Maxim Belonogov biography. Service "Maxim" and the department of transport of the Trans-Urals will work together to develop the taxi market

There is hardly a person in Birobidzhan who has not at least once resorted to the services of the Maxim taxi call service. The service is convenient, especially if you use the application for smartphones.

Now it is the largest IT company in the field passenger traffic in Russia, its turnover is greater than Yandex.Taxi, Uber and Gett, and the company itself is valued at $100 million.

In the team of our project, no one wondered how Maxim was created. There were thoughts that most likely some large businessmen from Moscow simply decided to monopolize the taxi market and become a dominant in this area.

To our surprise, "Maxim" turned out to be the success story of one very simple and stubborn Russian guy from the provincial Shadrinsk near Kurgan, who, in terms of his starting opportunities for young people, is very similar to Birobidzhan.

Maxim Belonogov - the creator of the taxi "Maxim" - grew up in a frankly poor family. The father died early. Mother stretched as best she could, she was very sick. Already at school, Maxim traded newspapers on the street, and also collected signatures for the LDPR party for money.

In the 11th grade, he worked part-time in a local ambulance - they took the corpses of dead people from their homes and took them to the morgue. The ambulance staff drank mercilessly, and often there was no one to go on shift. He worked illegally by verbal agreement with a doctor friend. Maxim himself admits that he often took tips for the removal of bodies.

After high school, he went to college. On the day he wrote the exam essay, his mother died. Maxim stayed with his older brother.

They bought a computer for the survivor's allowance, began to print abstracts from the Internet and sell them to students.

In the second year of high school, he married, a child was born in the family. I had to work harder: as a loader at night, he sold gas equipment and telephones. Later, my friend and I decided to organize a paging company in Shadrinsk. Things went well, but paging was killed by cellular communications.

The remaining equipment was decided to be used to create a taxi. We found a room in one of the basements, planted several operators. They took a radio station from friends to communicate with the drivers.

Compared to competitors, paging equipment made it possible to organize multi-channel dialing - it was easier for customers to get to the operator, there were enough free lines, it was possible to call a taxi faster. The customers liked it and the business began to grow.

A little later, the company moved to a larger office apartment, there were 20 operators, they worked in a small room in violation of all norms labor law. Then we went from Shadrinsk to Kurgan, it was there that the service acquired its name "Maxim" and a logo with red and black checkers. Invented, by the way, over a glass of beer with friends somewhere in the apartment.

Over time, we decided to digitize the process of accepting orders. I found an IT specialist from the local Sberbank and wrote a simple program for recording calls and calculating travel time.

In 2007, they tried to develop an application for smartphones, but it did not work. We will return to the development of this product later. Then we realized that we needed to go beyond the borders of Kurgan, the next office was opened in Tyumen.

Then the crisis hit, many people lost their jobs and began to taxi to pay for cars bought on credit. Then the service blossomed. As Belonogov himself says: “I got the impression that one half of the city was thumping, and the other half was carrying it, then they changed places.”

Then we went to other cities and to the capital. Success and money came. "Maxim" has become what we know it, with a turnover of 10 million rubles a day.

As Maxim Belonogov notes, he bought his first good car "Toyota Camry" from the salon only 4 years after the launch of the project - all available funds were first invested in the business. Business first, luxury later.

On the way to success, a young man always worked part-time somewhere, did something to break out of poverty, step up a step. The entrepreneur came to the conclusion that there is no dirty or bad work. Any work that is not related to crime and violence against people, in his opinion, is worthy to be performed.

The businessman says that he was equally happy when he took out the corpses in an ambulance for a small fee, and now, when Maxim plans to enter the markets of Iran, Iraq and Syria.

Belonogov advises young people not to be afraid of anything, but to push against the horn and go to the end, then you can definitely reach the goal. Success doesn't come right away. It took him 13 years to do it.

The businessman claims that he never contacted the state and relied only on himself. Then he recalls that he tried to become a deputy of the Kurgan City Duma in order to resolve the issue of acquiring premises for an office. But he didn't succeed. Since then, he prefers not to deal with politics or with the authorities.

It turns out rather the opposite, in various cities where "Maxim" came, officials, lobbying the interests of their friends from local companies on the cab, raised a storm and demanded to ban the service. The company has been sued a lot.

