Complaint against a bus driver: how to write, draft correctly and where to file

Author of the article:

Muzyko Tatyana Andreevna - lawyer.

Every day, using the services of public transport, a person unwittingly encounters conflict situations that arise between the driver and the passenger.
Trying to earn as much money as possible, minibus drivers not only violate traffic rules, but also do not adhere to basic moral standards. There is a government for everyone. In this case, it is worth writing a complaint about the bad driver.

In what cases can you write for public transport?

To write a complaint there must be valid reasons:

rudeness on the part of the driver;
smoking in the cabin;
inconsistency with the schedule;
loud music in the cabin;
violation of traffic rules;
sending faulty transport to the route.

Each problem has its own specific regulation.

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Legal relations in the field of passenger transportation are regulated by the “General Provisions on Transportation” of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Federal Law No. 259 - Federal Law “Charter of Road Transport and Urban Ground Electric Transport”, as well as Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 112 “On approval of the Rules for the transportation of passengers and luggage by road transport and urban ground electric", the basis for which was the Federal Law "On the Protection of Consumer Rights".

Doesn't go according to schedule

When leaving the park for the route, the driver receives a traffic schedule.
It indicates the approximate travel time, the exact period of stay and the interval between them. Every driver must strictly follow this schedule. Otherwise, when a complaint is received, liability cannot be avoided. The exception is situations that occurred through no fault of the driver (traffic jams, blocked passages, etc.).

The driver is rude

Complaining about drivers’ rudeness is not only possible, but also necessary. And if boorish treatment is also accompanied by obscene language, you should definitely call the police to draw up a report and bring the driver to administrative responsibility. The lack of moral character in the work of a minibus taxi driver can have a negative impact on his salary.

Music playing loudly

According to Article 7 of the Federal Law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights”, the carrier’s responsibilities include the condition of comfortable travel by public transport. Unfortunately, legislative norms do not regulate the volume of music and noise inside the vehicle. But they have no right to refuse to accept a complaint. The driver is required to be given a verbal warning, and fines are possible for repeat driving.

Violates traffic rules

If a minibus driver violates traffic rules, law enforcement agencies must deal with it.
Failure to comply with traffic rules is unacceptable, and a complaint is a light punishment for the driver. He must bear administrative responsibility up to and including deprivation of the right to drive, depending on the type of violation.

In this case, it is more effective to act on two fronts. If the passenger’s statement is confirmed by the administrative protocol, the driver may face a severe reprimand or even dismissal.

Smoking in the salon/cabin

According to Federal Law No. 87 “On Restriction of Tobacco Smoking”, there is a ban. The same norm is enshrined in the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences. And if a driver violates the smoking rules, he must be punished by a fine.

Transport faulty

By leaving a route on a faulty vehicle from a bus, tram or trolleybus depot, the carrier violates the norm of Article 7 of the Federal Law of the Russian Federation “On the Protection of Consumer Rights,” which provides for the comfortable and safe delivery of passengers. This standard applies to minor faults, for example, when the vehicle interior is very cold or the door is jammed.

Having received a complaint from a consumer, the carrier is obliged to prohibit the release of this vehicle from the fleet until the problems are resolved.

For comfortable travel, the vehicle must be heated in winter and have a ventilation system in summer. Even such minor malfunctions are grounds for non-release of vehicles from the depot, ATP or bus station.

Court

If the actions of the controller result in material or moral damage for the victim, he can seek compensation by going to court. A decision in favor of the plaintiff will be made only if there is irrefutable evidence indicating a violation of current legislation.

To ensure that the court does not refuse to consider the case, it is important to correctly draft the claim. Considering the importance of the issue, it is better to entrust this work to a competent lawyer. To prove the validity of his claims, the plaintiff can use the following documents:

An extract from the medical history.
Receipts for payment of medical services.
Receipts confirming the purchase of medicines.
A certificate of the amount of loss that was received due to the inability to work (issued by the employer’s accounting department), etc.

