Taxi and delivery price hikes: Yandex on banning migrants from working in these sectors in St. Petersburg 

Yandex commented on the regulation introduced by the governor PetersburgAlexander Beglov a ban on employing legal migrants to work as taxi drivers and delivery drivers.  

"St. Petersburg already faces a shortage of taxi drivers and couriers to meet growing demand. Once the ban on patent-based work comes into effect, the shortage in these two sectors will increase to 40. This could trigger a 10-15% increase in taxi prices, and a more than twofold increase in delivery prices."

  says in a comment to Interfax.

Bans on migrant workers driving taxis have already been introduced in more than a dozen regions, although labor shortages existed even when foreigners were still allowed to work as drivers. If the taxi workforce continues to decline, wait times and fares will rise even further. note even pro-government publications. 

Blogger and taxi driver Egor Ryabkovpredictsthat by autumn, prices in St. Petersburg will be significantly higher than Yandex expects – by 30-40%. 

At the end of July, Beglov banned foreigners from working as taxi drivers. On August 11, he signed a similar decree regarding couriers, which will take effect on August 21. Authorities claim this will help combat informal employment and improve the quality and safety of services. called such solutions are populist and incapable of truly solving the problems.