OREANDA-NEWS. September 13, 2012. The Expert Council for Developing Competition in Taxi Industry, at the Moscow Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (Moscow OFAS Russia), discussed antimonopoly aspects of reforming the taxi markets, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Attendees included representatives of the Moscow Transport Department, Moscow Transport Union, “Taxist” Interregional Trade Union of Public Transport Workers, the leading taxi firms and Moscow Institute of Road Traffic.

The Experts expressed their attitudes towards the most important elements of a concept of developing Moscow taxi industry, which was published in July 2012 on the official web-site of the Moscow Department for Transport and Highway-and-Transport Infrastructure Development, and put forward their proposals.

“Considerable changes in regulation of an individual market are possible only on the basis of a profound expert economic examination. Today our main task is to build-up a civilized competitive market of taxi services by replacing an illegal sector with the legal one”, pointed out the Chairman of the Expert Council, the Head of Moscow OFAS Russia, Rachik Petrosyan.

The experts discussed, in particular, possible introduction of licensing, setting requirements to drivers and vehicles used as taxicabs, introducing tariff regulation and a single dispatcher control service.

Representatives of the taxi firms were against additional licensing and emphasized importance of intensifying efforts against illegal carriers and increasing liability for illegal taxi-driving.

The Head of the Taxi Transportation Control Unit, of the Transport Department, Dmitry Pronin said: “Introduction of certain vehicle standards is required, first of all, to ensure safety and comfort of taxi transportation”.

“It will be useful if Moscow sets more precise information disclosure requirements for taxi rates. Potential customers should be better informed about a specific tariff for a particular vehicle. In many countries the issue is resolved by having an information sticker on the windshield”, a representative of Moscow Institute of Road Traffic stated his position regarding tariffs introduction.

The experts also discussed establishing a single taxi dispatcher control services and coincided in the opinion that the project can be carried out as a single city call-centre to control taxi operations and provide “passenger - city” interaction.

Decisions made by the Expert Council will be taken into account by Moscow OFAS Russia, and will be forwarded to the Moscow Department for Transport and Highway-and-Transport Infrastructure Development.