The history of taxi in Russia: from horse-drawn carriages to mobile applications. Who Invented Taxi? The very first taxi in the world

In just a few years, mobile technology has revolutionized the taxi niche, escalating competition to the extreme. This made life much easier for passengers: the time of car delivery was reduced several times, trips became much cheaper.

Taxi market volume

The democratization of taxi prices led to the growth of the market, which by 2015 amounted to $ 9 billion (this is the November estimate of the analytical company Merku). Oksana Serebryakova, board member of the Association of Taxi Dispatch Services, does not agree with this figure. According to her calculations, the market volume is no more than $ 6 billion, or about 420 billion in rubles. Due to the crisis, the number of orders for different carriers fell by 40-50%, Serebryakova is convinced, and this year it will definitely not grow.

“The market size is very difficult to calculate,” admits the founder of Taxilet, Mikhail Vinogradov. - In our calculations, we are guided by 1 trip per day for 10 residents of cities with a population of one million. That is, in Moscow we can talk about a million movements per day. "

None of the players wants to share data on their volumes. The market for the most part consists of illegal and unrecorded traffic and participants. From our experience in the regions, we have derived a formula: usually the daily traffic volume is 10% of the city's population. The average check depends on the standard of living and the presence of a networker in the city (a large network of control rooms - ed.). In millionaires it is 100-150 rubles, in towns - 60-80 rubles. Therefore, we take 15 million trips around the country per day, multiply them by 100 rubles of the average check, and we get 1.5 billion rubles of turnover per day. About 20% of this amount is received by dispatchers, about 1% - by software providers for taxis. These are very rough numbers, but they can serve as a basis for understanding the market, which cannot be accurately estimated.

The founder of the Gett taxi service, Shahar Weiser, predicted that in the next 3-4 years the Russian taxi market will grow to $ 15-20 billion, and this will happen due to online services. Another market participant is convinced that this figure does not reflect the current reality and was announced by Gett specifically for investors to show the potential and attract the next round.

And the head of Cat Taxi, Gennady Kotov, considers it incorrect to assess the Russian taxi market in dollars due to exchange rate fluctuations and the fact that the cost of transportation is absolutely not tied to currency. At the same time, he notes that for Gett and Uber, the fall of the ruble is extremely beneficial: external investments give them additional opportunities for dumping in Russia.

Number of taxi drivers

In October 2015, more than 180 thousand taxi cars were officially operating in Russia (Rusbase's interlocutors suggest that this figure covers only legal drivers). In Moscow alone, according to the city department of transport, about 55 thousand taxi drivers are licensed. Moreover, many drivers cooperate with several services at once.

According to Mikhail Vinogradov, the founder of Taxilet, there are about 100 thousand more taxis operating in the capital without licenses, working under charter contracts this is when the aggregator for money entrusts a private driver with the transportation of a passenger (moreover, the contract can be oral) - and that's not counting those who come from the region. “The number of illegal taxis, depending on the situation in the country, may tend to the number of all cars,” says Vitaly Makhinov, founder of the Russian Taxi Exchange.

Aggregators vs. classic taxis

There are two groups of players in the taxi market: taxi companies with their own fleet and aggregators of taxi services. The latter conclude contracts with taxi companies (Yandex.Taxi) or with private drivers registered as individual entrepreneurs (Uber, Gett, Maxim, Leader, Saturn). According to some estimates, taxi services account for more than half of all taxi services in Moscow.

There are no more than a thousand full-fledged taxi companies with their own fleet and economic base per country. As for the aggregators, they are divided into pure online (without an office and a control room - Gett, Uber, Yandex Taxi, etc.) and traditional control rooms that have their own mobile applications (Maxim and others).

Aggregators see themselves as IT companies that help the driver and passenger find each other. Formally, they do not fall under the law "On Taxi" - it simply does not include the concepts of "taxi dispatch service" or "information service". Traditional carriers accuse them of unfair competition: aggregators are not responsible for road accidents, passenger safety, late arrival at the airport and technical serviceability of the car. In addition, having already entered the database of the information service, the driver can close the IP in order not to pay taxes.

Yaroslav Shcherbinin,

chairman of the Interregional Trade Union "Taxi Driver"

Apps create conditions for illegal activity by attracting illegal carriers. This is one of the main ingredients for their success. There is no accounting and deduction of taxes for working drivers, there are no requirements for ensuring safety, liability to the passenger in the event of an emergency. Consumers are attracted by the price of the trip. Most drivers do not understand the unprofitability of this type of activity and are drawn into this pyramid. It is difficult for traditional players to compete in such an environment.

