As it became known to the site, very soon in Belarus innovative Uber is also known as the "future of urban transportation". We met with regional representatives of the company to find out what features Uber will have in Belarus, what advantages it has over its competitors, and whether the service can replace private cars for Belarusians.
Uber service is tied to mobile app. The program determines your location by GPS and automatically selects the nearest driver. The car will come even if you don't know the exact address.
Immediately after the order, the system picks up the car and shows its location on the map. When the car arrives, you will receive a notification. The application will show the details of the car and the name of the driver, to whom, if anything, you can send a message or call.
Through the application, you can find out the tariffs for a particular city. If you specify the start and end points of the trip, an estimated cost will be calculated. As soon as you reach your destination, the cost of the trip (calculated by the system) will be automatically debited from the previously linked card. A receipt for the trip will be sent by mail.
“Uber is growing very fast, faster than Facebook and Google,” the company told us. — Over the past few years, we have grown by 150 new cities. Our idea is to make transport affordable and reliable.
Representatives of the service are sure that Uber has advantages that no other existing taxi service in Belarus has:
Secondly, with Uber, you can easily share the cost of the trip. If you are traveling with a company that has Uber accounts, this is done in two clicks.
Thirdly, it is affordability. Uber removes the intermediate link of control rooms, which allows the passenger to pay less, and the driver, on the contrary, earn more (until we were not disclosed the cost of a kilometer trip around Minsk, but they promised that it would be quite affordable. - website).
Fourth, the optimal order distribution system. With Uber, the car arrives as quickly as possible. Even in Moscow, the average delivery time for a car is 3-4 minutes.
Fifth, it is the rating system. After each trip, the passenger must evaluate the driver. Drivers with a rating below 4.6-4.7 (different in different cities) are simply disconnected from the system, which encourages them to be as correct and polite as possible. In the same way, drivers evaluate passengers, and if you repeatedly behave inappropriately, you will have to call a regular taxi - Uber will block you.
At the same time, drivers or passengers will not be able to cheat and try in any way to deceive the ratings and comments system, including financially, the company told us. Uber has a well-oiled anti-fraud (anti-abuse) system that will not allow this, including relying on vast experience in the largest cities of the world.
The emergence of disputable situations will also be resolved very quickly - this will be handled by the Russian-speaking support service. According to Uber, almost 100% of passenger and driver issues are resolved after the first letter (a built-in option in the application).
“Thus, Uber is a self-regulating system in which both the passenger and the driver are protected.
— In Belarus, we plan to introduce exclusively licensed services, such as UberBLACK (executive class cars, more expensive fares) or UberX (ordinary cars, affordable prices).
We were told that only legal entities or individual entrepreneurs with the appropriate license for passenger transportation will be partners with Uber.
- Payment will be made, as in other cities where Uber operates. You download the application, register your bank card there, and payment is made automatically at the end of the trip.
If there is no money on the card (for example, you forgot that you spent the money), then the driver is still compensated for this trip, and the user's account is temporarily frozen until the funds are credited to the card and the subsequent payment is received.
There will be no cash payments, which in general is not a serious drawback in Belarus, given the level of penetration of bank cards.
At first, Uber will operate exclusively in Minsk. Companies are interested in cities with a population of half a million or more people. However, it is possible that in the future the service will appear in regional centers.
“Recently, a trail of negativity has been dragging behind Uber, some kind of incorrectly presented information, primarily related to how the company works,” a company representative notes. “For example, Uber had a sharing product like UberPop, which is just as innovative as AirBNB. In many countries, it developed well, however, in France, and as a result, a law was passed there that made UberPop illegal.
Photo: Reuters UberPop is a now defunct car ordering service with non-professional drivers, often without a license. At the same time, the cost of the trip was much lower than in a traditional taxi - this is a kind of Uber low-cost.