Where to apply?

You can complain about unlawful actions of a public transport driver to one or several authorities.
If it was not possible to resolve the conflict on the spot, there are authorities to which you can file a complaint against the route driver:

Mosgortrans;
transport company from which the minibus operates;
transport department of the city administration;
Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation.

Mosgortrans

The passenger agency of the State Unitary Enterprise "Mosgortrans" is the largest motor transport enterprise in Moscow and the Moscow region. The company's management does not want trouble, so the application filed against the driver will definitely not go unnoticed.

All information about the agency (telephone numbers, legal and actual address, license number and date) must be on the information stand of the transport showroom or on the official website.

Transport company

If a conflict arises, management contact information must be provided by the driver or can be read on vehicle information signs.

Administration

The city administration's transport department deals with situations where appeals to transport companies have not yielded results. The administration carries out inspections of the ATP and has the authority to impose sanctions.

Residents of the capital should contact the Department of Transport and Road Infrastructure Development. For those living in other cities of the country, contact the transport department of your region.

Ministry of transportation

You should contact the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation in cases where previous authorities were unable to sort out this issue. Although there is a high probability that the ministry will lower the appeal to lower authorities and shift all responsibility onto them.

All appeals to the above bodies are made both orally and in writing. A complaint or application can be submitted by telephone, online, by mail or in person.

Rospotrebnadzor

If the carrier company has not properly responded to the complaint received, the citizen can contact Rospotrebnadzor. It can be done:

By post. If the incident occurred in the capital, the letter should be sent to the address: 127994, Moscow, Vadkovsky Lane, building 18, buildings 5 and 7. A resident of another region is better off contacting the territorial division of the Department using the information https://www.rospotrebnadzor.ru /region/structure/str_uprav.php.
During a personal reception. In Moscow, a citizen should contact the address Vadkovsky Lane, building 18, buildings 5 and 7. Personal reception of visitors is also carried out in all Offices of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
Electronically by filling out the form https://petition.rospotrebnadzor.ru/petition/.

For additional information, you can contact the helpline 8 (800) 100-0004 or the unified consultation center.

Where can I call?

If a violation of the transportation rules has occurred, but there is no time to visit organizations and draw up appeals, you can go through this procedure by phone.
It is enough to report the problem indicating the route number, the vehicle's license plate and (if possible) the driver's last name.

Phone numbers

According to current legislation, contact details of regulatory authorities must be located on an information stand in the cabin of a bus, tram or trolleybus. This information is also posted on official websites.

You can submit an application to the Mosgortrans contact center by number or 3210 from your mobile phone for residents of Moscow and the Moscow region.

Residents of St. Petersburg can complain to the transport department by calling 8 (812) 458-75-74.

Contact information for the transport department in a particular region can be found on the department's official website.

Hot lines

Mosgortrans hotline – 8 (495) 950-42-04.

The telephone number of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation is.

By contacting the ministry's hotline, the call can be redirected to the department that deals with complaints.

Procedure

If a conflict situation arises in ground urban passenger transport, you need to remain calm and act according to the following scheme:

Pay attention to the information board on the bus. They are usually located inside the passenger compartment behind the driver and contain contact information and a telephone number for the transport department.
Write down the bus number and known details of the driver.
Remember or write down the exact time and place (at which stop) of the incident.
Find out the contact information of other passengers if they witnessed the incident. You can invite event participants to unite to write a collective complaint.
Compose an official letter outlining your complaints and send it to one of the authorized authorities.

Complain online

All authorities have such a service on their web portal.

You can submit an application to Mosgortrans at https://www.mosgortrans.ru/passenger/obratnaja-svjaz/ by clicking on the “Submit a request” button and filling out the application form.

You can contact the government authorities through the Unified Transport Portal https://transport.mos.ru/ or the online reception https://dt.mos.ru/feedback/reception/. All applications are automatically forwarded to the responsible department.

