The new regulations on electric three- and four-wheel vehicles have been implemented for nearly three months, and water and gas delivery companies are facing some difficulties.
Compliance vehicles for people's livelihood industry are not enough
"The company's original illegal electric tricycles are being withdrawn in an orderly manner, and the newly purchased electric tricycles are going through the licensing procedures. During this period, the gas ordering service on the WeChat official account is suspended..." The customer service voice of Beijing Liquefied Petroleum Gas Co., Ltd. has not yet finished. , Mr. Zhang, a citizen, hung up the phone. He has been listening to this voice for almost three months and can almost memorize it. The liquefied gas tank at home has run out again, and now I can’t count on the gas delivery service, so I can only ride my electric bicycle to the liquefied gas station.
New regulations on the management of electric three- and four-wheel vehicles will be implemented on January 1 this year. A recent reporter's investigation found that some people's livelihood service industries still do not have compliant Beijing C license plate electric tricycles available. Some citizens reported that the service efficiency of these industries has become lower, and some services have even had to be cancelled, causing inconvenience to citizens' lives. Some companies are worried about the emergence of an "underground market" for renting Beijing C-brand electric tricycles, which will increase their operating costs.
Citizens use electric bicycles to carry liquefied gas tanks, and lying down gas tanks poses a safety hazard.
Water station employees use postal express tricycles to deliver bottled water.
It is difficult to deliver gas to your door without a car at the gas station
Citizen Bike Adventure Piggyback Tank
On March 26, in front of the Zhaogongkou Liquefied Gas Station in Fengtai District, there was an endless stream of citizens riding electric bicycles to pull liquefied gas tanks. Mr. Zhang, a citizen, told reporters that it used to be easy to replace liquefied gas tanks. You could make an appointment for door-to-door gas delivery by making a phone call or using WeChat. Residents in the surrounding bungalow areas have long been accustomed to this service, and most families no longer keep the trolleys for pulling liquefied gas tanks. Now residents need to ventilate themselves and can only ride electric bicycles. "The electric tricycles at the gas station are no longer in use, so they can't deliver gas as they used to. But it's been almost a quarter, and haven't they found a new replacement vehicle yet?"
In front of the liquefied gas station, residents complained while trying to put liquefied gas tanks on electric bicycles. I tried several times horizontally and vertically, but I could only place the liquefied gas tank horizontally on the pedal. But as soon as the car started, the lying gas tank immediately started rolling back and forth on the pedals, and the cyclist was so frightened that he quickly stopped the car.
There are notices posted next to the door of the liquefied gas station, one of which is that cylinders are prohibited from being placed horizontally. Staff told reporters that they were worried when they saw citizens transporting liquefied gas tanks like this. "After the gas tank is tipped, violent shaking is a safety hazard. If the cylinder is bumpy along the way and is not fixed, the danger will be even greater if the cylinder falls to the ground."
The reporter asked why they didn’t step forward to stop them even though they knew it was dangerous. The staff said that they would warn them at first, but “people say who doesn’t know the danger, but what can we do if the gas station doesn’t deliver gas to our homes? Now we really don’t have a car, and it’s too difficult to deliver gas.” .”
According to the staff, in order to comply with the new regulations on the management of electric three- and four-wheeled vehicles, in fact, starting from September 2023, all staff at liquefied gas stations will take the driving test as required. The new vehicles in the station are also being phased out and updated one after another. In November 2023, compliant electric tricycles will be in place. "But the car is still sitting in the factory area. It can't go on the road without a license plate. We have applied for the Beijing C license plate a long time ago, but we don't know where it is stuck."
The customer service staff of Beijing Liquefied Petroleum Gas Co., Ltd. responded that the electric tricycles recently purchased by the company have not yet applied for the Beijing C license plate. The only vehicles that comply with the new regulations and can be on the road are two-wheeled bicycles and human-powered tricycles. Because the transportation capacity and transportation distance of the above two models are relatively limited, the frequency and working hours of delivery personnel have increased, resulting in the company's delivery service time being extended, and it is temporarily unable to meet the delivery needs and timeliness of all users at any time.
Some bungalow hutongs in old urban areas of Beijing do not have access to natural gas, and liquefied gas tanks are still in urgent need of residents living here. Residents generally report that even young and middle-aged people find it difficult to carry gas tanks on bicycles, let alone empty nesters and elderly people living alone. The reporter also visited many ventilation stations in the city. Staff at many ventilation stations in Dongcheng District said that the air supply is currently divided according to photo areas. Even if there is capacity but it is outside the delivery range, it cannot be delivered. “Now the air supply masters are all Using your own bicycle for delivery is indeed much less efficient." The staff at the ventilation station located in Puhuangyu, Fengtai District, said that the delivery service has been stopped and users can only pick it up at the station. "Our liquefied gas station will be closed on April 7, and nearby residents will have to go to the stations on Zhaogongkou or Tiantan East Road to get air."
Water station employees use postal trucks to deliver bottled water
Relevant units said it was just "service outsourcing"
During the investigation, the reporter found that not only gas delivery services are currently facing difficulties in using cars, but bottled water distribution companies are also facing similar difficulties.
