The payer will master the road: taxi companies threaten to enter the gray zone en masse

The number of illegal taxis in Russia will multiply in the event of an increase in OSAGO tariffs for business, have been warned in the industry. Such risks are mentioned in a letter from the Public Council for Taxi Development to the Central Bank (Izvestia has a copy of the document). Business is concerned about a possible increase in MTPL rates for taxis by 60%, which insurers insisted on at one of the last meetings with the regulator. They explain: cars for private transport are many times more likely to get into an accident, and mathematically, the cost of the policy should quadruple. The Central Bank assured that they are not yet discussing the change in tariffs.

The flourishing of illegal immigrants

The Public Council for Taxi Development has expressed concern about a possible increase in the cost of compulsory motor third party liability insurance for taxis. According to the organization, earlier, insurance companies discussed the possibility of revising tariffs together with the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance, and insurers insisted on increasing them by at least 60% for taxis… In a letter to the Central Bank dated April 16 advice warned: an increase in the cost of policies can result in a massive transition of carriers to the gray zone… Izvestia got acquainted with a copy of the document.

– In the event of an increase in the tariff, the OSAGO policy for taxis will become unavailable not only for the capital’s taxi companies, but also for the overwhelming majority of regional ones. A massive outflow of taxi carriers into the illegal business will begin, ”the council’s letter says.

Now the price of an OSAGO policy for a taxi car is about 43 thousand rubles in Moscow, noted the chairman of the council Irina Zaripova. The cost of insuring a taxi car should not be 100 thousand rubles in the capital and 70 thousand rubles in the regions, the organization noted.

The Central Bank received a letter from the council and is studying it, the press service of the regulator told Izvestia. They added that the Bank of Russia has not yet received an initiative to increase insurance rates for taxis by 60%… The Central Bank recalled that tariffs were last increased in September last year, and according to the current legislation, their revision cannot occur more often than once a year. So far, the regulator has not started analyzing the loss ratio to change the tariff corridor. At the same time, the Central Bank recognizes that the frequency of accidents in the taxi segment is higher than that of private cars (not taxis).

The Ministry of Finance did not discuss the issue of raising tariffs, their establishment is the responsibility of the Central Bank, the press service of the department told Izvestia.

“Emergency” tariff

Insurance companies consider it reasonable to increase the OSAGO tariff for taxis… These cars are more likely to get into accidents due to the fact that they spend more time on the road. For example, last year, taxi accidents averaged 34%, and the rest of the fleet – 4.4%Vitaly Knyaginichev, head of Ingosstrakh’s retail business, told Izvestia. This is forcing insurers to increase tariffs for OSAGO for taxis, he said. According to Vitaly Knyaginichev, mathematically, the tariff needs to be increased four times… He added that also over the past year, the average payment of an insurance company for MTPL increased by 6.9%, “but with regard to the taxi, it is not the cost of repairs, but the accident rate.”

Similar data was provided by the Russian Union of Auto Insurers (RSA). They noted the need to improve the training of taxi drivers – in the last year alone, the number of deaths as a result of accidents involving them increased by 20% compared to 2019. At the same time, the number of accidents remained at the same level.

– Taxi is now a very emergency and dangerous type of transport for both its passengers and other road users. And this problem needs to be urgently addressed, – said the RSA.

therefore insurers are discussing the introduction of additional mechanisms to “distribute the increased unprofitability of emergency market segments to all insurers of compulsory” car insurance “by creating a reinsurance pool”, the organization said. In their opinion, such a decision, coupled with a reasonable increase in the upper limit of the tariff corridor for taxis, will solve the problem with the increased accident rate of this type of transport.

At the same time, the PCA stressed that with a significant increase in the cost of OSAGO, taxi drivers, in principle, will stop buying policies.

Reverse movement

Accident with taxi cars does not make OSAGO unprofitable for insurance companies, objected in the Public Council for the Development of Taxi… According to the organization, the cost of the policy for taxi drivers is, on average, ten times higher than for ordinary car owners. At the same time, the number of legal taxi cars is about 450 thousand, but only 150 thousand of them work with the OSAGO policy specifically for taxis, the council said. They added that about a million more cars are in the gray taxi market: they are not registered as participants in the taxi market, in fact they provide these services.

“If companies begin to insure the entire taxi market, then due to the increase in the volume of such cars, this will cease to be unprofitable,” the organization believes.

The position of the council on taxi development was supported by the State Duma.

– Taxi fares are now calculated at the highest coefficient with the motivation that a taxi is unprofitable for insurance companies. but none of the insurance companies provided a calculation of this “loss ratio”… It would be more logical for insurance companies to think over a product where there would be a close relationship between accident-free driving and the value of the OSAGO tariff: the more accurately the driver drives, the less he will pay, – said Alexander Starovoitov, deputy head of the State Duma’s Transport Committee.

The proposal to increase the tariffs for OSAGO for taxis will negatively affect the carrier partners, which are still recovering from the losses incurred during the pandemic, according to Citymobile… The company allowed taxi drivers to move to the gray zone with a multiple increase in tariffs. The same point of view is held in the DiDi taxi ordering service.

According to Citymobil, the average cost of OSAGO for a carrier is already 70 thousand rubles, and “the policy itself is almost impossible to buy due to refusals of insurance companies.”

The service “Maxim” agreed that this is an unaffordable amount for drivers.… The company does not consider taxis to be a more emergency type of transport. Up to 70% of situations with health harm in a taxi occur due to the fault of other road users and for other reasons, said the company’s representative Pavel Stennikov.

– You cannot “row” all taxi drivers with the same brush, an individual approach is needed. Taking into account the logic of the authors of the initiative [о повышении тарифов ОСАГО для такси]then it was it would be reasonable to introduce a progressive rate on tariffs: the more accidents caused by your fault, the more expensive the insurance policy, – believes the director of operational development of the taxi order service “Taxovichkof” Ilya Baiko.

Yandex.Taxi refrained from commenting.