Recently "Maxim" has created a specialized fund to help clients injured in road accidents. Belonogov dreams of developing tourism in the Yamal tundra and even developed a special all-terrain vehicle "Burlak" for this.

The head office of the company is still located in Kurgan. This is extremely surprising for Moscow businessmen who come to the city for negotiations. They cannot understand why Belonogov continues to sit in a provincial, by Moscow standards, hole. He smiles and replies that everything suits him and that in a small Kurgan there is everything necessary for his business.

12 years ago, the taxi order service "Maxim" made a revolution in the field of taxi transportation. Entrepreneurs from Kurgan did not form their taxi fleet. Instead, they created a system for selling customer requests to independent carriers and succeeded a lot in this: now the Maxim taxi service is represented in 86 cities, including Barnaul and Biysk. This success does not please everyone: the authorities in different regions, including the Altai Territory, have repeatedly tried to close Maxim because not all drivers working under their brand received the license necessary for work; competitors also plotted them. About how the company overcomes difficulties, who and why comes to work in a taxi and whether "Maxim" will grow in the Altai Territory, its director Maxim Shusharin told.

Maxim Shusharin, director of the taxi service "Maxim".

- Almost a year ago, the authorities announced their intention to close "Maxim" in the region. As we can see, this did not happen. But, in your opinion, was there a real risk that they could do it? And why did the officials and the traffic police fail to realize their plans?

Taxi order service "Maxim" works in full accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation. There is no legal basis to close the company, no matter who wants it. We provide information services - we form a database of requests for transportation and provide access to it for independent carriers. This activity is not licensed or regulated. regulations about taxi transport. The differences between the order service and taxi companies are quite significant and obvious, but we had to prove them in court. We didn't just defend our right to work. It is important that entrepreneurs-carriers of the Altai Territory, who found it profitable and convenient to work with us, still have such an opportunity.

- Do you feel any administrative pressure now?

There is no pressure now. Moreover, we work closely with law enforcement agencies who turn to us for help.

- What does it mean?

We cooperate with many drivers who travel all over the city and transport many customers. People turn to us for help in finding witnesses, establishing the circumstances of certain events. And we always help the investigation whenever possible.

- Behind a short time you managed to become one of the market leaders, to which you formally do not belong. And you certainly changed it. How can you characterize these changes?

The order service is not a carrier, but is directly related to the taxi market - it works on it. The fact is that the market has never been able and will not be able to fully satisfy the demand of the population for taxi transportation by means of taxi companies alone. Therefore, a more modern and flexible form of service provision has emerged. It is based on the principle of division of labor: an ordering service attracts customers and carriers, a high-tech contact center processes applications, taxi drivers transport passengers.

Technology is really changing the market. Classic taxi fleets, where there would be their own cars, dispatchers, stations Maintenance and medical workers, there are fewer and fewer. Taxi companies stop spending money on maintaining their own dispatchers, who write down requests on a sheet, and conclude contracts with a specialized contact center. Automation of the contact center allows business leaders to receive analytics, detailed reports on orders. This is beneficial and opens up new opportunities for business control and optimization. The main thing is that taxi services are becoming better and more accessible to the population.

- Is this scheme the future?

The development of taxis will most likely not return to the classic scheme of taxi companies. Moreover, it is even better for the passenger when drivers work in personal cars, work for themselves, take care of their transport, and behave more carefully on the road. We expect an increase in the number of drivers who work with a permit, fulfilling the requirements of the laws.

Mikhail Khaustov

With or without a license

How keenly do you feel competition from traditional companies Taxi? Is there hostility on their part?

Now there are no sharp manifestations of hostility towards us. In the past it happened: the personal car of the head of the division of the Maxim taxi service in Biysk burned, our advertising structures. These events were actively discussed in the media and the Internet. There were opinions that this is such a PR with us. The vandal actions of competitors turned against them: our brand awareness increased.

- I know that many people are unhappy with the fact that you are pulling their cadres to you.

We do not drag frames, we just create for carriers favorable conditions cooperation, we constantly improve them, modernize software. And the choice is always up to the driver, where and how to earn money.

- There is a stereotype that "they take just anyone" to "Maxim". Tell us who comes to work for you and how many do you weed out?

