Between January and March of this year, traffic incidents involving taxis and ride‑hailing services showed a notable uptick, rising by 15% compared with the same period in 2022. A study conducted by VSK Insurance House and shared with socialbites.ca confirms this trend, highlighting a meaningful shift in the safety landscape for urban mobility and on‑demand transportation.
When the 2023 performance is measured against 2021 data, the numbers reveal a more pronounced increase: taxi and car‑sharing accidents climbed by 22%. In parallel, the overall payments associated with these accidents grew by 8% relative to the first quarter of 2022. The average compensation paid per incident in this sector for the current year stood at about 61 thousand rubles, signaling a higher cost burden for insurers and operators alike as the ride‑sharing market expands.
Within the fleet mix, Granta models from Lada accounted for the largest share of insured incidents, representing around 44% of cases in this category. Among Mercedes‑Benz vehicles, the Sprinter minibus emerged as the model with the most accidents in the transport segment. For the brands Hyundai and Renault, Solaris and Logan respectively led accident counts. The data also points to a demographic pattern in fault attribution: drivers aged over 60 were responsible for roughly 31% of incidents, with the 40–49 age bracket accounting for another 21% of cases, indicating that older drivers and mid‑career operators may require targeted safety interventions and ongoing training to reduce risk on urban streets.
The study notes that the busiest taxi and rideshare drivers tend to cluster in large metropolitan corridors, with significant concentrations in the metropolitan agglomeration, the Kaliningrad region, the Krasnodar Territory, Udmurtia, Tatarstan, St. Petersburg, and Mordovia. This geographic distribution underscores the importance of regionally tailored safety programs, driver support services, and data‑driven enforcement where demand for ride‑hailing services remains high and trip density is greatest [VSK Insurance House report, 2023].
A separate quarterly release from socialbites.ca highlights dynamics in other vehicle categories, mentioning, for instance, that Kia cars surpassed Hyundai in the ranking of most frequently stolen models for that period. While not directly tied to road safety, such findings reflect broader risk management concerns for fleet operators and insurers seeking to protect assets and reduce losses in 2023 and beyond [VSK Insurance House report, 2023].