The Russian version of Get Taxi, owned by Shahar Waiser , has been changing the names of its drivers as it says those with non-Slav names are being discriminated against, according to a report published by the BBC.

They say that drivers with names originating in Asia or the Caucasus were receiving lower ratings on its booking app, which gives passengers the chance to review their experiences. Get Taxi, as an experiment, decided to “Russify” the drivers’ identities, apparently with their permission, to see if it made a difference to people’s reviews, the RB.ru business news website reports. Shahar Waiser said “We don’t want one driver to get a lower rating than another, just because of his name”, adding that all drivers have the same training and knowledge. He says the aim was to “reduce nationalism”, but acknowledges it may have backfired. Mr Waiser says the company will now review its policy.

Not unexpectedly, social media users are less unimpressed with the move. Moscow State University ethnologist Dmitry Oparin commented on his Facebook page. “This is precisely a case when the customer is not right. If the customer refuses a driver with an ‘exotic’ name, he should proceed on foot.” But the company may not be alone in its controversial practices. Apparently prominent Russian blogger Rustem Adagamov, the smartphone app for a rival taxi firm offers a “Slav driver” option at no extra charge.

Discrimination like this has been seen historically even in the insurance industry in the UK. Practices of restricting driving where the proposers name was not of UK origin surfaced as recently as the early nineties. Underwriters were quick to single out other factors to avoid a confrontation, even when it was crystal clear the reasons why policy conditions were modified were as a result of someone’s name. The path to cheap minicab insurance is now firmly driven by honesty by policyholders particularly where taxi no claims bonus has been earned. Though it is not the cheapest of starts where there is no no claims bonus, cheap pco insurance or cheap taxi insurance under 25, annual policies that do earn a proper taxi insurance no claims bonus will benefit from lower taxi insurance premiums in the long term.