— I want to add right away that there will be no UberPop in Belarus. We start with an exclusively licensed product, we will have partners - individual entrepreneurs or legal entities who have received licenses, who will pay taxes in accordance with the laws of the country, - said a company representative.
Uber claims that the company is so fast and innovative that it causes extremely unfriendly attitude from competitors. The overblown scandal with UberPop, the over-attention to every negative incident related to Uber - this is already used to the company.
After Uber's imminent arrival at the beginning of the year, taxi market players began to stir. In the country of the SayTaxi service, many taxi services have mobile applications designed to simplify the call of cars. How will Uber deal with them?
“Uber is not fighting anyone. We do not have the task of squeezing someone out of the market. We are a complement to the current transport infrastructure cities and provide an additional choice to users.
There is a misconception that we are taking the market away from taxi services. This is not true. In San Francisco, the number of taxis has not decreased over the past four years, and Uber cars have become several times more than taxis. That is, we can say that an alternative market is being created.
Photo: wikimedia “Now in Belarus they call a taxi only in case of emergency,” Uber is sure. - If there is even the slightest opportunity to refuse a taxi, we do it. And it's not just about money - it's about potential annoying driver communication, chanson, and possibly unpleasant smells in the cabin. In addition, you often do not know how much your trip will cost: whether the taxi driver will turn on the meter or not, how and how much he will calculate the trip without a meter. Uber won't have that.
— We see how the system of using transport in large cities is changing — it is often easier and cheaper for people to give up their own transport in favor of Uber. Perhaps this will happen in Minsk someday, - the company representative concluded optimistically.
Have you ever traveled with Uber in other countries? Write about it in the comments.
Serious changes have recently taken place in Minsk in the field of passenger transportation: two major services - Uber and Yandex.Taxi - have been transferred to a single platform for drivers based on Yandex.Taxometer. At the same time, customers can continue to use the application and the service that is more convenient for them. Passengers were promised reduced waiting times and other benefits, while drivers were promised less idling. Although so far everything is not working as clearly as we would like.
Many of our readers, users of these applications, report that services have been malfunctioning in recent days. In general, everyone has the same problems.
Uber has an important innovation: now the customer can pay for the trip in cash. “Cars fulfilling Uber and Yandex.Taxi orders must be equipped with cash registers in accordance with the requirements of the law so that users can pay for trips not only with a card, but also in cash”, - explained earlier in Uber.
In practice, the system is still unstable. Readers complained to the Onliner.by correspondent that the application leaves no choice.
- The card payment option does not work, the application automatically transfers to cash payment. This is a problem, since I often do not carry money with me - only a card. I have not yet seen terminals in Uber cars. An unpleasant surprise when, after completing the trip, the driver starts demanding money that you don’t have with you! - noted by our reader.
Another user said that he also found himself in a similar situation.
- I asked the driver if I would receive a check from him about the service rendered. He replied that he did not have a cash register yet. What kind of cash payment then can we talk about? And why should this be my problem? If you want cash, give a check. Otherwise - write off the cost of the service from the card, the passenger said.
Those who pay by credit card have noticed that the amount is debited already when the trip has just begun, and not after it is completed.
- Today the system could not withdraw money from my card, even though they were there. They also changed the payment to cash. And I didn't have any money with me. So the driver agreed to go further only on condition of arrival at an ATM - there was no bank terminal in the car. I specifically call Uber, hoping to pay by card. And they forcibly change the payment method - and spin as you like, - Another customer complained.
“From June 27 in Minsk is available a new version applications to travel, you must accept the user agreement. When the first order occurs, a certain amount can be blocked on the card and immediately unblocked to check the performance of the card. This is a common practice for all mobile applications that are associated with financial transactions and bank cards. If the system has not authorized the card, then it may automatically switch to cash payment. If a Money there is enough on the account, and there was a switch to cash payment, then you need to contact the support service by sending a request in the application itself or in the social. networks. This information is promptly sent to the developers. It is important for us that the application is user-friendly
The client, as before, can order Uber at favorable rates, but the cost of the trip depends not only on them. In some areas, the number of orders may periodically exceed the number of cars operating on the line and ready to travel. In this case, the algorithm automatically generates a multiplier – this is a forced measure that helps those who need to leave as soon as possible to use a taxi, even during periods of high demand.”
