● Following the money-burning war in 2016 and the darkest moment in 2018, the ride-hailing industry has developed into its sixth year.
2020 is considered by some to be the year of restarting after the rectification period.
● This year, the major platforms have once again started the "snatching battle" in the downwind field.
However, for a rider that has repeatedly encountered problems in recent years, ensuring travel safety is the trump card for survival.
● The legal boundary between ride-hailing and taxis and “black cars” has not been clearly defined, which has brought many difficulties to supervision.
To promote the healthy development of downwind, it is necessary to continuously improve the system design and build a more comprehensive and detailed industry supervision system
□ Our reporter Zhao Li
□ Sun Yifei, our intern
The shared travel industry is making a comeback.
Recently, it has been frequently reported that Dida Travel, which has the largest market share of Shunfeng, is considering going to Hong Kong to raise US$500 million in IPO.
At the same time, Didi Chuxing also made frequent moves.
On the one hand, it upgraded the traditional taxi business and changed its name to "Kai Di Xin Lei", and also invested 100 million yuan in special subsidies; on the other hand, it split off two sub-brands, "Green Cabbage Carpool" and "Hua Xiaozhu". This move is considered an important layout for its return to the downwind market.
In 2020, the major platforms will once again start the "snatch battle" in the field of ride-hailing.
However, safety is the trump card for survival, which has repeatedly experienced problems in recent years.
What do passengers care about most when choosing a ride?
According to a survey data released recently, nearly 50% of the interviewed users believe that the ride-hailing service needs to ensure the personal, property, and information security of both parties.
However, since the legal boundary between downwind and taxis and "black cars" has not been clearly defined, it has also brought many difficulties to supervision.
From the perspective of industry insiders, to promote the healthy development of Shunfeng, it is still necessary to continuously improve the system design and build a more comprehensive and detailed industry supervision system.
Broad prospects for shared travel
The development process has twists and turns
"After the epidemic, we are about to receive 100 orders." Shunfeng car owner Zhao Yang (pseudonym) said that he once left the Shunfeng platform due to reduced travel demand during the epidemic and his recent experience has been very good.
At first, Zhao Yang drove the car to save commuting costs. When he received 50 or 100 orders, he started to pay more attention to social benefits and travel experience than income.
For a long time in the past, after reflecting on the two years of Didi Chuxing’s successive restart attempts in the ride-hailing field, the industry structure is also "restarting". Didi Travel, which started as a ride-hailing company, announced that it has obtained nearly 70% of the ride-hailing market share. And the report card was posted on the 6-year time node: As of August 31 this year, the number of registered users on the platform as a whole exceeded 180 million, and the number of registered car owners exceeded 19 million.
The six-year development time is not short, and the ride-hailing market is also full of twists and turns.
During the interview, Shen Lijun, Dean of the City Zhixing Information Technology Research Institute, divided the six years into three phases: the end of 2014 to the end of 2016 is the pioneering and exploratory period of the new business form of Shunfeng based on the mobile Internet; the second phase, the end of 2016 By the autumn of 2018, it was a period of barbaric development of the ride; in the third stage, after two consecutive vicious cases in the industry in 2018, the industry had a rational discussion on "true rides and false rides", and then the industry began to return to the stage of rational development .
During the period of barbaric development of the ride-hailing market, Zhao Yang’s ride-hailing experience was particularly bad. He often encountered passengers who "must depart at a certain minute, not one minute early" and who were 20 minutes late but were unapologetic. After that, He no longer chooses platforms with tight capacity and easy confusion for passengers.
As the impact of the epidemic gradually subsided, Zhao Yang’s intuitive feeling is that there are more orders along the way, and more people know about Shunfeng. “Because express and special buses are operated full-time, the driver contacts many people every day, and the real Shunfeng picks up. It is an order to travel downwind."
Following the money-burning war in 2016 and the darkest moment in 2018, the ride-hailing industry has developed into its sixth year.
The year 2020 is considered by some to be the restart year after the rectification period. However, when the public's vision once again focused on this industry, it was discovered that the industry structure has changed.
There is a view in the market that a hitchhiker can exist as a supplement to urban public transportation.
According to data from iiMedia Consulting, it is estimated that by 2020, the number of Chinese ride-hailing users will reach 249 million. The demand for ride-hailing cars in China has long existed and is showing an increasing trend.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Public Security, as of the end of 2019, the number of private cars in China was about 207 million. At least 60% of the vehicles will be on the road every day. An average of 3.5 seats per car is empty. One round trip means every day. There are 700 million empty seats.
