A new version of the Rules for Road Passenger Transport comes into force in Belarus on October 12, BELTA reports.
A new version of the Rules for Road Passenger Transport comes into force in Belarus on October 12, BELTA reports.
As representatives of the Ministry of Transport explained earlier, there are no major innovations in the rules; many provisions were in effect de facto but not enshrined de jure. The innovations concern the booking of seats for travel and ticket sales, the use of electronic tickets in regular road passenger transport, the classification of passengers as fare-dodgers, and the procedure for the creation and operation of control and audit services in road transport. Definitions of terms such as validator, ticket sales information system, and control and audit service employee terminal in road transport have been introduced. Changes also concern ticket details. For example, it is established that on tickets for intercity transport, the seat number may not be indicated if there is no technical possibility.
According to the new rules, passengers will be required to enter through the front door of the bus to purchase a ticket from the driver. If a passenger violates this requirement, there is currently no specific penalty for it. "However, if a passenger enters through the rear door and claims they did not manage to reach the driver to buy a ticket due to a full bus, this will no longer be accepted as an excuse. They are obliged to enter through the front door to pay the fare. There were frequent complaints, carriers wrote to us, that passengers, unwilling to pay the fare, deliberately entered through the last door during peak hours," the Ministry of Transport explained earlier. That is, in such cases, one will essentially have to pay a fine for fare-dodging.
Cases where the driver runs out of tickets are not specifically stipulated in the rules. However, as noted by the Ministry of Transport, the rules provide for the obligation of passengers to purchase tickets and pay the fare in a timely manner. Therefore, the passenger will bear responsibility directly, even if the driver has no tickets for sale.
The new rules stipulate the need to present a travel pass to a validator upon entering and exiting public transport. Presenting the validator upon exit is a norm established for the future, when the option to pay the fare based on the actual distance travelled will be implemented.
Individuals with disabilities will be granted the right to free carriage of wheelchairs and other social rehabilitation aids. Previously, this was not specified in the regulations. Passengers have the right to free carriage of one piece of small hand luggage and long items up to 151 cm in length.
Taxi drivers will be required to adhere to a dress code and refrain from smoking in their vehicles. Taxi drivers must maintain a neat appearance and avoid wearing casual or sportswear. This applies not only to taxi drivers but also to drivers performing passenger road transport in general.
Drivers and conductors are obliged to assist passengers with disabilities, with their consent, during boarding and alighting from transport, and when purchasing travel documents.
The Rules for Passenger Road Transport also stipulate requirements for the registration and equipment of taxis, establishing more liberal approaches (for example, whereas previously a cash register combined with a taximeter was mandatory, this requirement is now absent if an electronic information system is used). Taxi dispatchers or carriers independently handling order acceptance or transfer are obliged to transmit relevant data to the tax authorities.
Carriers have been permitted to extend the ticket reservation period for suburban and intercity buses. Previously, it was stipulated that reservations ended at 00:00 on the day of carriage. The new regulation allows carriers, if they have the capacity, to organise reservations and advance sales up to the departure of the bus. It is also provided that the advance sale of tickets and seat reservations commence no later than 15 days before the bus departs on its route.