The Federation Council was offered to solve the shortage of taxi drivers with the help of migrants

The Public Development Council sent a letter to the Federation Council with a proposal to temporarily allow all migrants to work in taxis in order to resolve the issue of driver shortage. Chairman of the Council Irina Zaripova announced this at a press conference on December 15, the correspondent reports. RBC.

“We propose to allow temporary admission of migrants behind the wheel of a taxi under strict control, for which we now have all the technical capabilities in the form of Insurance Telematics technology,” said Irina Zaripova. The proposal was sent to the first deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy, Alexei Sinitsyn.

Now drivers with licenses from countries where Russian is the state language can work in taxis: that is, citizens of Kyrgyzstan and Belarus. Citizens of other states, for example, Tajikistan, must obtain a Russian driver’s license to work.

At the beginning of December, the Federation Council held a round table dedicated to the problems of taxis, at which Alexey Sinitsyn asked market players to make recommendations for improving state policy in this area. As a reason for the outflow of drivers, Mr. Sinitsyn also cited new requirements for drivers that came into force in September this year. As Irina Zaripova said, problems with a shortage of drivers have arisen since the beginning of 2023 against the background of a decrease in the number of unemployed, as well as the mobilization of a large number of drivers.

According to the forecast of the public council, attracting migrants will be able to reduce the shortage of drivers in the industry, which already ranges from 500 thousand to 2.5 million people. According to calculations by a government think tank, the industry deficit could be 72,000 people. At the same time, a representative of the Maxim taxi ordering service estimates the shortage of taxi drivers in Russia from 500 thousand to 700 thousand people. The head of the Association of Self-Employed of Russia, Igor Zhmakin, has 2.5 million drivers. According to him, to normalize the work of the industry, 5 million drivers should work in taxis, and not 2 million drivers, as now.

In the fall, the head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, said that there were almost no workers left in the Russian economy. To solve the problem of labor shortage, the head of the Ministry of Economy, Maxim Reshetnikov, must more actively attract migrants into the economy. Meanwhile, there are already three regions of Russia limited work of migrants in transport: Magadan, Chelyabinsk and Kaluga regions.

Anastasia Larina