Mikhail Vinogradov,

founder of Taxilet

Of course, the old taxi owners are offended. For decades they plowed, risked, beat them, burned their cars, waited at the entrance, extorted money, strangled them with taxes. They survived, endured it all, became leaders. And now their guys in sneakers are tight. But no matter how much the archers went on strike, they cannot oppose anything to the submachine gunners.

Secretive leaders

The media field is dominated by well-known metropolitan aggregators - Yandex.Taxi, Gett and Uber. But on a national scale, the three federal dispatching offices are confidently leading - "Rutaxi", "Saturn" and "Maxim". They prefer to stay in the background, do not disclose indicators and practically do not communicate with journalists.

“These are the real leaders of the market, probably even the world one,” says Mikhail Vinogradov. "In fact, these are Russian Uber, moreover efficient and living without outside investments." The real owners of the market are still the gray cardinals in the regions, agrees the head of Cat Taxi Gennady Kotov. According to him, there is an abyss between the federal troika and the rest of the market participants. According to rough estimates, Rutaxi, Saturn and Maxim altogether make about 4 million traffic per day. Their shares in this volume are 40%, 35% and 25%, respectively.

So they are not at all afraid of competition with well-known metropolitan services. Yandex.Taxi, Gett and Uber occupy an absolutely microscopic share russian market, - a representative of one federal network shares on condition of anonymity. "Each of us individually makes more shipments than all of them put together."

Applications do not rule

According to experts, in Moscow the share of ordering a taxi through applications reaches 65-70% (including small players), in St. Petersburg - no more than 30%, in cities with a population of over a million - no more than 8%, and in the outback - no more than 3%. The fact is that in the regions the population has much fewer smartphones than it seems from Moscow.

In addition, navigation is poor in the regions: the mobile Internet is lame in settlements with a population of less than 200 thousand. This greatly complicates the operation of applications - the driver simply cannot find the passenger. Taxi drivers in small towns work the old fashioned way, with radios. And Maxim, Rutaxi and Saturn thrive thanks to their well-developed dispatching and telephony integration.

To create a full-fledged online service in the regions, you need to invest heavily in local cartography in order to clarify the maps of rural areas and improve navigation capabilities, says Oksana Serebryakova, board member of the Association of Taxi Dispatch Services. Now taxi services from the hinterland rely on local drivers who are well versed in their native lands. According to the head of Cat Taxi, Gennady Kotov, online does not come to the hinterland, not because of cartography, but because local taxis are in no hurry to make applications until a strong competitor (networker) arrives.

Player portraits

Now is the time to tell a little about the leaders of the online taxi market. If you think that we have undeservedly forgotten someone - add to the list in the comments.

All-Russian leaders

Rutaxi is a mobile application and a taxi ordering system for the services "Lucky" and "Leader". This federal network of dispatching offices operates in 90 cities of Russia and 3 cities in Kazakhstan (Almaty, Astana, Karaganda). According to experts, Rutaxi accounts for about 1.6 million traffic per day - it is the largest player on the Russian market. The network cooperates with both private taxi drivers and taxi companies, eliminating the need to maintain their own dispatchers. The application for ordering a taxi from a smartphone "Rutaxi", according to them, was launched in 2011. "Rutaxi" does not advertise the commission percentage and the number of cars.

In each city, the "Leader" has registered separate legal entities, their type of activity is formulated as "data processing". According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, the founder of almost all divisions of the network (including LLC Leader and LLC Vezet) is the Ufa businessman Vitaly Bezrukov (in some places together with partners). Apparently, it was he who founded the taxi service "Leader" in 2003. Bezrukov has not yet appeared in the field of view of the media. In 2012, he took part in the II All-Russian Congress of Taxi Drivers. His photo can be seen on the website of the Ufa Aviation Club:

"Saturn"

Entrepreneur Yevgeny Lvov launched the Saturn taxi service in Timashevsk (Krasnodar Territory) in 1998. Today the company has grown into a federal taxi network that operates in 43 cities across the country. The interlocutors of Rusbase calculated that it makes about 1.4 million shipments per day. Like its competitors, Saturn has a legal entity registered in each city, almost all of them are owned by Yevgeny Lvov himself. In 2012, the network launched the TapTaxi mobile application for ordering a car without the participation of a dispatcher.

In 2015, Evgeny Lvov, together with partners, launched the Fasten taxi call app in the United States, which will compete with Uber itself. The project was launched in Boston in September and will appear in Russia this year. Knowledgeable people say that the founders of the project have very big plans that will significantly affect the taxi market.

The history of the company began in 2003 with a small taxi service in the city of Shadrinsk (Kurgan region). The service was launched by entrepreneur Maxim Belonogov.