“Not all Yandex.Taxi drivers have card terminals. We are currently testing the possibility of paying for a trip using bank card linked to the Yandex.Taxi application. When the option is ready for a full launch, we will definitely let you know.”
Other customers complain that the waiting time for the car has not decreased as promised, but, on the contrary, has increased. At the same time, some drivers do not behave quite correctly in relation to customers.
- Ordered a car through Uber, received confirmation, waiting time - 8 minutes. Ok, that suits me. Suddenly a call: “Hello, this is the driver. I beg your pardon, but I won't be able to be with you earlier than in half an hour. It suits you? If not, cancel your trip." a reader told an Onliner.by correspondent. - What was it all about? It's good that I called back right away: I was able to cancel the trip without consequences and did not pay for the cancellation of the order. I called another car, but I think to myself: “Where did they stab me?”
Another user got into another curious situation.
- The driver took the order, and then went to the gas station. In general, the waiting time has increased from 4 minutes to 18. This is probably my last trip with Uber.
Many note that it has become much more difficult to call a car, both through Uber and using the Yandex.Taxi service. It takes 15 minutes to wait for confirmation from at least some driver.
“The average time to pick up a car over the last two days of the new Uber app was no more than 7 minutes, we expect this figure to be even lower in the next few weeks. In the case described, the driver did not have to take the order if he needed to fill up the car. If this happens, we recommend that you write to the support service.
“Now all drivers connected to Yandex.Taxi and Uber receive orders from users of both services. Of course, now many have rushed to test the operation of applications after the merging of platforms - therefore, sometimes you have to wait longer. In addition, organizational and technical processes are still ongoing. Everything will be fine soon.”
Taxi service Uber has appeared in Minsk. Old taxi drivers are afraid of it, but young people actively use it: some hope to earn money, others travel cheaper.
Illustrative photo wikimedia.org.
Mobile application for finding a taxi or driving people for money. It was created by an international company based in San Francisco (USA). Today, the application is available in 375 cities in 68 countries.
Each person can see the profile of the driver, the brand of his car and their rating, which was set by customers. At the same time, the rating is of great importance, because if the driver has a very low rating, Uber terminates the cooperation agreement.
This is a new technology - people "share services". It is predicted that there will be more and more such networks over time.
If you have a car and required documents, you can become an Uber driver and get 80% of the price of each trip, 20% goes to Uber. If you are a client - choose the closest car to you.
You can only pay for the services of Uber cars with a bank card.
To use, you need to download a mobile application - for Android or IOs. After you need to register: enter contact details and number bank card.
Money will be debited from the account when using, it is necessary to have a card with you. To call a taxi, the Internet must work. Your location is determined automatically. You enter an arrival address and select a car class: in Belarus, these are UberBLACK (executive class cars) and UberX (comfort class cars).
Before ordering a taxi, you can see the approximate cost of the trip, as there will be corresponding tariffs depending on the class of car. The price is calculated approximately: depending on traffic, weather conditions and other factors, the amount may fluctuate.
After the application looks for drivers nearby, you just have to choose a taxi driver and wait for his arrival. Upon arrival, your card will be charged for the fare. The invoice will come to email.
If you have your own premium or comfort class car, you are a legal entity or individual entrepreneur- you can become an Uber driver. To do this, you need:
If Uber's requirements are true, a partnership agreement will be signed. Each driver can set his own work schedule or even work in his spare time. From each trip the driver will receive 75%. At the end of each trip, the driver must issue an order for chartering vehicle for the transport of passengers. This document is related to the law “On road transport and road transportation”, which states that “road transportation of passengers in regular traffic is carried out under an agreement on road transportation of passengers, and in non-regular traffic - under a charter agreement for road transportation of passengers or under an agreement on transportation of passengers by taxi car (clause 29 of the Rules on the carriage of passengers).