If all drivers were “just anyone”, we would not have customers. The law provides for a number of special requirements for carriers, this is the availability of a permit to carry out activities for the transportation of passengers and luggage by passenger taxis, a general driving experience at least three years and a number of others. Having a permit is one of the main requirements for a carrier by a company. If a driver who does not have a permit comes to our office, our managers give detailed advice on the procedure for obtaining it. In addition, the ordering service selects drivers according to the knowledge of the city, the type and condition of the car, and moral qualities. If appearance the driver, the manner of communication or the submitted documents are doubtful, he is denied cooperation.

Taxi service "Maxim" is constantly working to improve the quality of service. Active Feedback through the site taximaxim.ru and operators. For each claim, we conduct a thorough check and can apply penalties to the guilty carrier, up to the termination of cooperation. But very often we get gratitude from customers.

Not all of your drivers get a license after all. Do you have any system of preferences for legal taxi drivers?

All drivers work with us on an equal footing in terms of commission percentages, but they may have priority in receiving applications if they are ready to paste over their car with our advertising (only legally working taxi drivers can do this).

The purpose of this audio clip was to attract the attention of the audience, and it was successfully achieved. Since then, the entire line of advertising products of the company has been updated. We still invite drivers to cooperate.

- Due to the crisis, some people are already losing their jobs, closing their businesses. Have you felt in connection with this a fresh influx of people who want to earn money on a cart?

Yes, the influx of those wishing to work in a taxi has increased. Economic crises always stimulated the development of this market. Even if the growth in demand for services slows down, there will be enough work.

About price and responsibility

- Have you adjusted tariffs in recent months and do you intend to do so in the near future?

During 2014, the prices of the Maxim taxi service did not change significantly. There were only small fluctuations, mainly related to the traffic situation. Traditionally for the taxi market in New Year there was a double tariff, but immediately after the holiday we returned the standard prices.

What fluctuations are you talking about?

Traffic jams, detour of emergency and repaired areas, severe frost, snow drifts, ice. Those situations that lead to an increase in the cost of providing services or a sharp increase in demand for services.

Now the main problem is the increase in the cost of providing services while reducing the purchasing power of the population. So far, the demand for the services of the Maxim taxi service has not decreased. What will happen next is difficult to predict.

The cost of providing a taxi service consists of different components Keywords: fuel, insurance, permits, depreciation, car wash, repairs, taxes, planned income of the carrier. Many goods and services that affect taxi operations are becoming more expensive. If prices continue to rise, this may eventually lead to an increase in the cost of the trip.

- Are there any plans to launch "Maxim" in other cities of the Altai Territory, in addition to Barnaul and Biysk?

Yes, there are other cities in the Altai Territory that are of interest to us.

- Which?

It's too early to talk about it. We notify the local media about the start of work in each city.

- And how many drivers in the Altai Territory are working for you now?

This is not public information.

A couple of years ago in the Altai Territory there was an accident with seven dead due to the fault of a taxi driver. This incident cost the owner of the company business. Does the taxi service now bear any responsibility in the event of an accident? Or can the victim make all claims only directly to the executor?

The carrier is solely responsible to the passenger for the proper execution of the application received, as well as for any damage caused to him by his actions. However, the ordering service may act as an intermediary between the carrier and the passenger in order to resolve disputes as soon as possible.

- At one time, screenshots of SMS that your drivers received were discussed on the Web. They contained advice on what to say to inspectors to avoid being accused of illegal entrepreneurial activity. Now there are almost no such discussions on the Web, have you moved away from this practice?

Legal assistance to drivers is aimed at helping them to avoid unfounded - I emphasize - unfounded claims of law enforcement and supervisory authorities, to protect their rights. Drivers at any time have the opportunity to receive competent legal assistance.

What else did the interlocutor say?

About the dangers of the profession of a taxi driver

The car itself is a source of increased danger, there is always the possibility of getting into an accident. And personal safety issues are invariably relevant for the taxi driver profession. Suffice it to recall a recent case: on January 15, 2015 in Barnaul, two passengers tried to strangle a taxi driver in order to ride in his car. Almost every taxi company has drivers who have become targets of robbery or hooligan attacks. There is no way to prevent an attack on the driver, except for isolating the driver's seat with especially strong impervious materials, but this is also unrealistic. Any talk about this is just demagogy.