Assuming that only 1% is shared, that is 7 million seats.
From this point of view, Shunfeng is not just a small market, it may become one of the mainstream markets for mass travel in the future.
According to the "2014-2020 Blue Book of China's Shunfeng Industry Development," data shows that by the end of 2019, 17 information platform companies across the country have carried out tailwind business in more than 400 cities, with a total of 30 million registered vehicles and 300 million registered passengers.
The shadow of a security accident is still
There is a lot of resistance to industry development
As one of the representatives of the pure sharing economy, the development of Shunfeng has not been smooth sailing.
The potential safety hazards exposed by the safety accidents in recent years have undoubtedly hindered the development of the industry and market promotion.
In 2018, we experienced two successive killings of ride-hailing drivers. Didi ride-hailing business was required to go offline by the competent authority. Six departments interviewed 8 ride-hailing ride-hailing platforms, and illegal operations in the name of ride-hailing were strictly prohibited.
Cai Tuanjie, deputy director of the Department of Transportation Services of the Ministry of Transport, said in an interview with the media that, unlike online car-hailing, private passenger car sharing, also known as carpooling or ride-hailing, is that the ridesharing service provider releases travel information in advance. People with the same travel route choose to take the shared travel mode of a shared ride service provider, share part of the travel cost, or free mutual assistance.
According to industry insiders, the legal private car sharing referred to here should have two core requirements: one is to meet the owner's own travel needs; the other is to share part of the travel cost or free mutual assistance.
However, the ride-hailing business launched by some platform companies at that time added too many social functions and deviated from the original intention of providing travel services. Even some platform companies operated illegally under the name of ride-hailing, which presented huge security risks.
Behind the hidden worries of travel safety, it further involves the unification and improvement of platform operation models and rules, and industry governance standards.
For a long time, the topic of "whether ride-hailing is online car-hailing" has attracted much attention from the public. However, due to the vague market cognition and the inconsistent industry governance standards, it has brought resistance to market promotion that cannot be ignored.
"Some places will penalize Zhenshunfeng for illegal operation. This shows that we have not done enough work. We also need to communicate more with local management departments to quickly understand what is Zhenshunfeng and what is illegal operation. Form a consensus." At the recent 2nd China Shunfeng Car Health Development Legal Forum, Li Yuejun, co-founder and vice president of operations of Tida Travel, said in a speech.
In this regard, local governments have different attitudes: some places have not issued management rules, and punished ride-hailing in the name of illegally operating online car-hailing; some places simply think that ride-hailing is a share of gas, according to their own understanding. Otherwise it is illegal operation.
"It is more difficult to supervise the ride-hailing business. Because local governments have different attitudes towards the taxi business and have different standards for dealing with ride-hailing issues, the specific situation of each city is different." said Fu Weigang, president of the Shanghai Institute of Finance and Law. Regarding the non-profit activities of the rider, supervision cannot play a role; for the behavior of illegal profit in the name of the rider, there are penalties such as fines and seizure of driving licenses.
Many people in the industry believe that the core elements of judging a windmill should be non-operating and non-profit.
However, it is not easy to define the shared travel cost of the ridesharing of a ride-hailing car, and it is also a difficult problem to determine that the "owner of a car is not profitable".
Zhang Zhuting, a professor at the School of Management of the Ministry of Transport, believes that first of all, there is no doubt that the Shunfengche platform has profitability after collecting information fees. Therefore, the platform should inform the public of its profitability and cannot make profits under the banner of public welfare.
Secondly, the platform and the real riders must abide by the rider rules. For example, it should be "cars find people" and the information release method of "people find cars" in taxis cannot be used. The owners of rides can share fuel for free or share the fuel with the riders. Fees, tolls, etc.
The platform is only the information release and information receiver, and does not participate in the sharing. It can charge information service fees but must be responsible for the authenticity, legality and compliance of the information.
Fu Weigang believes that it is more reasonable to control profits by controlling prices. For example, Hangzhou, Zhejiang once required that the price of ride-hailing rides should not exceed 50% of the price per kilometer of cruise taxis.
Regulatory difficulties to be solved
Diversified governance deserves encouragement
The reporter of "Rules of Law Daily" noticed that the "Hefei Action Plan for Guiding the Hikebike Business to Adapt to the Modernization of the National Governance System and Governance Capability" was released at the China Shunfengche Healthy Development Legal Forum, and announced the establishment of the Hikebike Law and Standardization Working Committee. In conjunction with national legal research, road transportation, environmental protection, public safety and other institutions, the first group standard for ride-hailing associations was issued.