Maxim Belonogov

Now the company operates in 114 cities of Russia and 11 more cities in Ukraine (Mariupol, Kharkov), Kazakhstan (Aktobe, Astana, Petropavlovsk, Uralsk), Georgia (Batumi, Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Rustavi) and Bulgaria (Sofia). LLC "Infoservice" (legal entity "Maxim") makes about a million shipments per day. Judging by the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, in each city Maxim has a registered legal entity. The founders of the regional divisions are Maxim Belonogov and Oleg Shlepanov.

"Maxim" works with private drivers, from whom it takes a commission of 10%. They work with a proprietary application and a dispatch service (90% of orders are received by phone). The average ticket for a trip in the network is 100 rubles. The company earns 10 million rubles per day, according to Sekret Firmy in April. In 2011, an additional direction was spun off from the company - the dispatch service for taxi companies Taxsee.

"Maxim" is the leader in the number of cities, but in many of them he is present only nominally, says a critical source Rusbase.

Capital leaders

Taxi service from Yandex entered the market in 2011. It was the initiative of the son of the founder of the corporation, Lev Volozh. The service works only with taxi companies - now Yandex.Taxi has 450 partners who unite 30 thousand cars. In April 2015, they processed 60 thousand orders per day. Current estimates range from 100,000 to 200,000 trips per day. Today the service is available in 14 cities - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Krasnodar, Sochi, Vladikavkaz, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Perm, Samara, Tula and Voronezh. Since 2016, Yandex.Taxi has been a separate company within the holding. The Director General Yandex.Taxi became Tigran Khudaverdyan, who has been running the service since 2014, and before that was the head of Yandex's mobile products.

Tigran Khudaverdyan

You can pay for the trip in cash or by credit card. The commission for taxi companies is 11% + VAT, the average ticket for a trip in Moscow is 533 rubles. The aggregator also offers the market a professional software package for taxi services "Yandex.Taxometer", which includes a program for taxi fleets and a mobile application for drivers. As indicated on the product's website, 1,000 companies and 200,000 cars across the country are connected to it. In January 2015, Yandex bought the Ros.Taxi service, which allows taxi companies to take orders, coordinate the work of drivers and keep records.

Israeli entrepreneur Shahar Weiser came to Russia with his GetTaxi service in 2012. Now Gett taxi (updated name) can be ordered in 10 cities of Russia - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Sochi, Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk, Samara, Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar. In Moscow, the average check is 400–500 rubles, Gett commission is 15%. This is more than Yandex, but Gett's functionality is broader - in addition to aggregation and user support, the company is engaged in hiring and training taxi drivers.

The service works with taxi companies and private drivers who have a license for passenger transportation. In total, about 20 thousand cars are available in the Gett system. The Russian division of the company is headed by Vitaly Krylov.

The famous American startup took up the Russian market at the end of 2013. He works with private drivers who do not have taxicabs on their cars. A license is required to connect to Uber. Uber does not disclose data on the number of drivers and the commission charged from them.

The service was launched in 7 cities - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don and Sochi. The Russian office of the scandalous unicorn is headed by Dmitry Izmailov. “We are interested in all cities with a population of more than 100 thousand people,” he said in an interview with Rusbase.

LLC "City-Mobil" is one of the largest carriers in the capital, which works with private drivers. Entrepreneur Aram Arakelyan, together with partners, created the company in 2007. The Citymobil service was one of the first to introduce software for the automated distribution of orders between the nearest cars, reducing the waiting time to 10 minutes. Now more than 20 thousand taxi drivers work with it, who pay 15% of the commission to the service. Citymobil is a Yandex.Taxi partner, so the service's drivers accept orders from both systems. In 2014, Citymobil received 10% of Moscow's orders. The service also operates in Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don and Kazan, and in the future plans to conquer the CIS countries.

"Russian Taxi Exchange"

In 2008, partners Vitaly Makhinov and Vladimir Chirkov launched Russia's first b2b aggregator of taxi orders for taxi fleets and dispatch services - the Russian Taxi Exchange (RBT). The story began with 15 partners who were offered to exchange "inconvenient" orders among themselves. At the moment, more than a thousand taxi fleets and dispatch services, as well as more than 50 thousand drivers, are connected to the RBT system. More than 10 thousand orders a day pass through RBT every day. The CEO of RBT is Ruslan Kalinov.

What will happen next?

Where is the Russian taxi market going? The market participants we interviewed agree that cooperation based on innovation is replacing tough competition. Moreover, these changes are based on cost reduction. New players bring to the industry fresh ideas and pull passengers not from other taxis, but from public transport (helping to unload it). They transfer taxis to those who could not afford it before.

