"The driver said:" I will not take the disinfects ""

"Demons are sitting in it, why didn’t you warn me?"

Kristina Antares, 29 years old, tutor of children with autistic spectrum disorder, Moscow

I have many friends with disabilities, so the bad situations with Yandex.Taxi hurt me very much. The problem concerns not only people in wheelchairs, but also children with developmental features.

For the first time, I ran into such a discrimination against taxi drivers two years ago, in Kazan: a taxi arrived, the driver said: “I will not take the disinfects,” turned around and left. The next day, three taxi drivers refused to carry us in a row, and in the subway the employees asked us: “Why don't you take a walk?” No assistance service came up to us, and I myself lowered and lifted the stroller. And at one of my acquaintances, the taxi driver asked: “Does the stroller come with us?” She replied: “No, because I can get up and go!” There are many such cases, with my acquaintances they happen almost every day.

In January, my 10-year-old nephew and I went in a taxi. He saw something, began to show, because he has a disorder of the auto spectrum (races) and he does not talk. The driver asked that with the child, I replied that it was autism. The driver was silent at first, and then sharply said: “Demons are sitting in him, why didn’t you warn me? I didn’t agree so. ” Moreover, my nephew does not speak, but he understands everything. We arrived, and then he could not calm down for half a day.

Drivers are very rude and begin to give uninvited advice, and I decided to ensure that they change their attitude.

The last straw for me was another situation in Kazan. We called a taxi to get on our birthday, and could not leave for 40 minutes. We were refused to carry from a wheelchair. Some simply rudely answered: "For the disabled there are their own taxis." The support service in such situations does nothing-then they can give someone a promotional code, pay off, and that’s all.

In Moscow, the same thing: only recently, on July 6, a girl from Moscow said that the taxi driver refused to take the girl in a wheelchair. There are more cars in Moscow, different tariffs, so it seems like it should be simpler, but even that-it is somehow not very good to call an expensive tariff.

On June 28, I launched a petition against the discrimination of the disabled, and in three days it was signed by 36 thousand people. I did not expect this. After that, adults with disabilities, and mothers of children in strollers and with the features of development, who talked about the fact that taxi drivers regularly refuse to carry them wrote a lot to me. Frequent excuse - that the stroller stains their car and trunk, there is no place.

After starting the petition, mothers of special children wrote to me that there are often insults and questions: “Why does he mumble? Why is he jerking his hands? ”

Yandex.Taxi constantly sends people with disabilities to partnerships so that they organize a trip. But it is unrealistic to get into these funds. To organize a taxi for the nephew, I wrote to some fund working with races. They replied that they have no way to provide trips every day. They can, roughly speaking, take only from the station to the place of rehabilitation. And “Yandex” we use very often: during the school year we go to school and vice versa every day.

Representatives of Yandex literally yesterday got in touch and offered to meet and talk. They saw a petition, read my messages addressed to them, but constantly answered that they were discussing the problem with colleagues. When I return from the trip in early August, I’ll go to them - we will see what they will say. But I will stand on my own to the end and demand an apology. I have already written a statement about the discrimination of the disabled to the prosecutor's office of Kazan after the situation that happened on June 25, but so far nothing is moving.

"It was only 20 minutes to go, but we waited for a taxi for more than an hour"

Zarina Zakirova, 24 years old, an employee of the Call-Center of the Real Estate Agency, Kazan

I used Yandex.Taxi several times. Usually I just choose a “economy” class machine and write in a note that I’m going in a wheelchair. But the last time, June 25, my mother and I managed to leave only in the seventh car. Previous drivers wrote that they could not take us due to the fact that they have no room for a wheelchair. It was only 20 minutes to go, but we waited more than an hour. One of the taxi drivers simply canceled the order without explanation, and we wrote off the money, but there was no more time and time to contact the support of Yandex.

I am very grateful to the seventh driver who agreed to take us, although he himself had some health problems. Our stroller is heavy, but he and my mother and I tried to help it pack it in the trunk.

On the same day, I met Kristina, the author of the petition: we both went for a birthday to our common friend. Together with her, a girl rode in a wheelchair, and they also managed to find a driver who agreed to take them to.

Yandex has a “help” program (the Yandex social program: the company organizes trips for charity funds that need help in movement. - Note “cold” ), but the problem is that not all funds can take you. I tried to attach to some, but they refused me, so I go by ordinary taxi and for my money.

There are other alternatives, such as a social taxi for people with disabilities, but they are designed for certain routes, for example, to the hospital and rehabilitation. Or maybe someone wants to go to the shopping center. Social taxi is free: you need to record in advance on the trip and, it seems, only a certain number of trips are relied on a person. Therefore, if you want to come to you quickly, you call Yandex.

