Of the 31 routes, the mayor's office played out only 11

The ongoing competition for the distribution of bus routes in Perm is showing unexpected results. Of the 31 routes put up for auction, only a third turned out to be in demand by entrepreneurs. Market participants explain the low interest in competitive procedures by the fact that the proposed routes are uninteresting from an economic point of view. The main struggle will begin at the next stage, when the most cost-effective routes from Zakamsk and the center will be put forward.

Photo: Maxim Kimerling, Kommersant / buy photo

The next stage of the competition for the distribution of bus routes took place. Yesterday, the competition commission, consisting of deputies of the Perm City Duma and officials, distributed three more routes out of 11 put up for competition. Thus, route No. 5 went to IP Rusakov, No. 15 to Mega-group LLC, No. 18 to Diesel LLC. On route No. 44, the decision was postponed until next Monday. There were no applicants for three more routes.

Let us recall that the procedure for holding competitions for the right to conclude a contract for transportation was adopted by deputies of the Perm City Duma in December 2013. The main competitive parameters are: the average service life of vehicles (VVs), the share of vehicles with a low floor position, the average environmental class of the vehicle and the number of buses running on gas. The legality of the documentation was confirmed by courts of all instances. All 70 bus routes must be awarded by April 1st.

The distribution of routes will take place in several stages. On October 31, the mayor's office announced a competition for the first nine routes, the results of which were summed up in early December. Then, out of nine routes, only two were played. For the rest, either no applications were received, or the competition commission identified violations in vehicle passports (PTS). According to the protocol, out of 26 applications submitted, 22 turned out to not meet the requirements of the competition documentation. In particular, “inconsistencies were identified in terms of filling out PTS.” As a result, only two routes were played out: No. 36 went to IP Alexander Sterlyagov, and No. 62 went to MUP Permgorelektrotrans.

Six more routes were drawn last Monday - February 2. At that time, only 16 routes were up for grabs, but only six routes could be determined due to a lack of applications. Thus, route No. 21 went to ASK Trans, 22 and 48 to LLC Transit, 24 to IP Starkov, 61 to IP Teterin, 34 to LLC Diesel. It was not possible to determine the winner for route No. 78; the competition will be announced again.

It is worth noting that two competition participants have already filed claims with the Arbitration Court of the Perm Territory. Thus, individual entrepreneur Krasnovsky, who submitted an application for route No. 3, went to court to declare non-normative legal acts invalid. We are talking about the rejection of the carrier’s application due to non-compliance with the vehicle title. As carrier representative Elena Krasnovskaya explained to Kommersant, she considers the grounds for recognizing the application as not meeting the requirements to be far-fetched. “The competition commission did not issue passports, and it does not have the authority to decide whether the PTS is filled out correctly,” the entrepreneur believes.

Entrepreneur Alexey Taleiko also appealed to the arbitration court with a statement to declare the decision of the competition commission illegal. According to court documents, Mr. Taleiko does not agree with the recognition of his application for route No. 41 as not meeting the requirements of the competition documentation. Kommersant was unable to contact Alexey Taleiko.

As the carriers explain, the low activity on their part is explained by the fact that the proposed routes, after the Perm City Duma made changes to the route network and tariff rules, are unprofitable. Carrier Alexander Bogdanov noted that he has not yet submitted an application for the competition, since the proposed routes are not interesting to him, but he intends to participate in the competition in the near future.

As private entrepreneurs admit, the most popular routes will be the ones for which a competition will be announced in the near future. It is assumed that it is in these areas that competition will begin. As explained in the Department of Roads and Transport, unclaimed routes will be put up for competition again.

According to Kommersant, some carriers even updated their rolling stock, in particular, carriers from Zakamsk and Gayva purchased new buses.

Irina Pelyavina

Not everyone is so lucky