Outsourcing and separation of roles optimize the costs of companies. Taxi fleets will be responsible for cars and drivers, agile technology companies for marketing, sales and logistics. In the regions, this will be implemented when there are enough smartphones. Technologies and ideas come to taxis from related markets: cargo transportation, navigation and monitoring road traffic... Technological cooperation will help overcome the crisis in the taxi industry, experts say.

On August 13, 1907, the first taxi was launched in New York. Over the years, yellow cars have become a real symbol of the city, found many cinematic incarnations, and for most tourists they turned out to be the first impression of a trip to an American metropolis.

On this occasion, today we decided to recall the history of the taxi in general and tell you about it.

The word "taxi" comes from the French word "taxo", which means a vehicle used to transport passengers and goods and pay for travel.
The history of taxi originates in France since the 18th century, it was there, at that time, that horse-drawn carriages appeared, which began to be called "fiacre", in honor of the patron saint of gardeners - Saint Fiacre, since the inn with these carriages was located near his chapel. They are believed to have become the world's first public carriages. At the end of the 19th century, technical progress supplanted carriages with horses.

The history of "taxi" begins in France in the 18th century


Installed on the fiacras gas engine, levers for control and after the invention, and installation of meters (taximeters), these crews became popular among the population, since it was easy to calculate the cost of the road.

The first cars intended for taxi services began to be produced by the Renault company, the body of these cars resembled a fiacre, the driver sat separately from the passengers in the open front of the car and was engaged only in driving the taxi, and the passenger was in the closed part of the car and was protected from bad weather. Taxis stood out from the rest of the city's cars with their bright colors. There was no centralized service for accepting orders and taxi calls, taxis just drove around the city and honked loudly.


The first Renault taxi

In Russia, all paths crossed in Moscow. A large number of people came and went, there were several stations and all this created the need for the development of urban transport, which could bring passengers and their luggage to their destination. The demand for transport was huge, so a large number of cabbies appeared in Moscow. The industry was developing, it needed certain requirements: tariffs, a system for managing orders for crews, organizing parking lots. All this was the beginning of the birth of a taxi in Russia as a mode of transport.

1907 - considered the year of birth of the taxi


In 1907, in Russia, a chauffeur hung a poster on his car "Cab driver, fare by agreement." At the same time, the first taxi carriages appeared on the streets of London in England. This year is now considered the birthday of the taxi.


In 1917, after the revolution, the number of taxis in Moscow dropped sharply, taxi drivers were almost exterminated as a class, and only in 1924 the Moscow City Council decided to purchase 200 new cars - taxis of the Renault and Fiat brands. In 1925, the first 16 Renault cars appeared on the streets of Moscow. There were no private taxis at that time, they were all owned and operated by the state, and there was no competition. This led to poor quality passenger service, it was very difficult to order a taxi, there were not enough taxi cars.


Taxi transportation was very profitable for the Moscow government, so the government sought to eliminate these shortcomings. The first passenger cars "GAZ" began to appear in Moscow, the number of taxis increased several times and it became easier to order a taxi, then they began to produce light taxis "ZIS", after the appearance of which, taxis became a generally accessible mode of transport. In the post-war years, the production of Pobeda cars began, which became the main taxi car.

In 1948, a checkerboard strip and a green light were placed on taxi cars to distinguish taxis from other cars on the streets.
In New York, the first city taxi was launched on the line on August 13, 1907. The increase in the number of taxis on the streets of the United States was largely helped by the mafia, which owned most of the taxi companies and was interested in their growth. In America, during the years of Prohibition, there was no more reliable transport for transporting illegal alcohol, so the taxi was especially loved by gangsters-smugglers. A huge amount of alcohol was transported in the taxi, but the police did not even suspect the taxi drivers.


Taxis have appeared in Japan quite recently, Japanese taxi drivers are very polite, punctual, courteous with passengers and are rightfully considered the best taxi drivers in the world. They work exclusively in white gloves; lace napkins are changed daily on the headrests of their cars. While driving, a Japanese driver never talks to a passenger, he only drives a car, and if you are a foreigner, then you may not even count on a conversation. The trip will be calm, sometimes even boring.

In the UAE, Drivers have a good reputation, so if you forget something in the taxi, your driver will try to return the forgotten item to you. Otherwise, inform the company of the time and route - everything possible will be done to help you. It is not recommended to use private taxis without a meter. They are less comfortable, as they are usually old cars with poor air conditioning, and drivers may deliberately zip around to make the trip more expensive.

Japanese taxi drivers are considered the best taxi drivers in the world


In London, taxis are always painted black, in Hong Kong they use 3 types of taxi colors, most often they are painted red, in New Zealand they use green taxis, and on the Lantau Islands - blue. In the USSR, the traditional color of the taxi did not exist. Usually on the factory, standard-colored taxi car, checkerboard cells were painted on the door and a green flashlight was placed, which is why the name "green-eyed taxi" came about.


