The Ministry of Transport has prepared amendments to the Cabinet of Ministers' regulations governing the registration of taxi drivers and passenger cars engaged in commercial passenger transport. The main change involves the repeal of the provision that automatically prevented a driver from registering or resulted in their removal from the Taxi Driver Register for six months after the imposition of an administrative penalty for violating commercial transport rules. According to the ministry, the current procedure was too strict and could deprive a person of the opportunity to work even for minor violations, such as those related to the placement of mandatory information. As noted by Kaspars Berziņš, Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Transport, the aim of the changes is not to weaken control but to make regulation more proportionate. "The changes are aimed at ensuring that a person does not lose the opportunity to work in their profession due to minor violations. At the same time, control and oversight in the industry are not weakened, as all other requirements for the registration and control of drivers remain in place," he explained. At the same time, the key requirements for drivers will remain unchanged. Only individuals with a category B driver's license with at least three years of experience, a sufficient level of proficiency in the state language, who are not deprived of the right to drive vehicles, and who have no more than eight penalty points will still be able to enter the register. Thus, the proposed changes only concern the procedure for applying administrative sanctions and do not affect the requirements related to transport safety. The state enterprise "Directorate of Transport" will continue to regularly check drivers' compliance with established criteria and will be able to remove them from the register if necessary. In addition, the ministry expects that the new rules will reduce administrative burdens. After their adoption, it will no longer be necessary to separately check for the presence of administrative penalties as a basis for registration and to monitor the six-month prohibition period. According to the ministry's assessment, this will simplify the registration of drivers, reduce the number of disputes and court proceedings, and make the maintenance of the register more efficient.
