About taxi in Moscow

Recently, only lazy developers haven’t turned around Taxi. Why the topic “Taxi” is so attractive for Russian startups , I don't know. For us, 2Communications , a year and a half ago, the idea to make a project for a taxi was not a show or an attempt to draw money from an investor. We were interested in financial gain and idea. But I would like to talk about the project a little later. And now, who is interested, I will tell you about a taxi in Moscow. It so happened that only in Moscow our project brought together more than 200 taxi stations, about 120 of them are always online. And by taxi companies, I mean official carriers, with round-the-clock dispatchers and so forth, which will be discussed further. For a year and a half, I learned more about taxis than I saw, read or listened to in any other sources. And the more I learn, the more I understand how really big the iceberg is. And even if this topic is not in the format of a habr, it is necessary in the further description of the project, so that you understand what is happening and why everything is exactly like that.

Before you start

I apologize in advance for the jargon. He also turned me inside out in my time, but you get used to it.



from the board - for example, take the client from the board . That means picking up a voting client.

port - for example, a trip to the port . Of course, I will enter the airport)

cashless - cashless order. Those. order from a legal entity that has entered into an agreement with a taxi company for the transportation of its clients. The client does not pay for such orders, but at the end of the month the legal entity receives a bill by bank transfer from the taxis.

on the line, on the air - “online” driver status.

Who are you, taxi driver?

"Taxi" in Moscow can be divided into 3 categories.

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1. Bombies. The ones that can stay with the voters on the same band, collecting the cork behind them. The ones that "wai, dear show you?". Those who can rob or something worse. The ones who catch in Moscow are the easiest, and as a result, who is most comfortable traveling around Moscow when you need to fast.

In Europe, almost anywhere you will not catch the car from the side. For this there is a special. parking for taxis. I'm not talking about the states where from the board, of course, they catch a taxi, but not civilian cars. No one will decide to bring you up and vice versa, no one will sit in a private car. But Europe and America are far away, let us return to our “rams”)) in spite of all the obvious disadvantages of bombing, they have one big advantage - it is worth raising your hand at any time of the day, as you line up.

Cars: dead vases, Nexia and the like.



2. Private traders with drafts. The same goats, but lazy) Most often Russian, quite often former Soviet taxi drivers. They drive on dozens and inexpensive foreign cars, wear checkered. They rarely have their own clientele and prefer to stand near hot places, rather than travel around the city.

To be honest, they are not much different from the first. Unless they speak Russian, they know the road and are safer with them. But it's all the same bombili.

Cars: fresh vases, old foreign cars in good condition.



3. Official carriers. Round-the-clock dispatch, your car park or attracted drivers. The operator accepts the order, adds it to the database, the dispatcher announces the order by radio or assigns a driver to it. Drivers do NOT take customers from the board. With very few exceptions. Perhaps, only very experienced taxi drivers working for an official carrier can throw people between orders. Because for being late on a taken or assigned order, companies are subject to fines.

Drivers of official carriers can be divided into another 2 categories. This hired drivers and attracted.

Hired, it is drivers on a salary. Those. you buy your fleet of cars and hire a driver for each car for a salary. The driver travels from morning to evening, accepts and executes orders.

Another thing - attracted. You, as a taxi company, announce the recruitment of drivers with your car, i.e. hire a driver with his car, and not buy a car in the park. Such drivers have no salary, they install a walkie-talkie and the dispatcher reads their orders to them. The driver of such a taxi receives 70-80% of the cost of the order in his pocket, the rest is returned to the dispatcher. Those. dispatcher provides information services. However, it is legally responsible for the driver’s clients.

It would seem the perfect scheme. Taxi director has no headache associated with the maintenance and updating of the fleet. The driver understands that the more he works, the more he earns. And all is well, if not for the human factor. The fact is that the attracted driver can take the order from the radio, and can not take it, at its discretion. Maybe get on the line today, maybe not. Maybe go to half an hour, and maybe 14 hours. It was clearly visible on May 1, when everyone went to their cottages, including taxi drivers and Moscow was left without a taxi)

“And what about hired drivers?”, - you ask. No way. Nearly 80% of official Moscow traffic is attracted drivers. Think 80%. To maintain your personal car park is very, very expensive. Moreover, it is the most vulnerable position for inspection bodies. In Moscow, you can count the companies that keep their fleets of cars (2-5 cars do not count). New yellow, City, 956, XXL, Prestige and all kinds of "corporate", which have little to do with private transport, such as Taxi Commander, Other, etc.

Cars: most often, foreign cars are not older than 5 years. Minimal logans, Lacetti, tricks and so forth.



Most of all in Moscow, of course, bombed. Different sources talk about different amounts. The community of official carriers is more inclined to figure about 40k. Official carriers, however, there are just over 300 companies in Moscow. We are talking about “live” control rooms, with round-the-clock operators and so forth.