"It is good to have standards, but each enterprise has different standards. The quality and implementation of enterprise standards will affect user choices. How to formulate a standard that combines user needs and car owners' needs is the current problem." Fu Weigang Say.
Zhang Zhuting said that he is not optimistic about the introduction of the group standard for ride-hailing: First, the group standard does not have mandatory binding force; second, even if it is restricted, it can only restrict group members, not the owners of ride-hailing, nor the passengers; third, the city and urban policies The difference between the groups will inevitably lead to the difficulty of integrating group standards.
Zhang Zhuting told a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily that the No. 58 document issued by the State Council in 2016 required the city government to formulate rules in the design of the ride-hailing system, so the regulation of ride-hailing is one city, one policy.
Therefore, the local people's government should issue corresponding local regulations or local regulatory documents.
In his view, whether the above-mentioned social organizations are qualified to formulate standards is also a question, because the qualifications of social organizations to formulate group standards are authorized by the National Standards Committee.
Regarding mandatory, Fu Weigang also expressed a similar view: "If it is to formulate mandatory legal standards, personally feel that it is more difficult. Because the ride-hailing itself is non-profit, except for ride-hailing services developed through the Internet, free riders in the community It also belongs to the category of ride-hailing. For example, the introduction of standards for ride-hailing services for the Internet may promote the development of the industry. However, if the standards are set unreasonably, it may cause problems to the entire ride-hailing industry. Good influence, such as stipulating that the downwind is a local license plate, etc. Therefore, we cannot simply judge whether the standard is good or bad, but depends on whether the standard is reasonable."
At the aforementioned forum, Wang Pingsheng, vice chairman of the China Urbanization Promotion Association of the National Development and Reform Commission, said: "There are many difficulties to overcome in the ride-hailing, there are many legal issues that need to be clarified, and many technical and legal standards need to be established."
In Zhang Zhuting's view, although there is currently no separate ride-hailing legislation at the national level, there is no doubt that the platform must comply with the e-commerce law, cyber security law, and laws related to public security management.
At the same time, the platform is an enterprise and must also comply with the safety production law.
Regarding the legislation on ride-hailing, Zhang Zhuting believes that local regulations or rules on ride-hailing should be called for according to the requirements of the State Council, rather than national laws, administrative regulations, and rules.
In addition, the promulgation of local laws and regulations, or regulatory documents should follow three directions. One is not to infinitely enlarge the function of the rider. The country's major policy is to vigorously develop public transportation; the second is to firmly grasp the essence of local affairs. Features to solve the outstanding problems of local ride-hailing; third, local standards should be considered in the formulation of standards, and local standards can be better connected with local laws, regulations or regulatory documents.
Zhang Zhuting also emphasized that the platform industry should be called for self-discipline as the mainstay, and other disciplines should be the supplement; he called on ride-hailing car owners and platforms to self-discipline and abide by existing laws and regulations.
Fu Weigang believes that there is no need for further legislation or the establishment of too many legal standards. The main problem at present is to distinguish whether the ride is profitable.
In the interview, some people in the industry said that when we are concerned about platform competition, concept updates, and technology iterations, the logical starting point for ride-hailing access, supervision, and safety is often overlooked.
Regarding how to find a balance between effective supervision and enterprise development, Zhang Zhuting believes that safety is the bottom line. Therefore, the supervision of government public security, cybersecurity and informatization departments should put the safety supervision of persons and enterprises in the first place, and ensure safety. Safe development.
"Consumers have already weighed price and safety when choosing a rider. Therefore, in terms of supervision, it is necessary to leave room for consumers to choose. If the supervision is too strict, it may affect the development of rider. In addition, regulations The bottom line of safety cannot completely prevent the occurrence of accidents. It is necessary to accept the occurrence of safety accidents, and the entire industry cannot be denied because of the accidents.” Fu Weigang said.
In this regard, some experts also said that local governments lack corresponding means to supervise downwind cars, and now the main punishment is to penalize. Some places have formulated normative documents for downwind cars, which have a basis for punishment; if not, many places are based on Taxi or online car-hailing operation and management methods will be penalized.
In fact, there are many problems in understanding the downwind car as a subordinate concept of a taxi.
For the management of downwind, multiple governance measures should be adopted. In addition to technical standards, measures such as certification, accreditation, and third-party supervision are also necessary.
Cartography/Gao Yue