Today, taxis are a very common form of public transport around the world and represent an entire industry that employs millions of people. By the way, with the development of all kinds of communication and information technologies, ordering a taxi for yourself has become incredibly simple: you can do it by mobile phone or even on the website of any taxi company, and in many cases you can choose not only the time of arrival of the transport you need, but even the model of the taxi itself. car.

Someone does not know what a taxi is? Show me this man! That's right, everyone used it at least once. And who knows why the name is exactly that, taxi? After all, in France they used to be called fiacre? Why on earth did cabmen, the predecessors of the English black cab, sit, in contrast to cabs in other countries, in the back, and even on a dais? And how many thousands of French soldiers were transported in one night by Parisian taxi drivers to the defensive lines along the river. Marne? And how much did it cost forty years ago taxi to Domodedovo?

A taxi is a passenger car that transports passengers with their belongings from the pick-up point to the destination. An interesting point is that by the way taxi services are paid, one can to some extent judge the degree of development of the state. Since it has long been noticed that the fare is set by agreement with the driver of the car only in underdeveloped countries. In all the rest, the cost of the trip is called by the dispatcher upon receipt of the order, or it is paid by the counter. Which is called a taximeter (from the French Taximetre - price counter). From the same name, after its natural abbreviation, the word taxi itself comes from. So this device has nothing to do with the fiacre. With the fiacre, the story turned out to be half commercial, half religious.

More than four hundred years ago, a French businessman by the name of Sauvage organized a company in the town of Meau to transport local residents. His horse-drawn carriages were the first multi-seater carriages in the world to be used for public purposes. And since the taxi company was located near the chapel of St. Fiacre and, in addition, each carriage was decorated with a bas-relief of this saint, it is not surprising that the carts themselves soon received the same name. Motorized French taxi became in 1896. And for a long time toiled in unsuccessful attempts to gain popularity. The cars were expensive. In addition, fierce disputes over how much to charge a passenger and how much to pay a driver got in the way. But 10 years later, the invention of the meter saved the day.

In France, for example, the taxi became a national hero. More precisely, there are 1200 taxi drivers. When, during the First World War, the Germans broke through the French defenses and marched to Paris by forced march, it was the capital's taxi drivers who managed to transfer 6.5 thousand soldiers to the defensive lines along the river in one night. Marne. After which the offensive was stopped. And the name Marne taxis went down in history. In Britain, cabs were the forerunners of taxis. And before them, from the middle of the 17th century, hackney worked. Because of what the British are challenging the French for the palm in the organization of passenger transportation. The driver's seat in the cab was rearranged and upward after someone realized that it would be much easier to distinguish house numbers among the eternal London fogs.

At the beginning of the last century in England, everyone started talking about the imminent death of horse-drawn carriages. Several dozen Bersey electric cabs began transporting passengers at a breathtaking 15 km / h speed for those times. And so they drove around for a whole year, until they went bankrupt. There is nothing to be done, the days of electric vehicles have not yet arrived. But horse-drawn carriages survived them for half a century. Today's taxi in the UK is the famous black cab - extremely conservative in terms of color, appearance and design. His distinctive feature lies in the fact that the driver sits behind the partition, and the suitcases of passengers are placed next to him. Very convenient to some extent. You order a taxi to the airport, to the theater or to visit your business partner, and you are not distracted by anything during the whole journey. And the driver is calmer.

A taxi like that, with a partition, would look good in America. Where there are many more people who want to attack the driver in order to count the contents of his wallet than in good old England. Passenger cars appeared on the streets of American cities at the beginning of the last century. The first, as it should be, was New York. A couple of decades taxi they modestly transported people until they acquired a loud enough and equally sad fame during the Prohibition era. They turned out to be very convenient for the discreet transportation of large quantities of alcohol. Today's Americans slightly dislike their taxis due to the fact that there are too many unscrupulous immigrants among the drivers.

The first domestic motorized taxi appeared in Moscow in 1907. Ten years later, for obvious reasons, the taxi received the stigma of a bourgeois transport and died quietly. In 1924, they still realized that it was necessary to get somewhere quickly and conveniently not only for the malevolent capitalists, but also for their responsible comrades. After that, two hundred purchased Renault and Fiats began to run around Moscow.

