‘I Set 280% Profit’: Court Considers Lawsuit Against Taxi-Drivers Who Inflated Tariffs

This is the first such process in Belarus.

The court of the Zavodski district of Minsk began to consider a civil case at the suit of the “Regional Society for Consumer Protection” against the carrier company with Kittax taxi cars. The lawyers of the company consider that “the tariffs for the transportation of the taxi company are unlawfully inflated”. This is the first such process in Belarus, reports tut.by.

- When pricing for the provision of taxi services, carriers apply free fares. At the same time, the free price develops under the influence of supply and demand under the conditions of free competition, however, Kittax tariffs are 800% higher than average market prices - this is an unjustified overstatement, it does not comply with the level of tariffs prevailing in the market, - Dzmitry Malets, Deputy Chairman of the Public Association “Regional Society for Consumer Protection”, explained the reason for the lawsuit in the beginning of the hearing.

The plaintiff believes that the drivers-carriers, in addition to placing their fares tag in a visible place, should announce them to the passenger. In addition, the passenger can find out from the driver what the estimated cost of the trip will be (paragraphs 159 and 169 of the Rules for the carriage of passengers).

In its lawsuit, the Regional Society for Consumer Protection asks the court to declare the actions of Kittax in the field of transportation unlawful, and also to require the defendant to stop the illegal actions against their clients.

The defendant, Ihar Kibardzin, the director of Kittax, disagreed with the suit.

- What makes you think that the driver should verbally announce the tariffs for transportation? - he asked the plaintiff.

- According to Article 159 of the Rules for Automobile Transportation, “the amount of payment for providing a taxi vehicle by order, getting in a taxi vehicle, tariffs for 1 km of run and 1 hour of inactivity are announced to the passenger by a car driver or a taxi dispatcher”, and Part 2 of Article 10 of the Law “On protection of consumer rights” - the contractor is obliged to assist the consumer in the free choice of services,” - explains the lawyer.

- And in what do you see the wrongfulness of the actions of the defendant? - the judge asks the representative of the society for the protection of consumer rights.

- According to the law, civil law relations should be based on honesty and reasonableness, no one should act with the intention to cause harm to another person. The free tariff at which the company works should be formed under the influence of supply and demand in a free competition. Today, the average fare in a taxi is 64 kapeykas per kilometer, while Kittax has 5 rubles. The carrier must provide information about fares to passengers. And if the passenger sits in the back seat and does not see a sign from behind the back of the front seat, and the driver is silent, what kind of assistance is this? This is unfair actions ...

Director of Kittax Ihar Kibardzin said that his company has been operating for five years. The company employs 13 people, of which 9 drivers work full time. There are 9 more taxi drivers who are engaged in transportation as a part-time job, and therefore, an incomplete shift. Most of the taxi drivers work at the tariffs of dispatching services 135 and 7788, but two of them take passengers from the board in places of large crowds of people and carry them at elevated rates, which are officially approved by the company.

By the way, Vadzim, who demanded 73 rubles from a passenger for a journey of one and a half kilometer, does not work in the company: he quit by the agreement of the parties. Although the director admits: they fired him, because of the constant complaints.

- The sign indicated the tariffs is printed in big letters, hangs in front and in the middle - so that it can be seen by passengers at the back. We do not hide anything, why do we have problems with the police? If the passenger is interested in fares and asks how much the trip will cost, the driver will give such information. If nobody asks, the driver himself does not speak, we believe that the passenger looked, saw and understood everything. But nobody forced them into the salon.

The drivers who work for Kittax choose tariffs for which they will work themselves.

- If you take orders from the dispatcher, where transportation tariffs are lower, then you have to work all day, the cars have very large runs. Those working from the board can make one transportation per day, and the shift is over. These cars have a mileage of about 300 km per month, so that the car works profitably, you need to use a different tariff. What it will be - I decided as a leader.

For example, the profit of Vadzim’s minivan was 280%, the one of the passenger car - 50%. However, now, when Vadzim quit, the company no longer applies the tariffs for which he traveled.

The representative of the public in court was Chairman of the “Belaya Rus” Kastrychnitski district organization of Minsk Maksim Krupeichanka.

- Transportations of taxi passengers, which end in huge sums, is not uncommon in our area, because there is a railway station and an airport on our territory. Citizens began to complain to the public receptionist about carrier tariffs. This whole situation has a negative impact on the entire passenger transportation industry. The II European Games are ahead of us...

At the request of the plaintiff, the passenger who was driven by a Kittax car at “lucrative” rates and the dismissed driver, Vadzim, will be summoned to the court.

The hearing will continue next week.