When the reporter visited the bottled water station on March 26, he saw a master delivering bottled water welding a steel frame on the back of an electric bicycle with three buckets of water inside. There were also three buckets on the pedals of the electric bicycle. There was even a bucket of water in the pannier of the cart, which had been crushed out of shape. The weight of water alone is nearly 140 kilograms. Adding the weight of people, a small electric bicycle is overwhelmed. The master turned the handlebars but found that the bicycle could not run at all.
The man who delivers bottled water is very helpless. He said that now he can only use electric bicycles to deliver water, which greatly reduces the transportation capacity. He often receives complaints about slow water delivery. "This little old bike is pulling so much water that I don't dare ride fast. It's too heavy and has too much inertia to even brake."
However, what makes the water delivery masters even more helpless is that some water delivery companies have "connections" to use postal express tricycles to deliver water. "Can the postal service vehicles be sublet or loaned?"
The reporter found that since January this year, there have been many complaints on the 12345 hotline reflecting the sublease and loan issues of postal express tricycles, and they involve many districts in the city. Relevant units responded that this was not a sublease, but a service outsourcing, that is, the postal unit signed a water delivery business with the bottled water-related industry association, and the delivery of bottled water was completed by the postal unit.
"If services are outsourced, both the cars and the people should belong to the Postal Service, but now it's clear that the people at the water station are riding the Postal Service's cars. Doesn't this become a rental car?" The reporter contacted a number of complainants. They asked about the service outsourcing. The explanation is not approved.
On the afternoon of March 27, two postal express tricycles were parked in front of Yishui Station in No. 12 Yard A, Songzhuang Road. The cyclist was busy loading the car. A reporter approached him and asked him if he was an employee of the postal department or a water station. The other person was extremely alert and insisted that the car had nothing to do with him, and then walked away in a hurry. It was raining lightly at the time, and the tricycle was loaded with barrels of water, its lights flashing, and its wipers swaying.
The person in charge of the water station finally admitted that the person who had just used the postal express tricycle was an employee of the water station. "There is such a thing as outsourcing services, but after the Spring Festival, there are no postal people to contact us anymore. The cars are kept here. When the business volume is too heavy, we will occasionally ride them ourselves."
A complainant reported that he saw that the new regulations for the management of electric three- and four-wheel vehicles were jointly issued by seven departments, including the Beijing Postal Administration. If service outsourcing is a legal channel and can be strictly managed, we hope that such channels can be opened wider and more bottled water distribution companies can receive help.
There is a garbage recycling truck delivering express delivery
JingC electric car rental is popular online
It’s not just the bottled water distribution industry that’s looking for compliant vehicles through other means. On March 27, two fully loaded garbage recycling electric tricycles appeared on the South Third Ring Road. Both vehicles had the words "Garbage Recycling Truck" printed on their bodies and also had Beijing C license plates. From their appearance, Look, it’s no different from an ordinary garbage recycling truck. But a closer look revealed that the car was not full of garbage, but express packages waiting to be delivered. The two vehicles stopped in front of a logistics and distribution unit, and the rider started busy sorting the packages as soon as he got off the car.
The strong demand for cars has allowed individual sellers to see "business opportunities." At present, on some online trading platforms for second-hand goods, Beijing C brand electric tricycles are being leased under the names of "three- and four-wheeled large toys" and "national standard sanitation large toy vehicles", and the rental prices are high. The seller who released relevant information enlarged and bolded the words "with license plate" and "Beijing C" on the website, attracting many buyers.
Through online information, the reporter contacted a seller. After inquiry, we learned that the rental price for the car with license plate is 18,000 yuan per year. Based on clues reported by citizens, the reporter asked another seller, who offered a deposit of 16,000 yuan, a delivery fee of 200 yuan, and an annual rent of 9,600 yuan. During the communication process with multiple sellers, they all sent photos of prototype trucks. The same garbage recycling truck that the reporter saw on the street was clearly visible.
Relevant departments are vague in handling complaints
There is no way to apply for license plates in some livelihood industries
The new regulations on the management of electric three- and four-wheel vehicles have been implemented for nearly three months. After sorting out the complaints on related issues received by the 12345 hotline, many units responded, including the Transportation Commission, the Urban Management Committee and the local streets, etc., but the replies were mostly policy interpretations, and even It’s just that the original text of the new regulations, when it comes to the key points of how to solve the problem and who should be approached to solve it, often only contains relatively vague suggestions such as “the competent industry department should be consulted” and “it is recommended that the problem be transferred to a certain department for resolution”. It is still unclear which industry authority is in charge, and there is no information on how the situation was resolved after being transferred to other departments.
The reporter learned from interviews that some industries closely related to citizens’ lives, in the process of applying for Beijing C-plate electric tricycles, did not clearly identify the competent department responsible for this work, resulting in enterprises having no way to apply and facing no available vehicles and services. The dilemma of making it difficult to carry out work. Taking water delivery as an example, the company believes that relevant application materials should be submitted to the market supervision department, but the market supervision department says that bottled water companies belong to the packaged drinking water industry and are managed by the "Beijing Packaged Drinking Water Industry Association", but many companies call the company. The association was later informed that it did not have this function. Citizens call on relevant departments to refine the scope of livelihood service industries that can apply for license plates as soon as possible, clarify the competent departments, and ensure people's livelihood use of cars.
Reporter Jing Yiming and Chen Shengyu wrote and took photos of Beijing Daily