State Regulation of the Russian Passenger Taxi Market: Accumulated Problems and Solutions

Abstract

The domestic passenger taxi market at the present stage is characterized by significant scale and dynamics as well as an important role in ensuring transport accessibility. At the same time, it is at a much earlier stage of development in comparison with many foreign countries, which is largely due to the lack of state regulation at the legislative and executive levels. The article is devoted to the development of state regulation of the Russian passenger taxi market aimed at overcoming the accumulated problems in its functioning. The methodological base of the research includes theoretical provisions of strategic management, modern concepts of public administration, and a problem-oriented approach. The study has revealed six groups of problems in the functioning of the passenger taxi market in modern Russia: “erosion” of responsibility to consumers for the provision of taxi services and shifting thereof from the backbone entities of the taxi market to less stable participants; low development level of the passenger taxi market’s material component, i.e. motor transport fleet; absence of an efficiently operating infrastructure of the taxi market that controls and develops labor resources; low level of personal safety of taxi drivers and passengers; predominance of dumping schemes used by taxi aggregators to expand the geography of service provision, which leads to market monopolization; and low tax collection due to a lack of transparency in the market as well as the difficulty of implementing effective tax control. To minimize these problems, strategic recommendations are substantiated within the framework of improving the state regulation of the relevant market.