Taxi drivers ask to exempt them from the checking of passenger digital passes

The author of the letter, the chairman of the union Nikolay Kodolov, states that drivers cannot fulfill the requirement to check digital passes, which have become mandatory for trips around the city and the region since April 15.

According to Kodolov, taxi drivers do not have access to databases to carry out such checks, and the Moscow Assistant application is unstable. Drivers also cannot verify the authenticity of the printed pass, RBC quotes the words of the head of the trade union.

The letter notes that the authorities do not give any explanations and instructions regarding the verification procedure. Kodolov indicates that taxi drivers are not police officers and not the Russian Guard, and therefore are not authorized in principle to check the documents of passengers. Passengers themselves refuse to provide passes to taxi drivers for the same reasons.

Therefore, the union is forced to turn to the deptrans with a request either to give at last clear instructions on how the inspection should be carried out, or “not to impose additional sanctions on taxi drivers”.

Recall that residents of the capital have already encountered the inconvenience associated with the introduction of digital passes. From the very beginning, as soon as the service for processing these electronic documents began, users lost the opportunity to visit the site of the city administration. According to the Moscow department of information technology, the portal was attacked by hackers and “put” the system for three hours. After all the cyberattacks were repelled, and the Muscovites drove to the capital’s roads, taking with them registered passes, the drivers got stuck in traffic jams, which had just begun to decrease due to the introduced self-isolation regime. Even this small plus of restrictive measures was leveled at the entrances to Moscow, in places where the traffic police are stationed, checking special passes.

The turn to experience even greater discomfort from measures to combat the pandemic in Moscow came for subway passengers. On the first day of the introduction of fines for the absence of digital passes, April 15, traffic jams also appeared in the subway. In the subway, the police, along with passes, checked citizens' passports. These checks have led to massive congestion. By the way, the photo published on social networks shows that passengers stand in huge lines very tightly - there is no talk of any respect for the distance. So, citizens are even more at risk of becoming infected with the coronavirus.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin assessed the situation in the metro as “critical”.

- But in the future it will be necessary to move on to automated control. We’ll think about how to do this, the Moscow Mayor promised belatedly.