About drivers in "Maxim"

A variety of people work in a taxi. For most, this is a part-time job, they have a main place of work. Among those for whom a taxi is the main income, some cooperate only with us, others - with several ordering services at once. There are also quite wealthy people who come to the taxi for new communication and experience. For example, a woman, the director of a beauty salon, has been cooperating with us for several years. There is a resuscitator, a physics teacher, an ataman of the Cossack army and even a priest.

Dossier

Maxim Viktorovich Shusharin was born on November 12, 1977 in Kurgan. Has two higher education: historical (Kurgan State University) and legal (Ural State Law Academy). Married, has three children.

Fact

10% is the order service commission from each application.

"Maksim" - major service ordering a taxi. The company is actively developing outside the Russian Federation and now operates in 16 countries of the world, since 2016 it has been expanding its network in the franchising format, including in foreign countries.

On this moment more than 200 franchise units operate. The development strategy is based on the desire to provide world-class services in any locality.

The passenger transportation industry is highly competitive, especially in major cities. By concluding a Maxim franchise agreement, an entrepreneur gets the opportunity to work under famous brand, which is already a significant advantage in this type of business. The final price of the Maxim franchise depends on the city in which the opening is planned, advertising costs, office rent, and employee salaries.

The convenience of buying a taxi service franchise is that this business allows you to manage it from anywhere in the world, control pricing policy And financial indicators companies.

The Maxim taxi service has its own call center, but you will have to pay for its services separately - 5 rubles per call. This option is optional and may be disadvantageous for partners from small towns. Moreover, the franchisee can offer customers another way to order a taxi - mobile app.

Requirements for the buyer of the franchise "Maxim"

The main thing is the desire to develop in this type of business and the availability of start-up capital.

Other requirements for the buyer are discussed individually with a representative of the company.

Cooperation requires:

• Create entity(LLC or IP).
• Open a small office.
• Conclude an agreement with the service "Maxim".
• Pay a lump sum.
• Get an exclusive for the city.
• Open a branch
• Establish the work of accounting (the easiest way is to conclude an agreement with an outsourcing company).

Franchise payback

The return on investment largely depends on the desire of the franchisor to develop, the choice of a city for starting a franchise, and many other factors. Someone declares a payback in a month, while someone needs five or six months.

The franchisee's income is a commission of 7.5% from each order made by a taxi, franchise buyers themselves set the size of their commission. Basically, partners set the amount of the commission, taking into account royalties, the amount of which changes as the franchisee develops.

Franchisor's guarantees

By concluding a franchise agreement with the Maxim service, you get exclusive rights to the city where you decide to open the service.

The franchise fee also includes:

• nice phone number
• ready-made promotional materials,
• modern software.

The program for the manager allows you to set tariffs, monitor order fulfillment, see detailed analytical reports on the number of orders and drivers, car waiting time, revenue and other indicators. To order a taxi, a convenient mobile application "Maxim" is provided, and for the work of drivers - the Taxsee Driver application. Both mobile clients are available for Android, iOS and Windows Phone platforms and allow you to perform all the necessary actions without the participation of an operator. Also, the franchisee partner can use the services of the largest contact center in Russia: professional operators take orders around the clock. Before the start, the service specialists conduct training for the partner and his employees, and throughout the work they provide support on all issues and the smooth operation of technical systems.

You can apply for a franchise.

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The founder of the Maxim taxi, 39-year-old Maxim Belonogov, at the age of 15, took corpses to a hospital in Kurgan, campaigned for the Liberal Democratic Party, and bought cigarettes with the proceeds. He was orphaned at 16 when his mother died, his father having passed away seven years earlier. With the allowance received after the death of his mother, Belonogov bought a computer with a Pentium 100 processor and a printer to download abstracts, print and sell. So he earned the first money together with a classmate in Kurgan state university Oleg Shlepanov. With the proceeds, partners bought rechargeable batteries and corded telephones and sold them on wholesale market Kurgan, as well as retail in the departments of radio products in different stores. At the same time they were selling gas equipment. He used a garage as a warehouse, which Belonogov inherited from his father-in-law. Once the warehouse was robbed and burned, and friends lost goods worth 50,000 rubles. VAZ-2108 could then be bought for 35,000 rubles. Then they entered the city federal networks like "Eldorado" and it became unprofitable to sell radio products.

