Convenient buses instead of minibuses: a new bill has been registered in the Rada. Viktor Medvid

The Verkhovna Rada has registered draft law No. 4583, which aims to replace old minibuses in public transportation. According to Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Krykliy, the adoption of this bill will make it possible to demand quality from carriers and leave old and broken-down buses in the past. Instead of not always transparent tenders for routes, it is proposed to start purchasing transportation services through ProZorro. Viktor Medvid, director of the consulting company William-Invest-Expert, told more about this on Ukrainian Radio.

"We should distinguish between the statements that were made and the reality. Comfort indicators do not depend on this law and are set by customers when holding relevant tenders. If local authorities order good and comfortable buses, and not some other kind, then only carriers with the appropriate buses can be involved in these tenders. In other words, the law does not change anything in terms of comfort indicators," said Viktor Medvid.

According to the expert, the main purpose of the law is to conduct tenders differently.

"Previously, the relevant routes were put up for tender with the relevant requirements for carriers in terms of the number of buses, their comfort indicators, etc., but now, to participate in the tender, companies must compete for the price of a conditional one kilometer of a conditional type of transport and a passenger seat. That is, the one with the cheaper offer will win the tender," he said.

Medved noted that the changes proposed by the bill could lead to cheaper transportation and corruption risks.

"When it comes to the possibility of reducing the cost of servicing the relevant routes, there are two payment options: the passenger can pay for the ticket for the service, and the customer can use the corresponding payments to pay for, in particular, unprofitable routes that he orders. Therefore, the changes proposed by the draft law may lead to the fact that, on the one hand, we can get cheaper transportation, and on the other hand, corruption factors are introduced, which will subsidize some and not others. In addition, a negative factor is the introduction of an intermediary between the passenger and the carrier as a customer who directly carries out financial and economic settlements. The customer can also transfer funds for this route in full, and the carrier can collect these funds through tickets. Thus, we can pay twice for the same service. And due to corruption-related factors, there is a possibility that the relevant regulatory authorities will not record a double charge for the same route. Therefore, under the slogans of "improving comfort" there are many issues that are in no way related to comfort indicators, but rather to changing the system of transport financing in Ukraine," he explained.

The expert added that "the new draft law does not change much, as it does not provide for funding. Even if the law enshrines the comfort indicators, there is no way to get the funds to implement this system. Therefore, the draft law as it stands creates conditions for redistribution of the existing transportation market."

Medved also noted that "each city or village has different requirements for the respective types of transportation. Accordingly, even in different districts of Kyiv, there are different requirements for different types of transport, including the number of seats, comfort, etc. Therefore, local authorities can currently leave taxis in place without adopting a law."

"The minibuses are of low quality because there is little competition on the transportation routes. Carriers do not have enough money to upgrade, as the cost of cash for the purchase of relevant fixed assets is approximately equal to the cost of profitability in these areas. Therefore, carriers use used vehicles or other means that do not meet modern requirements. And all this is done in the absence of a policy on financing the renewal of vehicles," the expert added.