In fact, Uber in Belarus is no different from a regular taxi service, since only in some countries the legislation allows Uber to sign contracts with individuals that have cars below the comfort class. Only registered taxi drivers have the right to engage in private transportation in Belarus.
Many of the users say that the taxi cost them about the same or cheaper than usual. Is it true?
UberBLACK (premium cars):
Submission of a car - 45,000 rubles
Kilometer trip - 7000 rubles
Taxi "Friday" (premium cars):
Submission of a car - 60,000 rubles
Kilometer trip - 8500 rubles
UberX (comfort class cars)
Submission of a car - 27,000 rubles
Kilometer trip - 5700 rubles
Taxi "Diamond"
Submission of a car - 18,400 rubles
Kilometer trip - 5500 rubles
Despite the numbers, UberX guarantees comfort class cars such as Skoda Rapid, Kia Rio, Volkswagen Polo, Hyundai Solaris under 5 years old.
The activity of the service caused conflict situations and protests in many countries, including France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. In some countries, Uber received fines, in others some or all of its services were banned. The problem is related to the inconsistency of the service rules with the law in a number of European countries(where a license is required for the carriage of passengers). Older taxi drivers are also worried about low fares.
Protests in France:
In Moscow, taxi drivers also expressed dissatisfaction with the activities of Uber, in particular, calling the company "the largest illegal carriers." The Moscow Department of Transport and Uber have agreed to sign a special agreement limiting the company's services to only legal carriers.
A spontaneous meeting of taxi drivers also recently gathered in Minsk.
In order to better understand the peculiarities of working in Belarus, NN talked with Vadim Mozheiko, an expert from the Liberal Club, who completely abandoned other taxi services after UberX arrived in Minsk.
NN: Why did you switch completely to Uber? What was the motivation?
VM: It's comfortable and of good quality. No incomprehensible negotiations with aunts on the phone, no "wait, looking for a car." Everything is visible on the map, transparently. The drivers are cultured, no boys in sweatpants with a chanson. Calculation by card, which you do not even need to have with you, which no other taxi service can offer. It's great that there is no moment of calculation when they will fool you with an unplugged meter, and you need to somehow decide this - whether to quarrel, or overpay. And here everything is automated, there is no subjective factor. In addition, I travel a lot, and calling a taxi in a new city at an incomprehensible tariff is always headache. And with Uber, I opened a regular application on my tablet in Berlin - and immediately saw 4 different taxi options, with understandable prices.
NN: Do you feel the difference between our Uber and abroad?
VM: Abroad, they don’t write out a piece of paper to you after the trip, you just said goodbye and left. Uber works with us in accordance with Belarusian legislation.
NN: Many of the users complain about the small number of drivers in Minsk. Have you encountered such a problem?
VM: No, there are usually enough drivers. However, if there is a large demand, they will hire more, of course.
NN: Recently, taxi drivers said that Uber is the last straw. Is there really any threat to them in Belarus?
VM: Taxi drivers are afraid of competition, since an individual driver will never be able to build such a model as global company. However, you can go to work at Uber, but not everyone is capable of this: neither the culture nor the quality of the car is enough. Uber is changing the market globally, and this, of course, does not please those who feel that it will not be able to adapt to such changes.
However, there is no need to panic: yes, Tesla and Uber will certainly win in the future, but for the next few years, the Almaz taxi on Lada will also be in demand among a certain audience. At least because not everyone is used to using mobile internet and have good smartphones. Therefore, it would be better if the protesting taxi drivers worked on their own quality, learned to switch music for customers and not cheat with the meter, and not be afraid of Uber "a.
Nikita Nedaverkov