Not surprisingly, the client often chooses the bomb, it is the simplest. And, we are accustomed to believe that the cheapest. But it's not always the case…

Taxi prices in Moscow

With bombilami everything is simple and clear. You can drive through the whole city for 300 rubles, or you can for 400 to the subway 5 minutes. Recently, bombi learned to speak Russian, and sometimes even know the way. The price most often depends not on the distance or travel time, but on the client itself. How “richly” he is dressed and how much he is drunk.



Private traders know their value. Perhaps the most expensive passenger transport in Moscow. The client is used to calling and ordering to the control room, it is expensive and time consuming. And if there is no desire to get into the killed VAZ of the sample of the 80s, the client prefers a private trader, on a used foreign car or a fresh pelvis . But do not forget that such a driver, like a bomb, does not want and does not bear any responsibility for your safety and health. Well, all the more, for being late to the stations or ports.



Official carriers have long introduced the concept of minimum cost of travel. In Moscow, on average, it is 300-400 rubles for the first 20 minutes of the trip. Those. 5 minutes to the subway is clearly not profitable to order. Another thing is to drive through the whole city at night. You can easily meet in 20 minutes, while giving 350 rubles. Whereas bombers or private owners will say, “Oooooh! across the city! it's dooooooorious! ". And, of course, official carriers are responsible for your late arrival at ports, for damage caused by accidents and so on.



Personally, I drive this way and that, except perhaps not on private traders. Sometimes it's easier to catch a bomb from a place. And sometimes it's easier to pre-order a car, knowing that it is more comfortable, cheaper and more reliable.

Why does the price of Taxi change?

We are all witnesses of the last scandal with taxi drivers when they blew up Domodedovo. The trip from the port to Moscow reached 20k rubles, while the usual price from the port to get to the house is about 800r and not more than 1500r. On television, the authorities resent, criticize the actions of taxi drivers. Sobyanin instructs to deal with parks. Parks unite and decide that in such situations they will carry people for free and so forth. In short, the kindergarten))) pokrasovalis before the camera and forgot.

But what really happened on that day in Domodedovo?



Bombed in the port, of course, was not. There were private traders, waiting for potential customers and official, waiting or seeing off well-known customers. Let me remind you, the explosion thundered in the arrivals hall. At that time, most of the waiters in this hall were official taxi drivers with signs meeting their customers. They got to the full. In a taxi cab close to me, two taxi drivers died that day.

Our project allows us to track the movement of more than 2/3 of the parks in Moscow and I can guarantee that the official carriers did not bend prices. Moreover, our main partners, the CEO, personally broadcast to the radio, that whoever will raise prices will be dismissed. Part of the free cars on a personal initiative drove drove to help people in Domodedovo. But it was not there) no one was allowed into the airport after the explosion. The entrance is closed, which is very convenient for those who stayed inside. And inside there were official carriers and local private traders. Official carriers, those that are ordered at the meeting, have no right to select people. Those who accompanied, have no right to raise the price. Here the local private owners opened the champagne bottles. The price for leaving hell reached 20k rubles.



What do we have in the end? Sobyanin instructs the top carriers of Moscow to organize and in such situations to take people by taxi for free from the accident sites. Those with pride sing the Russian anthem and solemnly swear in such situations to bring people out of the affected areas for free. Ololo, comrades, 3-4 people break into the taxi! Whereas in the Mosgortrans there are always a couple of dozen buses in the reserve, where 50 people can easily enter. Why were not the buses sent to Domodedovo?

On TV, the Patriarch of All Russia broadcasts that taxi drivers are arrogant, ungrateful, and in general, the most sinful people in the world. And in fact, official carriers were first blown up, and then mixed with mud.



But I do not want to delve into politics, who are interested, I can tell you in PM. Who saws in Moscow 30 billion, for whom it is profitable to show a taxi in this world and so forth.

Startups are about and for taxis. Future, present

The problem of taxi startups is perhaps the common problem of most startups. The developers are confident that they will change the world for the better, they are trying to do it as well and automatically as possible for the client, while they are slaughtered to work directly with the raw materials, in this case, with the taxis. Do not follow the kitchen, considering that the kitchen should follow them.



Almost all domestic startups about and for taxis can be divided into 2 camps. Some do more service for customers. Where the client with one click on the button calls himself a taxi. Others are looking more towards carriers, connecting private traders to their system, handing out orders to them.

We decided to make b2b, directly for official carriers. When we started, they laughed at us, said that it would not work and was not at all realistic. At the moment, they work with us, they want to work, almost all modern taxi startups have tried to buy or have worked. Rambler, mail, yande oh ... these asked not to tell ... teleport (perhaps the only working application at the moment "one-button taxi" for Moscow and St. Petersburg), intaxi and many others. Not to mention the "offline" partners, such as hotels, restaurants and travel agencies.

And in the next article I will tell you who we are, what we do and why we managed to do probably the only startup about taxis in Russia, investing only our time in it and forcing it to make money.