Cars domestic production started with GAZ-A. Then there were emki and ZIS-101. And after the war, GAZ M-20 Pobeda began to carry passengers, which became the main vehicle for taxi fleets. Then came the era of the Volga. GAZ-21, which GAZ-24 began to change since 1970. These cars still remain for the older generation symbols not only of taxis, but also of all their former life. The former is in many ways, by the way, not bad at all. Cars transported passengers to all cities in all directions. Ordering a taxi at Sheremetyevo has become something commonplace. Taxis carried people even between settlements. In 1975, the cost of intercity transportation for a distance of about 30 km by taxi was 1 ruble. A bus ticket on the same route cost 43 kopecks. So there were enough people willing to go.

Today's taxi - these are new high-speed comfortable cars. Competition between carrier companies leads to the fact that they try to take as rolling stock, first of all, foreign cars with a period of use no more than 5 years. Which in some firms are even divided into classes. Easier customers are served by Ford, Nissan, or Kia. For business class, Mazda or Toyota is offered. The easiest way is to decide on a car for elite VIPs. These gentlemen are all that is worse than Mercedes executive classare perceived as a personal insult.

Although in the event that you need a taxi to Vnukovo or to the Kursk railway station, then any car will take you quickly and with all possible conveniences. Because another feature of modern transport companies is the careful selection of drivers. The same competition forces only professionals with extensive work experience to drive. Which, moreover, are distinguished by a polite and helpful attitude towards passengers. For a long time, no one will give a steering wheel to the impudent reckless drivers. Taxi has become a transport for everyone again. Reliable, convenient and most importantly affordable. If you need to be in time somewhere, and you have very little time - trust the taxi driver, he will not let you down!

Article published on 6/25/2014 2:04 PM Last edited on 6/25/2014 2:04 PM

Taxi, as we now understand it, appeared in 1907 in several countries at once. In Russia, for example, a chauffeur attached an ad to his car. The inscription read that the payment for the carriage takes place by agreement of the parties.

22.03.1907 is considered to be the birthday of the London taxi. It was on this day that the first taxis equipped with a taximeter appeared on the streets of the British capital.

In European countries, the taximeter appeared earlier than ours. Such a device resolved the issue of payment, which hindered mass transportation due to the constant disputes between passengers and drivers over the cost of travel.

The predecessors of modern taxis

Some historians claim that taximeters are an invention of the representatives of Ancient Rome. In those prehistoric times, a "stone" measure was used to calculate the fare.

A small vessel was attached to the axis of the ancient Roman taxi (chariot). Through each stage (a measure of length equal to approximately 200 m), a pebble entered the vessel. Arriving at the place, the "cabman" counted the number of stones and "presented the bill" to the passengers.


In the seventeenth century, London cabs were licensed. To transport passengers, coachmen were required to obtain a permit or license. This policy was carried out in England since 1639. A year later, this practice was adopted by the Parisians.

In cabs (open two-wheeled carriages), passengers began to be transported from about the middle of the 19th century.

Unlike the Romans at that time, Europeans did not set fixed tariffs for transportation. This situation led to the unprofitability of the haulage business. The rich did not need to hire a crew, as they managed to get by with their own transport. People of average income used the services of coachmen only when there was a great need. And for the poor, such pleasure was an unacceptable luxury.

At the very end of the nineteenth century, Wilhelm Brune designed a device for calculating passengers - a taximeter.

All were equipped with the invention of a German scientist in 1907. london taxis... Since then, the business "went uphill", the demand for the services of carriers has increased significantly.

Where did the checkers come from?

There is no definite opinion about the appearance of this accessory yet. It has been established that it appeared in the third decade of the last century.

Some give the title of the ancestor of "checkers" - the world famous identification mark to a company from the USA - CheckerTaxiofChicago. The carrier's executives believed that driving in cars was in some way identical to racing. Checkered black and yellow flags were present in the racers' competitions. Hence the famous chess appeared.


Others, not wanting to give the "palm" to the Americans, claim that the squares have moved to the roofs of taxis from German checkered strips. German taxicabs did indeed have checkered markings located along the body of the car at about waist level.

Regardless of who was the first, the modern taxi is ready to transport anyone, anytime, anywhere, of course, for an appropriate fee.

Features of the

Most often sedans or minivans are used as taxi cars, limousines are also found. In developed countries, taxi drivers coordinate their actions with a taxi fleet dispatcher, who can transmit information about orders to drivers by radio or by telephone. Japanese taxis use GPS navigation for this purpose. A special characteristic feature for taxis are the so-called "Checkers" (eng. The Checkers, Top Light Box) made in a yellow rectangular shape and attached to the roof of the taxi.

A separate category is taxis that do not have an infrastructure for accepting orders and picking up passengers, but carry out the pickup of passengers through direct integration with the infrastructure of many real taxis. A passenger's call or a completed application on the website goes to the distribution center, from where, taking into account the priority of customer service (for example, price), it enters the information systems of dozens of taxi companies. As a result, it is possible to select a car according to a tariff or other criteria and a significantly higher probability of a car being served.

