Ukrainian service Uklon, which provides services in the taxi industry, has been caught up in a scandal. Find out what it is accused of and what the company has done in the face of criticism

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Online platform Uklon from 15 March will not work during curfew hour. Such a decision was made in the company because of the appeal of the Kiev Patrol Police. However, there was a scandal around the platform for another reason. We tell you the details.

What is it?

Uklon has been providing transport services during the curfew for two years, but as the service's CEO Sergei Grishkov noted, Uklon is an online platform, not a taxi service. That is, the company provides access to the online service to both passengers and driver-partners. Whether to operate during curfew hours is the choice of partners who have a pass and the ability to carry out transport at night.

At the same time, Grishkov noted that the company received exactly the recommendation from the police.

However, not all citizens liked the idea. Many Facebook users in the comments to Grishkov's post wondered how a person can now get to the railway station or hospital at night? To which the company responded that, working at night, the service was oriented precisely on these requests.

"The main destination for journeys was railway stations and hospitals. Also, as the only alternative to get somewhere in case of emergency or tragedy. But now we have received a recommendation and we are fulfilling it," the report said.

The scandal around Uklon

Working at curfew is half the trouble. As TSN reports in its material, the company at night overcharged almost five times and such transportations could not afford not everyone.

Journalists call this situation "war earnings", saying that for a large sum the company is ready to take clients anywhere, even during curfew. The journalists' claims are probably justified, but there is one thing.

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Any transport service (taxi) has a minimum fare, which increases depending on the demand for the service and the availability of free cars, as well as other details related to the comfort of the trip. For example, at night, for obvious reasons, the number of drivers who are ready to take the order is reduced. Thus, if you order a car at curfew hour, and at the same time, the availability of cars will be limited, the service automatically raises the rate several times. But what coefficient is set in such a case, it is not clear. 

As the publication writes, another nuance with tariffs is that drivers at night did not want to accept "small" orders. In practice, it is explained as follows: at one o'clock in the morning the application offered to call a taxi for 575 hryvnia, almost 10 minutes of search - and no feedback. But as the passenger raised the amount to the maximum - 2261 UAH, the driver was instantly found.

But, for example, from Kiev to Lviv, according to the anonymous Telegram-channel "Joker", a taxi is ready to take a passenger for $1000. They note that in this case, russian saboteurs could safely use the service to monitor the movement of the military at night. In addition, the service works not only in Kiev or Lviv, but also in Odessa, which the occupants are constantly attacked from the air, as well as in Kharkiv, which is located near the russian border.

In the same TSN article, it is written that during one of the trips the driver of the taxi turned out to be a military man. In principle, this is expected, because during the curfew hour only those who have a special pass can move on the street, and the military have it. But the journalists wondered why the Ukrainian defenders are forced to do this. This is a question to the authorities, because, as the military man himself said, he does not drive a taxi from a good life.

The company says that all statements in their direction - "disinformation and black campaign".

"For the last few weeks, a continuous stream of lies and dirt from the anonymous channel "Joker" has been pouring on our company. Uklon has become one of the many businesses it attacks. We ignored the disinformation attack for a long time, but this black campaign has crossed the boundaries and turned into a real digital terrorism. Everything the Joker channel writes is manipulation and untruth, and we will defend our reputation in the legal field," the statement reads.

The situation is not unambiguous, but the bottom line is the same - the company has stopped providing services during curfew. It is also interesting that no one noticed this problem for two years, since the beginning of the full-scale war.

We remind you! American actress Megan Fox published a photo online and unsuccessfully "joked" in the direction of Ukrainian women, for which she received a barrage of criticism. How the star of the film "Transformers" offended Ukrainian women, we tell you here.

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