The ancient Greek thinker Aristotle once said, "Life is movement." Following this principle, people never stayed in one place for long, and in modern times, life forces us to move quickly and far. Therefore, the business of transporting people in various directions has always been one of the most profitable, and where there is profit, there are people willing to capitalize on it.
Businesses, officials, and corporate raiders are vying for control of the passenger transportation market in the Odessa region.
Since the Party of Regions came to power and set its sights on the Odesa region, Borys Pekolok, a former member of the Odesa City Council, has become the power broker and chief puppeteer in the passenger transportation market. Upon his appointment as governor of the Odesa region, Eduard Matveychuk was immediately ordered to hand over the transportation sector to Pekolok, who nominated Oleksandr Ilko, head of the Department of Maritime Industry, Transport, and Communications of the Odesa Regional State Administration, for the position. Pekolok has retained Ilko under three governors.
Boris Pekolok controls Avtotrans-Ukraine LLC, Odespasservis LLC, Diamant Private Enterprise, and Pospolita Service Private Enterprise, but is not their actual founder. Ilko's arrival is associated with the beginning of a redistribution of the passenger transportation market in favor of these companies. Moreover, they are taking away everyone's routes, even small carriers in the Odessa region (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZfXsmdhzaw).
Borys Pekalok, on his appointment as mayor of Odessa Gennady Trukhanov, took control of the Department of Transport, Communications, and Traffic Management of the Odessa City Council. His man, Valeriy Simonovich Novikov, currently serves as the department's director. He's truly new to the department and hasn't yet had a track record of seizing and squeezing routes.
According to official data, minibuses in Odesa and the Odesa region carry approximately 500 passengers per day. Therefore, Odesa and regional residents pay over 1,5 million hryvnias in fares daily. And this is only according to official data. The majority of these fares go to the owners of large transport companies, of which there are not many in Odesa and the region.
Over 30% of passenger traffic in the passenger transportation market is controlled by the companies "Tourist," "Virage," and "Europa V.V.V." These companies are associated with businessmen Andrey Zhdanov, Sergey Dobrokhod, and Anatoly Manoylo. Anatoly Manoylo is considered the owner of "Virage" LLC and a co-owner of "Europa V.V.V." Andrey Zhdanov and Sergey Dobrokhod are considered co-owners of "Tourist" LLC. The three businessmen have agreed to work together and avoid interfering with each other, which has yielded them considerable profits.
Suren Sardaryan, an Odesa resident of Armenian descent, controls approximately 20% of the passenger transportation market. He is considered the de facto owner of the major transportation companies PJSC Severtrans and PJSC Odesavtotrans. The latter owns the Odesa International Bus Station, which is the site of periodic conflicts over passenger traffic.
Another important player in the passenger transportation market is Andriy Dobrovolsky. He is considered the owner of Avtotrans-Ukraine LLC, Odespasservis LLC, and Diamant Private Enterprise. A relatively new player in the passenger transportation market is Pospolita Service, a private enterprise owned by businessmen Kakha Getia, Alexey Morozov, and Alexander Gopkalo. The company's operations are overseen by Sergey Yatsuk. This company and its founders have been implicated in numerous disputes over the passenger transportation market. For example, in Kremenchuk, local carriers accused Pospolita Service of taking over the public route "Kremenchuk - Kyiv" and intimidating local carriers - https://www.telegraf.in.ua/buisiness/2014/09/03/odesskaya-firma-zabrala-pod-svoe-krylo-krupnye-avtobusy-na-marshrute-kremenchug-kiev_10039594.html . Pospolita Service has also been implicated in illegal transportation on the Odessa-Mykolaiv and Odessa-Kherson routes.
Another company operating in the passenger transportation market in the Odesa region is Lux-SMS, a private enterprise controlled by Dmytro Zheman. He is also one of the founders of the Association of Odesa Carriers. Gennady Trukhanov recently appointed Zheman as director of Odesgorelectrotrans. Lux-SMS and Dmytro Zheman have not been involved in any major conflicts with other market participants.
The last player in the passenger transportation market, both literally and figuratively, is Express LLC, owned by Pavel Serebrennik. Until 2014, the company controlled approximately 20% of the market, but after a high-profile scandal and lengthy investigation revealed that the company was operating without a license, it lost the lion's share of the market and has not yet recovered, possibly due to the skillful actions of its competitors.
To be continued ...
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