Draft document changing the on-demand taxi market in Uzbekistan published 

The Ministry of Transport introduced a draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers “On measures to streamline the activities of taxi transportation in the Republic of Uzbekistan”.

It proposes to establish a new procedure from January 1, 2020, according to which:

- passenger cars will be able to offer taxi services through taxi ordering applications or other transportation contracts;

- registered taxi is allowed to work without identification marks of external design.

From the same date, it is proposed to strengthen the requirements for online taxi booking services. In particular, they want to oblige:

- to post on the website full information about their status (legal form, location address, taxpayer identification number, addresses of the actual locations of the servers used);

- to integrate specialized software for processing information about passenger orders for carriers in the electronic database of the Ministry of Transport and the State Tax Committee;

- to place server equipment of specialized software in the territory of Uzbekistan.

The document envisages two different types of taxis:

- linear - work at the request of passengers depending on the distance crossed;

-  custom - work on request through the taxi transportation service.

Linear taxis should use identification signs, including the orange “TAXI” sign on the roof of the car, black checkered squares, a special number and much more.

“Yellow vehicles are allowed to operate as linear taxis. For the city of Tashkent, the color is ivory,” the project says.

Both linear and custom taxis should have:

- information plate indicating the state number of the vehicle, surname, first name and photograph of the driver, time of commencement and completion of work, fare (in soums), address and telephone number of the carrier, information about the number and expiration date of the license card, as well as information about compulsory insurance. The plate is installed on the dashboard of the vehicle with good readability by passengers;

- taximeter;

- radio communication equipment purchased and used in the prescribed manner;

- taximeters and radio communications can be replaced by devices with special applications that provide the above-mentioned functions (cell phones, tablets, electronic payment systems).

One can learn the project in details, submit suggestions and comments to it until August 16.