The tender for the right to provide public passenger transportation has been completed in Lutsk. According to the Law of Ukraine "On Road Transport," the winners of the competition will provide services for the next 3 years. Analyzing the state of development of the city's transport network, Lutsk Mayor Anton Kryvytskyi noted that at one time the road network in the city was developed based on large-capacity public transport. Today the situation has changed dramatically – the number of private cars has increased 10-fold, public passenger transportation is carried out mainly by minibuses, so there is a significant overload of the road infrastructure. In order to partially solve this problem, one of the main requirements of the tender was – increasing the passenger capacity of vehicles while simultaneously reducing the number of transport units on routes. This condition is a means of improving both the comfort of transportation and its safety.

In addition, the local self-government body, as the main customer of the service, introduced additional requirements to the rules and conditions during the selection of applicants for public passenger transportation. In particular, clear functions and responsibilities of the customer, carrier, driver and passenger were established. Changes were made to traffic safety requirements, namely – drivers are required to undergo medical examination and technical inspection of vehicles before each departure on a route. For the provision of these services, 9 enterprises have been designated and specially certified. The content and number of documents that must be held by both the carrier and the driver have been regulated. Changes to the exterior design of vehicles and the placement of visual information intended for passengers have been approved.

As reported by the deputy mayor, head of the tender committee Leonid Kyrylcuk, on the eve of the competition a justified calculated number of vehicles that will carry out passenger transportation was determined. The reduction in the number of vehicles is compensated by their passenger capacity – preference in the competition was given specifically to such vehicles. For the next 3 years, 477 vehicles will operate on the routes. (of which – "Etalon" – 4 units, "Bohdan" – 43 units, PAZ 32 051 – 26 units, Iveco – 2 units, "Mercedes" – 402 units). With the reduction in the number of vehicles, the number of seating places has practically not decreased. In addition to increasing passenger capacity, route schemes on transportation routes have been adjusted. Thus, there will be 34 routes, of which 30 remain unchanged and 4 are new. Starting next year, routes No. 2a, 13, 48 are being cancelled as duplicating. Instead, the number of vehicles on the routes that remain unchanged will be increased. This decision was made on the basis of complaints and proposals from Lutsk residents. If during the operation of the new route scheme there is a need to adjust it, this will be done.

Applications for participation in the competition were submitted by 518 applicants. In addition to the technical condition of vehicles, when determining the winners of the tender, the amount and place of tax payment by carriers was also taken into account (facts of tax payment in the amount of 2 hryvnias 40 kopiykas were discovered, as well as examples where a carrier earns in Lutsk but pays taxes in Kivertsi, Lokachi and other settlements of the region), the number of acts on violations of traffic rules and passenger transportation rules and the quality of services provided. During the competition it also turned out that drivers dismissed for gross and chronic violations had found employment with other carriers, so Leonid Kyrylcuk is initiating the creation of a database of drivers who work on city routes. He also reported that during the selection of competitors, the social status of drivers was also taken into account. Even with existing remarks regarding either the technical condition of the vehicle or the driver's work, applications from parents of large families, liquidators of the Chornobyl accident, and low-income citizens were granted.

The head of the department for coordination of city passenger transport, Fedir Koretskyi, noted that in addition to improving the quality of passenger service, it is planned to significantly improve the working conditions of drivers. In particular, to equip terminal stops. A standard project for such areas has already been approved and their arrangement will begin in the spring.

One of the days of the tender was dedicated to consideration of complaints and applications from carriers. 78 of these were received by the competition committee. They mainly concerned requests for reinstatement on routes. 72 complaints were granted.

As the participants of the press conference summarized, the determination of carriers through competition promotes the development of competition in the transport sector, limits monopolism in the passenger transportation market and significantly improves the quality of services for the provision of public passenger transportation. For the future, the city authorities propose that carriers create self-organization bodies on routes, which will allow carriers to actively influence the optimization of the work of the public passenger transportation sector.