The Dobrodel portal has been created for residents of the Moscow region. On the website https://dobrodel.mosreg.ru/ you can leave an electronic complaint, which is sent to the right authority within two days. The processing time for applications through Dobrodel is no more than 5 days.

Common Mistakes

Mistake #1. Written appeals are better than electronic ones.

Both methods of submitting applications have the same significance and identical processing times, so there are no differences between them.

Mistake #2. If the driver refuses to provide information about the carrier, you will not be able to file a complaint against him.

No, information about the carrier must be freely available to passengers. If this requirement is not met, you can clarify information about the company by route number and license plate number of the bus to determine ownership, and file a complaint there.

How to write to a minibus driver, conductor and controller?

The responsibility for maintaining public transport does not lie solely with the driver. You can also complain about the controller or conductor of a tram, bus, or trolleybus.

A statement of violation or complaint does not have a specific sample, and must be written in any form, taking into account all the rules of office work.

The header indicates the full name of the body to which the appeal is sent and personal data with feedback contacts. In the middle, the type of petition is indicated (complaint, application, etc.). The text must have all the circumstances of the conflict presented in a clear sequence. Date and signature.

All documents are created in two copies, one for the opponent, the second remains with him. When applying online, you need to take screenshots.

According to the Federal Law “On the Procedure for Considering Appeals from Citizens of the Russian Federation,” the period is 10 working days. If after ten days a response has not been received or the result is not satisfactory, the passenger has the right to file a claim with the transport company.

Prosecutor's office

Illegal actions of a public transport controller may become grounds for appealing to the Prosecutor's Office. To bring the violator to administrative or criminal liability, it is important to make a complaint in writing and provide relevant evidence.

It is better to send the document to the place of registration, guided by information about the location of territorial divisions. If responses to complaints sent to other authorities were previously received, copies of them should also be transferred to the Prosecutor's Office.

In November 2006, a criminal case was opened against the inspector who dropped the child off in the frost of -30 °C.

How to properly file a claim?

Unlike a complaint, writing a complaint has content requirements.

Claim header:

To the name of the head of the enterprise.
Full legal name of the organization.
Legal and actual address of the ATP.
Own data (personal and contact).

The text of the claim must include:

Description of the essence of the conflict in a clear sequence of events.
Links to legal provisions.
Clear requirements for solving the problem.

The period for consideration of a claim is no more than 30 days. After this period, the client has the right to go to court.

A claim, unlike a complaint, can only be submitted to a transport company. State bodies perform only the function of control and authorization.

Terms of consideration

Having received an application from the consumer, Mosgortrans must, within 30 days (in exceptional cases, the period can be extended to 60 days) carry out the necessary checks to establish the circumstances of the incident and assess the validity of the claims. After this, a response must be sent to the applicant’s postal or email address containing a list of measures taken by the transport enterprise to eliminate the violations, or a refusal, which explains why the applicant’s requirements cannot be satisfied.

If the 30 days initially established by law were not enough to consider the complaint, the period may be extended, of which the enterprise is obliged to immediately notify the citizen.

Failure to respond to a submitted application or refusal to satisfy justified demands may become the basis for appealing to various regulatory authorities or the court (if we are talking about material compensation for damage caused).

What will happen to the driver and his superiors?

According to current legislation, punishment for inappropriate behavior and violation of rules threatens not only the driver, but also his supervisor. And the more the driver is at fault, the more serious the responsibility will be.

The head of the enterprise will be held responsible in the event that the interests of strangers were affected through the unlawful actions of his subordinate.

For example, for smoking in the cabin, obscene language or boorish behavior, a minibus driver may suffer both disciplinary punishment in the form of a warning or reprimand, and administrative punishment in the form of a fine.

For violating traffic rules, a driver can receive an administrative fine, lose his license, and even be fired.

