‘Such people also ride taxis’ Yekaterinburg premium driver

Yekaterinburg taxi driver Alisher Abitzhonov transports businessmen and officials and runs a blog where he actively posts videos and talks about the intricacies of working in the premium fare category. It took him just a few months to gain 30,000 subscribers from scratch. In a conversation with E1.RU, Alisher told about curious incidents with passengers, his biggest tips, and the city districts he dislikes.

Wanted to be an aircraft technician, became a taxi driver

Alisher is originally from Kyrgyzstan, but has lived in Yekaterinburg for 20 years, since 2006. He graduated from a local school and then entered the Moscow State University of Civil Aviation. At that time, the young man dreamed of becoming an aircraft technician.

In 2020, he received his diploma and went to apply for a job at one of Russia«s major airlines. They offered him a salary of just 25,000 rubles ($250). That amount seemed too modest to him, so he went to work in a warehouse and started moonlighting as a taxi driver.

Eventually he had to leave the warehouse because it paid little. Two years ago, transportation work became his main job. At first, Alisher delivered various cargo and drove his own car in the economy fare class. A bit later he began renting premium cars and switched to business class, and then to the most expensive fare — premier. Now he drives clients in a Chinese Hongqi.

Lost his blog and started from scratch

Alongside his work in elite taxi service, Alisher develops his own blog. He has channels on Telegram and YouTube, and accounts on TikTok and Instagram.* On the latter, he gained 30,000 followers in four months.

This is not Alisher«s first public page: he previously had a blog with 47,000 followers, but a year and a half ago that account was hacked and he could not regain access. After that, his motivation to continue was lost for a long time, and only this past summer he decided to return to the blogosphere and start his journey from scratch.

At first he posted only videos about taxi work and road situations, but later began adding videos on other topics that interested him. Alisher calls his content lifestyle. He films simple videos about what happens to him every day, and his audience is growing. Most videos get tens or hundreds of thousands of views.

The most popular reel got 6 million views. It shows how traffic police officers stopped Alisher, dragged him out of the car and conducted a search. According to the driver, the police had a tip that his car contained prohibited substances or objects, but after an hour-long thorough search, nothing illegal was found in the car.

Besides such action videos, there are other clips on the page. Usually Alisher films incidents inside the car using a 360-degree camera and hides passengers« faces. For example, he showed how one client offered to stop together for shawarma, promising to pay for the snack; another female passenger went to the airport without her passport; and yet another woman from Yekaterinburg decided to get out of the car right in the middle of the road — she almost ended up under the wheels of a passing car.

How premier differs from economy

In his reels, Alisher likes to joke about passengers, but he speaks warmly of them. According to the driver, who has worked with clients of different income levels, those who ride in premier are often less picky than economy lovers.

«Everyone thinks that in «business» and «premier» fares, clients are more demanding of the driver. In reality, it«s the opposite. In economy, passengers more often interfere with the route and nitpick over trifles,» Alisher noted.

Most trips go smoothly, but sometimes problematic passengers still appear. According to the driver«s observations, such orders most often come from Uralmash and Sortirovka.

«People say the districts don«t differ. But they do differ — in people. The crowd there... If, say, I take an order from Uralmash, in two out of five trips passengers will definitely have beer. And they ask to smoke or drink beer in the car,» Alisher said.

Along with disliked districts, he also has favorites — the city center and Botanika. He feels okay about Akademichesky despite its traffic jams.

Sometimes he gets to drive local officials, but the taxi driver does not reveal their names.

«Such people also ride taxis when their drivers are off duty. They behave just like everyone else — they just ride in silence. Most passengers are silent, no one talks,» our interlocutor added.

Well, if the passenger is silent, the driver must be too. That«s the rule of behavior in premier — only greeting, farewell, and answers to the client»s questions; you cannot start a conversation yourself. So you won«t hear any phrases like «Actually I have my own business, and taxi is just for the soul» here. Another duty of the driver is to open the door for the passenger if they haven»t marked in the app that they will open it themselves.

Special requirements are also imposed on the driver«s appearance. He must always look neat, wearing a business suit in black, gray, or dark blue.

How much taxi drivers earn

When asked about his income level, Alisher gave average professional earnings — 5,000 to 7,000 rubles ($50–$70) net per day. At the same time, just renting the car costs 5,000 rubles ($50) per day, and there are days when the driver works at a loss. One such day happened to Alisher at the end of December, when he received only 5,826 rubles ($58) for six orders.

«I«m not complaining and I don»t blame anyone. Tomorrow I«ll earn much more, but today I worked at a loss,» he said in one of his videos.

His biggest tip — 8,600 rubles ($86) — the driver received from a client from Moscow. The client asked the driver to pick him up from a hotel near the airport and drive around the city to show him the sights. The passenger offered 1,500 rubles ($15) per hour for such a trip, but the car got stuck in a traffic jam on Koltsovsky Trakt and sat there for 40 minutes. Having never reached any interesting spot, the passenger got tired and asked to be taken back to the hotel. He paid Alisher the promised amount and added cash.

After the New Year, the driver notes that demand for trips decreased, and along with it earnings shrank — this is a normal seasonal factor.

Nevertheless, Alisher«s income is enough to fully support his family with two small children on his own and to buy equipment for filming. For this he has to work 12 hours a day, six days a week. Sometimes Alisher has to take breaks to rest and devote more attention to his blog. His dream is to become popular on social media.

We often tell stories about bloggers from Yekaterinburg. Read, for example, the story of 24-year-old Max Nikolayev, known under the nickname Nick Master, who became famous on the internet for his humorous videos. Earlier we wrote about a fashionista from Nizhny Tagil who started recording humorous reviews of women«s clothing stores and gained popularity on social networks.

* The social network is banned in Russia.