Companies, spoke about the shortage of janitors and plumbers.
It is forbidden to work almost everywhere
Recall that recently in Russia it has been proposed to ban foreigners from working almost everywhere, including in important industries – education, medicine, and services.
Currently, restrictions are in effect in about one in three regions of the Russian Federation. In 2024, restrictions were introduced in 17 Russian regions: these are the Trans-Baikal Territory, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Nizhny Novgorod, Smolensk, Samara, Kemerovo, Voronezh, Tula, Magadan, Kurgan, Novosibirsk, Novgorod, Kursk, Saratov, Lipetsk and Kostroma regions.
In addition, restrictions on the work of migrants were introduced in the annexed Crimea. Most regions have banned migrants from working in the taxi industry.
According to experts, this whole situation should be an occasion to reconsider the nature of labor migration, to make it more conscious, high-quality and reliable. This is an occasion to strengthen pre-departure training and raise the self-awareness of migrants.
According to the Ministry of Labor of the Republic, in the first half of 2024, about 393 thousand people left Tajikistan to work abroad, which is 16% less than in the same period last year.
At the same time, the number of returnees is only growing every year. According to the ministry, in just six months of this year, 17 thousand Tajik citizens were expelled from Russia for various violations.
Given that the expulsion, together with the ban on entry, is applied for a period of 1 year to indefinite, this means that Russia is closed to thousands of Tajik migrants for at least the coming years.
Руcский