In my environment, people with disabilities often face the fact that they can’t call a taxi, it happens that drivers are also rude to them. Of course, there are a lot of adequate people, but bad cases, as waiting at an hour and a half and refusals, cannot be allowed.

“The driver drove up and scolded me:“ After people like you, all the cars get dirty and scratch ””

Tatyana Egorova, 34 years old, photographer, Moscow

I move in a stroller and previously called Yandex.Taxi at the Economy tariff, but there were situations a couple of times when the stroller did not fit, so I began to cause “comfort” - cars of this class have long roomy trunk. But gradually I began to notice that drivers simply “do not take” my trips under the pretext that the stroller would not fit. Once there was such a case: I had to urgently go to the doctor, it was raining, the driver drove up and scolded me: “After people like you, all the cars get dirty and scratch.” I got a little fucking and refused the trip. I called another car, warned that I had a stroller, and the new driver also refused.

I use “Yandex” very often, every day - and I encounter such a problem every other time. It happened that I wrote, that I had a wheelchair, and the taxi drivers simply did not come to me. 10-15 minutes I only waited for me to find a car. There was a double refusal, I just stood on the street for 30-40 minutes, and it was terrible.

I realized that this is some kind of systemic problem, wrote posts on Facebook , and they quickly answered me from Yandex. A young man politely spoke to me [out of support], they promised to solve this problem, sent a promotional code. But next time they refused me again. The driver wrote: "My trunk is scored, cancel the order." I read the terms of the contract with the drivers, and there - yes, it is painted how the driver should behave with passengers with a wheelchair. Everything is fine according to the documents. But then I began to massively write about the same problems of other taxi users. They said that drivers who refuse to carry people with disabilities simply do a warning. If the situation is repeated, they can only receive a small fine. And it became so offensive to me! Yandex positions itself as a project that helps people with disabilities, and I myself finished the Yandex program “Help Near”. At the same time, we [people with disabilities] are faced with discrimination. I believe that this hypocrisy and the problem must be solved.

After [the publication of the post] I was invited to the Moscow.FM radio, so that I told about my experience with Yandex.Taxi. The presenters called drivers and asked why they generally refuse in such situations. According to drivers, one of the reasons is that they are flying in fines for parking in an wrong place. Drivers said that they try to stop closer to make the passenger more convenient, and therefore approach the entrance, even next to the signs prohibiting the stop. If there is a camera on the building, it fixes such a parking lot, and a fine is automatically accrued to the driver.

This is the only understandable, adequate argument that I heard. But I do not think that this happens constantly, rather, it is just an excuse. More often, the fact is that drivers simply do not want to face people with disabilities. My friend has a child with autism, she already began to warn the drivers in advance about this in the comments on the order, and she is still refused. They just do not want to see, they say, this does not exist in my reality.

As I understand it, until Yandex changes the regulations for drivers, the company will close this situation with promotional codes. I believe that such a problem is treated with a major fine. Discrimination is not just when a passenger with a driver quarreled, this is a completely different scale of the problem.

In the comments, people wrote: “I am the Donach of the Yandex charitable program, how so?” Yes, I can gain a foothold for a charitable foundation, but then my trips should only be at one address: for sports or rehabilitation. And I work and is very mobile, so it does not suit me. Yes, I don’t need free trips: I am ready to pay myself, but I want to provide me normally.

I want to publicize this problem, get a public answer from Yandex and to solve this problem. If publicity does not help, I already offered to file a collective lawsuit against Yandex for discrimination.

The "cold" sent a request to Yandex.GO and asked to comment on the complaints of the author of the petition. The company’s press service replied that she was asking for a certain support if the driver refused the trip “for objective reasons”. “If this is the first complaint, we warn the driver about the inadmissibility of such behavior. With repeated violations of the service rules-access to orders is limited, ”the press service said. How much access to orders is limited, and whether the service is going to tighten sanctions against such drivers, the company has not specified.

Although passengers with disabilities are still writing in the comments on the order about the need to free the trunk for strollers, Yandex said that they “work on an option in an appendix where users with disabilities can indicate the necessary information when ordering a taxi” and that with such an option, the driver will receive a brief certificate of how to behave with special needs, and the algorithm will select a suitable option car for a trip. "

When asked about the difficulties of attaching to charitable funds for a free trip, Yandex GO replied that they know about them and “separately discuss with each NKO-partner” the possibility of increasing the limits for travel. In addition, the press service replied that in some regions the service drivers may not have free space in the trunk due to the program for transferring passenger transport to the use of gas equipment. Probably, the point is that in this case a gas cylinder occupies a lot of space in the trunk. Yandex replied that they were already working on solving this problem, but did not specify exactly how they plan to solve it and at what time.