The strengths of taxi services are delivery to any part of the city at any time at as soon as possible and a round-the-clock work schedule. But along with this, there are a number of weaknesses:

  • high cost of services;
  • low passenger capacity;
  • the possibility of denial of service due to the lack of free cars;
  • fuzzy filing time;
  • a large number of "illegal immigrants" (about 85% according to 2010 data), and this often predetermines low level services: late arrival, arrival at a different address, attempts by the driver to get more than the stated rate. There are frequent cases of attacks on passengers.

Primitive prototypes of taxis appeared in London in 1636, when London coachmen were licensed to drive, and in Paris a year later. And by the middle of the 19th century, the cabriors moved to a two-wheeled open carriage - a convertible, which very quickly became known as a "cab". The first motorized hired carriages - fiacre [fr. fiacre] appeared in France in 1890, but did not enjoy much success. The poor could not afford them, the rich had their own private carriages, and middle class risked using their services only in exceptional cases. The reason for this was the lack of a strict uniform tariff for transportation. In 1891, the German scientist Wilhelm Brühn invented the first taximeter and the situation began to change rapidly. In 1907, the first taxis equipped with taximeters appeared on the streets of the English capital, and the demand for taxi services increased sharply.

In Russia, a taximeter appeared only at the end of the 19th century. A box with a window was attached to the goats, in which the fare for the "high" and normal rate was reflected. The demand for cabs in both capitals was great: even then Moscow and St. Petersburg were large transport hubs with dozens of railway stations.

It should be noted that the taxi drivers themselves perceived the innovation unfriendly, because it prevented them from concealing part of the profits from the owners of the taxi fleet and setting a deliberately inflated price for travel, depending on the benefits of the situation (night, travel to a criminal area of \u200b\u200bthe city, rain, frost, etc.). But the market forced the dishonest drivers to change or leave the business, and soon Renault began mass production of cars with built-in taximeters.

On August 24-25, 2012 in St. Petersburg, the II All-Russian Congress of Taxi Drivers brought together the professional community from 61 regions of the Russian Federation, representatives of the State Duma and the Ministry of Transport of Russia. Among the participants were carriers from other countries - Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Austria. The central point in the program of the congress was the discussion of the draft concept "Fundamentals of state policy in the field of taxi services for the population of the regions of the Russian Federation", which is being developed by the Association "National Taxi Council".

II All-Russian Congress of Taxi Drivers

According to the statistics announced at the congress by the Deputy Chairman of the Board of the NST Sergey Vasilyevich Martsenyuk, at the time of the event in Russia, more than 213 thousand taxi drivers received permits for the activities and the legalization process continues. This process is hampered by the lack of control and preventive measures aimed at illegal immigrants, the absence in the law of the responsibility of dispatch services for transferring orders to drivers without permits and low fines for "bombing"

Private taxi in the Russian Federation

In large cities of the Russian Federation, there are completely legal taxi companies with all the attributes: their own fleet of vehicles, technical inspection, meters, etc. There are also completely illegal private cabs. In small cities of Russia, semi-legal firms are widespread, with their status somewhere in the middle, consisting of drivers, directors and dispatchers. Such enterprises work around the clock and only on call. Drivers work (in jargon - "taxi") on personal cars different brands and classes, so the cars do not have any characteristic attributes of a taxi (uniform colors, "Checkers", etc.); it is usually limited to a small orange beacon on the roof. Like any taxi on call, cars are equipped with radio communication. It is also possible that the company pays the taxi driver for mobile communications.

Recently, software complexes of dispatch services have become popular, working through java applications for mobile phones and smartphones via GPRS. The software package is designed to automate the work of a taxi service. The system significantly improves the efficiency of operators, drivers, as well as managers. The capabilities of the automated dispatching service of a taxi make it possible to organize robotic communication with a client both with and without the participation of an operator, to form and manage a queue of calls on the line and distribute them among operators, to keep clients (by playing music / news / information, using the voice menu) collect statistical data on the work of the service. Workplace the operator gives the opportunity to abandon the need to monitor the movement of cars, the distribution of orders between drivers and control of their execution, forget the problems with the search and formation of the order card Automation of the driver's workplace allows him to calculate the cost of the trip, communicate directly with the client through the system (bypassing the operator and not giving out the client's phone number), and expensive radio equipment is also not required. Thus, as a result of using the complex, the work efficiency increases to 80%. During implementation, the system can be adapted to any customer's requests, including the implementation of additional functionality. Examples of such complexes Infinity-Taxi, Taksimaster, taxi automation complex Autopilot

Repair and maintenance are the prerogative of the drivers and are carried out by them at their own expense and in private garages, since there is no taxi fleet as such. Refueling is also done by drivers at their own expense. Payment is fixed, the same for any distance around the city. There are no meters, therefore, strictly speaking, such transportation is not a taxi (there is no “tax” fee). As a rule, you can book a trip to another locality, usually nearby, but more long trips - to the local regional center or even further. In this case, the payment increases, but, again, is set in advance.

