Climbed in without insurance: why a taxi accident promises problems

Only a third of the cars in the Russian taxi fleet are insured in accordance with all the rules and will be able to legally compensate for damage in case of an accident. Those taxi companies that legally issue OSAGO for their cars at an increased rate may be left without coverage at all due to serious financial losses of insurance companies in 2020. Izvestia figured out how to make taxi cars properly insured

Alarm 100%

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the accident rate in the taxi industry does not seem catastrophic at first glance: 3574 accidents, or 2.8% of the total number of accidents in Russia. But if you count the share of accidents involving taxis from the total taxi fleet, you get a different picture. This figure will double the share of accidents in “civilian cars”: 0.7% versus 0.3%. Moreover, the frequency of insurance events in a taxi exceeds the market average by 7.2 times, and the level of payments is 2.2 times higher than the market average, leading insurers told Interfax.

“Representatives of the industry admit that there are systemic problems in the segment of compulsory insurance of passenger taxis associated with high accidents, and are convinced that there is no administrative way to solve these problems,” Stanislav Shvagerus, head of the Competence Center of the Taxi International Eurasian Forum, told Izvestia. …

The Russian Union of Auto Insurers explained that the accident rate for taxi fleets can differ significantly. Where the system of admission and control of drivers works effectively, the frequency of accidents is almost at the level of the average city. Where this system is not built, the accident rate can easily be 100%.

“They will stop buying OSAGO policies at all”

Due to the high accident rate in the taxi transport sector, insurers suffer serious losses. At the same time, the Russian Union of Auto Insurers (RSA) believes that a sharp increase in the cost of the policy should not be allowed, since in this case many taxi drivers will stop buying OSAGO altogether.

“If you raise taxi fares to the really necessary level, this may turn out to be unaffordable for emergency taxi companies and will most likely lead to the fact that they will stop buying CTP policies altogether. In this case, their passengers and other road users will suffer even more, because it is not easy to get compensation from the taxi fleet and it is far from always realistic. If the rates are left at a level that does not compensate for the loss ratio of the insurer, insurance companies will not be economically interested in such insurance, ”the RSA release provided to Izvestia says.

Even now, the situation with the presence of a properly issued OSAGO policy is alarming. According to the public automated information system (PAIS) “Taxi”, which unites registers of issued permits from all regions of the Russian Federation, as of March 30, 2021, there are 470,404 valid permits for the carriage of passengers and luggage by passenger taxis in Russia. In turn, according to data from the answer to the deputy’s request of A.S. Starovoitov, 150 thousand passenger taxis have special insurance for MTPL taxis.

According to the report of the federal monitoring of the project “People’s Control”, in the regions of the Russian Federation (with the exception of Moscow and the Moscow region), the number of illegal taxi cars that do not have special insurance at all is from 40 to 90% of the total taxi fleet in a particular region.

Pedestrians are also affected

In most cases, the payment of compensation for harm caused to health depends precisely on the properly executed OSAGO. Only in the last couple of years, passenger life insurance has appeared, which will allow the victim or his family to receive up to 2 million rubles. But it does not always work.

Elena Grashchenkova, an activist and public figure, explains that there are several types of incidents for which OSAGO plays a different role. The first is an accident with a passenger on board. “A few years ago, a person who rode in a taxi was completely dependent on the availability of OSAGO, but in 2017, aggregators were forced to insure the life and health of people. That is, if a taxi passenger called a car through the application, then in the worst case, he or his relatives will be paid a payment both for MTPL and voluntary insurance. In total, this turns out to be about 2.5 million rubles, ”said Grashchenkova.

She notes that if a passenger took a car from the street or voted, then he loses this compensation and can only rely on OSAGO. If something happens, and the driver does not have a policy or it is issued incorrectly, then the payment will most likely be denied, since the insurer was misled during the paperwork.

“The next type of incidents is the departure of taxi drivers to a pedestrian crossing or a stop. People who have suffered in such incidents are also completely dependent on OSAGO. If the car is used as a taxi, but is not insured as a taxi, the insurance company will refuse. And a similar situation, if a taxi car crashes into another car: you will not receive any compensation if the OSAGO for a taxi is issued improperly, ”explained Grashchenkova.

Share the concern

The PCA proposes its own version of the solution: so that the increase in tariffs does not turn out to be too sharp for unprofitable taxi companies, create a reinsurance pool as a temporary solution.

“Relatively speaking, all taxi companies in the country bring several hundred million losses a year. So that all these losses do not fall on one insurer, insurance companies agree to share these losses across the entire market. As a result, the specific insurance company that insured the taxi company does not bear all the losses on it, but only a part of them, proportional to its share in the reinsurance pool. Such a mechanism will temporarily restrain the growth of tariffs for taxi companies, ”the Russian Union of Auto Insurers noted.

Market players support the initiative. Deputy General Director of RESO-Garantia Igor Ivanov notes that it will relieve the tension that has arisen due to the growing unprofitableness of contracts with taxi, and will help insurance companies compensate for the financial losses from working with this part of the vehicle fleet, which have worsened this year.

“Taking into account the growth of our portfolio of compulsory motor third party liability insurance as a whole, the number of insured taxis is also growing. Among the policyholders are both individuals and legal entities. The risks, of course, are high, since the frequency of accidents in this segment is several times higher than that of ordinary drivers, and the size of the maximum base rate does not differ so much. In addition, an increase in the average payment of more than 15% in 2020 due to the weakening of the ruble significantly affects the unprofitability in this segment, so we are extremely interested in launching a pool for reinsurance of taxi drivers, ”Ivanov said.