The next business was the paging company Mobil Telecom, launched under a franchise in Shadrinsk, Kurgan Region. Belonogov did not have time to make money on this business - a year later, in 2002, there were Cell phones and pagers are a thing of the past. In 2003, Belonogov, using the numbers left over from the paging business, launched the Maxim taxi - they advertised in Shadrinsk: "A driver with a personal car is required." There were many retired soldiers in the city who responded to the ad. Then the company was called first "Mobil Telecom", and then "Shadrinsk".

In February 2004, Belonogov, Shlepanov, and the current general director of the company, Anton Klementyev, took out a loan of 150,000 rubles from a bank, bought an office automatic telephone exchange, as well as several telephone sets, hired an operator, put an antenna on the roof and began working in Kurgan. The company was named "Maxim".

In Kurgan, the partners used Shlepanov's home number. They did not want to set up an office in his apartment, so they rented a basement of 15 square meters in a neighboring house and stretched a telephone cord there from the window of the apartment over the roofs.

“We never thought about investments: when we started, we didn’t know such words,” Belonogov recalls the launch of the Maxim service.

The company has never attracted investments, developed exclusively on own funds- launched a taxi in several cities, and the money earned was reinvested in the opening of the service in new cities. In the first six years, the Maxim taxi service was opened in four cities, in 2010-in 17 cities, then annually connected several dozen cities. Now "Maxim" works in 450 cities of Russia and 16 countries. And the founders of the company- Belonogov and Shlepanov - remain its owners (they own 50% of the business).

Today, customers around the world order a taxi "Maxim" more than 1 million times a day, and the company employs more than 6,000 employees. Revenue in 2018, according to Belonogov, amounted to 5 billion rubles, net profit- 1.5 billion rubles - these are funds earned on a 10% commission on the cost of each order. At the same time, Russia accounts for 75% of business.

The Taxsee contact center, which grew out of a dispatch service in Shadrinsk, is now one of the largest in Russia. Before the emergence of such centers, the demand for taxis was higher than the supply: taxi companies did not want to carry people cheaply, and taxi booking services attracted ordinary drivers who were ready to carry passengers for a lower price.

International expansion and sanctions

By 2017, Maxim was represented in almost all cities of Russia thanks to the launch of the franchise. “We guaranteed the franchisees that we would not open in those settlements where they went,” says Belonogov. For him, first of all, brand recognition is important, so the company takes the minimum deductions - 1% of the trip.

On a lump-sum fee (a one-time fee for a franchise buyer), which is 50,000-100,000 rubles, the service does not earn anything, since it transfers equipment to the franchisee for this amount.

Then, in 2017, Belonogov decided to go to new market, "where there are many people, but no investment." “Back then, we had already gone to Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, but for some reason we didn’t believe in far abroad,” Belonogov recalls.

In the fall of 2017, Maxim was launched in Iran and six months later came under sanctions. “In Iran, we acted like Yandex – we immediately opened in 70 cities,” says Belonogov. Some cities have grown, others have not. In total, the businessman spent about 800 million rubles to launch in Iran.

In the spring of 2018, the application was unavailable for some time in App Store due to US sanctions against Iran. Officially, the App Store in Iran is blocked, but local residents download applications from the national iOS market, which the American corporation does not block, so as not to harm its business, Cnews wrote.

In January 2019, Apple removed the company's Taxsee Driver app from the App Store for about a month. In order to resolve the conflict with the IT corporation, Maxim hired an American lawyer. After all the procedures, Apple returned the applications to the store and confirmed that they comply with the rules.

Currently, an independent Iranian company operates in Iran under the Maxim brand. It is growing because there are no American investments in the country, there is no Uber and Yandex.Taxi, says Belonogov. Unexpectedly, the service began to develop quickly also in Malaysia and Indonesia: “We did not believe in these regions, as there are strong competitors.”

The company's business is growing annually by 20-30%, and the entrepreneur is not afraid of competition: "Even if they crush me in Russia, I have Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries."