When to complain

You can file a complaint against a bus driver in the following cases:

Violation of the route schedule or traffic rules.
Failure to comply with the rules for boarding and disembarking passengers.
Rudeness or rudeness when communicating with passengers, use of obscene or offensive words, refusal to make a stop, disdainful attitude.
Smoking inside a vehicle.
Dirt and unsanitary conditions - unwashed seats, sawed curtains, unpleasant smell inside the bus, which create uncomfortable conditions for passengers.
Refusal to provide free travel to privileged categories of citizens.

Note!
If the offense was committed against several passengers, it is recommended to file a collective complaint. Such documents are subject to priority consideration. After confirming the facts specified in the complaint, the driver will be punished - he may be deprived of his bonus, removed from the route, and even fired. Unfounded complaints will be left without consideration, and the driver in such cases has the right to file a counterclaim.

Responsibilities of a passenger transport driver

The driver must comply with and not violate a number of requirements while transporting passengers.

His responsibilities include:

do not violate traffic rules;
ensure the safety of passengers during transportation;
respond to comments and information received from passengers: their detection of problems in the cabin, smoke, fire, suspicious objects or bags;
announce the names of stops;
sell tickets exclusively at bus stops;
indicate on the vehicle the route license plate and the name of the final stop;
do not overload the bus; the number of passengers must correspond to the number of seats in the vehicle. Do not violate the designated route and run according to the work schedule;
give the ticket after payment is received;
disembark and pick up passengers at designated places (stops);
ensure safety during disembarkation for all citizens, including people with disabilities (disabled);
comply with job instructions.

Watch the video. Where can I complain about inappropriate public transport drivers?

Question answer

Question: Should we ignore the controller’s improper performance of his duties if we are talking about a minor violation?

Answer: Any violation of current legislation or abuse of official authority is a reason to file a complaint with the management of the transport company or the regulatory authorities. At a minimum, the employer will apply the disciplinary measure available to him against the negligent employee (for example, depriving him of a bonus). This will significantly reduce the likelihood of a similar conflict situation arising again. A complaint is one of the tools for interacting with customers, the use of which improves the quality of service.

Question: What to do if there is no evidence of violation of the law or abuse of authority?

Answer: In practice, if a situation arose in public transport, the victim will easily collect a sufficient amount of evidence (for example, he will have testimony from witnesses to the incident). The lack of evidence will significantly complicate the process of considering the complaint. But this is not a reason to refuse to protect your rights! In particular, it may turn out that another passenger has previously complained about this employee. In this case, the appeal will not be ignored, despite the lack of evidence.

Question: What should I do if the controller refuses to provide his information and has removed his badge because he does not want a complaint to be filed against him?

Answer: If, after urgent requests, the employee refuses to provide his information, the route number and time of the incident should be accurately recorded. This will be enough for the company dispatcher to identify the intruder. Alternatively, you can use video or photography for subsequent identification.

Question: Can the controller seize the social card of a disabled person?

Answer: A transport company employee does not have the right to seize such a document. The only thing he can do is refuse to use it if there is reason to believe that the social card does not belong to the person who presented it. As a rule, this is relevant if the passenger does not have other documents for personal identification (driver’s license, passport, pension card). Withdrawal is carried out only on the condition that the social card does not really belong to the citizen who presented it.

Question: How legal are the actions of the controller who removed a stowaway child from a vehicle?

Answer: The first thing a transport company employee should do when identifying a stowaway minor passenger is to find out his age. If the child is under 7 years old, he must be handed over to the police (children under 7 years of age cannot use public transport without an accompanying person).

If the passenger is over 7 years old, then he can be dropped off from the electric train at the nearest station with a waiting room. From November to March, it is prohibited by law to remove young children without tickets from trains.

As for minibuses and buses, each situation requires an individual approach. For example, controllers at JSC Mostransavto are prohibited from dropping off children at any time of the year. The cost of their travel is collected from the parents.