Kazakh taxi driver-blogger Demezhan Karmenov showed how much one can earn in a taxi without self-employed status. Working for four hours on a 2025 Geely Emgrand, he completed eight orders under the Economy, Comfort+, and Delivery tariffs. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

According to the video author, he cannot obtain self-employed status because he is already registered as an individual entrepreneur (IE) and has not yet closed his business due to active contracts.

"I won't be able to be self-employed for the entire 2026 because I have an IE," Demezhan said.

Despite this, he decided to check whether it is possible to continue working part-time in a taxi without the new status.

During the morning shift, the driver completed eight orders. These included trips under Comfort+ and Economy tariffs, as well as several deliveries.

According to the blogger, the system periodically showed notifications about a reduction in the number of orders due to the lack of self-employed status, but he was not left without work entirely. The largest flow of orders was ensured by connecting several tariffs at once.

The shift lasted about four hours – from 6:30 AM to 11:30 AM. During this time, the driver drove approximately 63 km and earned 9,500 tenge after the service and taxi park commission. Fuel costs amounted to 2,300 tenge.

"Net, excluding car depreciation, I will put 7,200 tenge in my pocket," the video author concluded.

According to him, this result cannot be called record-breaking, but for a short morning shift, Demezhan considers it acceptable.

The blogger devoted a separate part of the video to the new rules for working in taxis. He explained that self-employed status has become the main work format for many drivers after the new Tax Code came into force. However, not everyone can obtain it – restrictions apply to some individual entrepreneurs, civil servants, and certain foreigners. Therefore, some taxi drivers are trying to compensate for the decrease in the number of orders by connecting additional tariffs and delivery services.

Earlier, Kursiv Avto reported that mandatory self-employment in taxis could lead to drivers going into the shadows. We also wrote about a Vietnamese taxi service that brought dozens of turquoise electric cars to Almaty.