Refuse Gett

In September 2016, the founder of the Gett service, Dave Weiser, and the operating director of the company, Alexander Artemiev, flew to Kurgan to meet with the founders of the Maxim service. Gett wanted to buy a company that could help him enter the regions, explains the motivation of Belonogov's competitors. “We even went to Israel to the Gett office to see how everything works there. We were not impressed with their contact center -ours is more powerful and bigger,” he recalls.

In addition to applications and call centers, the IT infrastructure of the Maxim service includes its own data centers in Russia and Germany, as well as a long-distance telecom operator.

Over the past four years, Belonogov has received offers to buy the business from almost all competitors. Gett in 2016 estimated "Maxim" at $80 million (then 5 billion rubles). Belonogov was interested in trying to develop a business together. “If we had made a deal then, we would have given Gett a good push,”- he thinks. But his partner was against the union.

After that, Belonogov discussed a merger with Yandex, which valued the service at $100 million, with Uber, which was willing to pay $150 million, and Mail.Ru Group, which offered $200 million, including an option. Representatives of Gett, Yandex and Mail.Ru Group declined to comment on this information. Uber did not respond to Forbes' request.

In 2015 and 2016, taxi services from Moscow actively moved to the regions and faced competition from Maxim, which prompted them to start merger talks, argues Belonogov.

But the businessman refused all offers: he believes that with the investment, the service will no longer belong to him. “Investors will push you into an IPO, and then you will be nervous about the fact that the stock is falling or rising - this is all unrelated to normal production process", - argues Belonogov.

Taxi for billions

Negotiations with competitors made it possible to understand how much the Maxim business costs. “They evaluated me based on my prospects and how much I earn. But Yandex.Taxi has 2 million trips, it is valued at $8 billion, and me with 1 million trips a day -only $200 million,” complains Belonogov.

In January 2018, the number of trips of the combined company Yandex.Taxi and Uber in Russia and neighboring countries amounted to 62 million, Greg Abovsky, COO of Yandex, said during one of the conference calls. Since then, Yandex has not released new data.

The Yandex.Taxi valuation is made up of more than just the number of trips, says Maxim Medvedev, managing partner of the AddVenture fund. It is incorrect to compare services on this indicator, he considers. Yandex.Taxi is better represented in Moscow, where average check, and "Maxim" - in the regions, he says. In addition, the Yandex.Taxi business is growing exponentially from year to year, so now the number of their trips may be greater, Medvedev notes. “Yandex also has a food delivery service, the company is developing unmanned vehicle technologies,” he emphasizes.

Unmanned technologies are being developed not only by Yandex, but also by Google, Kamaz, Uber, Volkswagen and other companies, says Belonogov. “If the technology is truly available, then I can buy it and implement it,” he retorts.

In 2010, entrepreneur Travis Kalanick launched the sensational Uber service, which was already estimated at $18.2 billion in 2014 and allowed Kalanick to get into the top 400 richest Americans according to Forbes with a capital of $6 billion. Uber “overheated” this market, Belonogov is sure : those who have never invested in a taxi, began to do so. For example, in May 2016, a competitor to Uber-Chinese taxi service Didi-Apple has invested $1 billion

“Kalanick drew the attention of investors to this market, but they will never get their money back,”- believes Belonogov. After the IPO in 2019, the value of Uber, which was estimated at $120 billion, fell by half, and the capitalization of the taxi service Lyft, which was estimated at $24 billion, is now about $12.8 billion.

“This is a market that is now overheated all over the world,”-Medvedev from AddVenture agrees. A large number of Internet companies have poured huge amounts of money into this sector in order for new players to form, he adds. The advantage of these platforms, Medvedev continues, is that they increase the utilization of transport use and make travel cheaper. Investors who invested in the early stages were able to earn, while those who entered in the last rounds remained with the same money or could lose it, depending on the structure of investments, Medvedev said.

Serial Entrepreneur

The taxi business could have grown faster, but Belonogov scattered his efforts by starting several more spin-off businesses. “Now I treat these businesses as a misunderstanding,” he admits.

In 2012, Belonogov bought an office building on Radionova Street in Kurgan, in one of the parts of which was the Slavyanka cake factory. “Things were bad for her, but she worked,” says Belonogov. The businessman decided to support her and in 2014 invested about 600 million rubles in the enterprise. The factory began to grow and now brings in about 40 million profits per year. It is cost-effective, but the return on investment for such businesses- 10-15 years old, emphasizes the businessman.