The daily proceeds remain with the drivers, who are obliged to hand over to the "common boiler" either a percentage of the proceeds, or a fixed amount per day (work shift) or for each order. The work of dispatchers and other expenses are paid from the "common boiler". The work schedule of drivers and dispatchers, as a rule, is "day-night-dump-day off". Cars do not undergo the obligatory daily technical checkup before entering the line. Drivers do not undergo a mandatory daily medical check-up. The advantages of such companies are a round-the-clock work schedule and quick arrival on call. The disadvantage is the increased risk of travel due to the lack of a technical and medical examination. The legal status of such businesses is unclear. In fact, they are bombing cooperatives.

Taxi on the Internet

Since then, the presence of taxi companies on the Internet has steadily increased, and as of 2010, Google indexes 87 million pages with the word "taxi". And Yandex has 32 million pages mentioning "taxis". Along with the sites of taxi companies, many taxi catalogs appear.

In connection with the proliferation of publicly available map services (for example, Google Maps) and Web 2.0, fundamentally new taxi-related services are emerging on the World Wide Web. This is how TaxiWiz appears in the .com zone, allowing you to calculate the cost of a trip along the selected route by taxi in a number of cities in the USA and Europe. And in the .ru zone, Taxovik begins to operate, which, due to the peculiarities of the Russian taxi market with a non-fixed price of a trip, allows you to compare prices when traveling along a given route in a number of taxi companies in Moscow. Moreover, taxis, knowing their cities thoroughly, are actively involved in the refinement and improvement of electronic maps (for example, Yandex. Maps), which has a positive effect on the operational process of adding objects under construction and the introduction of new programs taking into account the road structure.

Bicycle and motorcycle taxis

During World War II, most taxi cars were confiscated by the Reich, and there was almost no gasoline either. Many European countries have switched to muscular traction: bicycles connected to wheelchairs-trailers for passengers have become a kind of taxis.

Today, in many Asian countries, the authorities have approved the use of motorcycles as taxis. As a rule, such taxis do not have strollers and carry one passenger, and sometimes even two.

In Russia in last years moto-taxi services are also emerging in large cities as a way to combat traffic jams. In Moscow, for example, where the movement of motor transport is often very difficult, a bike taxi is often the only way to get somewhere (for example, to the airport) in an urgent manner (for example, in case of being late). However, despite this, many residents of megalopolises are still distrustful of the new type of taxi, because the motorcycle has a reputation dangerous transport (despite the fact that no accidents have yet been registered in the bike taxi).

As of 2011, a bike taxi exists in 15 cities of Russia (data from the site gorodbezprobok.ru)

Cultural influence

  • On March 11, 1972, Harry Chapin's album with the song "Taxi" was released.
  • Taxi-driver is a 1976 American feature film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro.
  • "Taxi" is an American comedy about the life of New York taxi drivers working for the Sunshine Cab Company, aired in -1982 on ABC, and in -1983 on NBC with Danny De Vito in the title role.
  • "Green Light", "Citizens", "Tolls", "Night Ekpiage", "Three Poplars on Plyushchikha" .- Soviet films about taxi workers.
  • Tetralogy "Taxi" based on the script by Luc Besson ("Taxi" - "Taxi 2" - "Taxi 3" - and "Taxi 4" -). The American remake of the same name was released in 2004.
  • Crazy Taxi video game ( Crazy Taxi), in which players try to collect money and / or points by picking up passengers and delivering them in time to their destination. This scenario was included in bonus missions in the Grand Theft Auto series of computer games.
  • Video game Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, wherein the main character - a taxi driver who, by chance, became a mafia.
  • On March 13, 1999, the Romanian pop group Taxi was formed in Bucharest.
  • In Australia, visitors to pubs and cafes sometimes shout "taxi!" brawlers, hinting that they need to be sent home.


Notes (edit)

see also

Literature

  • Daniel Ergin Extraction: A World History of the Struggle for Oil, Money, and Power \u003d The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power. - M .: "Alpina Publisher", 2011. - 944 p. - ISBN 978-5-9614-1252-9

Links

  • Drive.ru: Taxi! Taxi! (The history of the emergence and development of taxis of different times and continents)


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