Another non-core project -aviation - began with the Kurgan aviation club, in which Belonogov and Shlepanov trained to fly. The partners decided to save him: in 2011, they agreed to lease the launched Lagovushka airfield for 49 years. They created a flight center on the basis of the airfield, then bought the dying regional airline SIBIA, paid off its debts, and also increased the fleet to 30 aircraft and two helicopters. The total investment amounted to approximately 300 million rubles, 40 million of which went to the purchase of SIBIA.

Now Belonogov participates in tenders for patrolling and protecting forests, mainly in the Kurgan, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen regions and the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. The business became profitable and brought Belonogov for 9 months of 2019 about 37 million rubles of net profit.

In addition, in 2005 Belonogov opened a travel agency, 13 branches of which had to be closed in 2008 due to the crisis. The only non-core project "for the soul" Maxim calls the company "Makarov's all-terrain vehicles" for the production of all-terrain vehicles"Burlak", which he opened in 2018. “I deliberately went to play cars,” the businessman laughs. He expected to spend 20-30 million rubles on this project, but the costs have already exceeded 100 million rubles, but Belonogov is satisfied. Even during the pilot production, the company sold 11 all-terrain vehicles, each costing 6.5-10 million rubles, depending on the configuration. All-terrain vehicles are assembled by specialists in Yekaterinburg, but if the project continues to grow, the company will move to Kurgan, where "labor is cheaper." According to SPARK-Interfax, in 2018, the revenue of Makarov's ATVs amounted to 26 million rubles, and net profit - 14.8 million rubles. IN next year Belonogov plans that "Makarov's all-terrain vehicles" will pay off.

“When we got a taxi, we believed in ourselves, we thought that we were serial entrepreneurs,” the entrepreneur recalls. But when the Maxim company entered Iran, Belonogov realized that the competitors Tappsi and Snapp managed to overtake them while he was developing a confectionery factory. "How more businesses I opened it, the more I understood that it was not necessary to spray, ”he admits.

The agreement is aimed at uniting the efforts of the service and regional authorities for the further legalization of the taxi market. The service intends to maintain the high quality, availability and safety of the taxi service, participate in the discussion of draft industry regulations, and propose measures to encourage carriers to comply with the legislation on taxi transportation. The Department, for its part, declared its readiness to take into account expert opinion the largest market participant, to create conditions for carriers to benefit from obtaining permission to operate a taxi and work legally.

The parties began preparing the agreement after a working meeting between the Deputy Director of the Department, Evgeny Dmitriev, and the heads of the largest taxi services, which took place in March 2016.

Maxim Shusharin, director of the MAXIM taxi service:

We are interested in cooperation only with legal carriers and do everything within our powers to increase their number. Residents of the city see how many cars with checkers and branding of our service are on the streets. But the efforts of one company are not enough. Much depends on the legal framework, conditions for entrepreneurship. Therefore, we need joint actions with the authorities, effective decisions that can only be made in the dialogue between government and business. I note that over the past 2 years, all our proposals and joint discussions with the authorities have resulted in specific solutions. The order and mechanism of what is written in regulatory framework, redesigned in a fairly comfortable environment. In the Kurgan region, the cost of obtaining a permit is affordable, there are certain preferences for persons who have received permits, and most importantly, this is the opportunity to conduct a constructive dialogue with the authorities. The region managed to avoid ill-conceived decisions to establish a unified colors taxis, raids on taxi drivers and other negative things. We will soon be signing similar agreements in Moscow and Khabarovsk.

Alexander Konstantinov, Director of the Department of Industry, Transport, Communications and Energy of the Kurgan Region:

The interaction between the executive authority and the largest market operator will help create conditions for the legalization, improvement of the quality and safety of transportation. By signing the agreement, we would like to put things in order. First of all, this is the issuance of orders only to those carriers who have permission to operate a taxi. Those who carry passengers should root for their business and consider it their profession, and not a part-time job for half an hour. We are now faced with an additional task - to organize a network of stops for legal taxis in order to "block the road" to illegal immigrants. Specially created working groups have already outlined the first points - these are the airport and the railway station. All structures, including city ones, understand the need for this step. Taxi is the face of the city. We expect that other taxi services, following the example of the MAXIM service, will also begin to legalize transportation.