The number of chauffeur-driven users in my country has exceeded 150 million, and problems such as irregular services cannot be ignored
Editor's note
With the development of new technologies such as the mobile Internet, and the continuous refinement of the social division of labor, the phenomenon of "substitute economy" is becoming more and more common: driving, purchasing, eating, running errands... A variety of services have penetrated into every aspect of people's lives. A detail that constantly creates demand and value.
But at the same time, some gray and black "substitute economy" are quietly growing underground, such as taking classes, writing papers, surrogacy, medical examinations, etc. Behind these surrogate services is often a black industry chain, which has a negative impact on market order and consumers. legitimate rights and interests constitute a threat.
Starting today, the Jingwei Edition of the Rule of Law will launch a series of investigative reports on "Generation Economy", which will dig deep into the various risks hidden behind personalized generation services, and provide new ideas for solving new problems brought about by new things.
stay tuned.
● Drivers have adapted to market development, expanded labor employment, and become the main source of income for many families. They also meet people's diverse travel needs and become an indispensable part of people's daily life.
● At present, the chauffeured chauffeur industry is growing day by day, but there are still some problems, especially in the aspect of market supervision, such as unclear regulatory bodies, lack of market access standards, etc., and there is no national chauffeured chauffeur industry self-discipline organization, which is not conducive to chauffeured chauffeurs Institutionalized management and standardized development of the industry
● Experts suggest that the chauffeur-driven industry relies on market competition to solve its own non-standard problems; it is also possible to formulate industry standards such as access and services through the self-discipline of the chauffeur-driven industry to improve the service quality of the industry; Or local conduct legislative research, accumulate experience, formulate legal norms in line with the actual driving industry, ensure the healthy and sustainable development of the driving industry, and meet people's travel safety needs
□ Our reporter Chen Lei
"A sentence I often hear now is, 'Drinking? It's called a chauffeur'. But more than ten years ago, everyone said 'Drinking, driving slowly'." Engaged in a certain platform Master Cheng, who has served as a driver for more than 6 years, described the social changes in his eyes.
In his view, as my country increases the punishment for drunk driving behavior, people are familiar with "don't drive while drinking, don't drink while driving", and it has become a habit for many people to call on behalf of the driver.
According to the industry data report released by e-drivers, from December 1, 2011 to April 20, 2021, the cumulative demand for chauffeurs in my country exceeded 1.6 billion, and the number of chauffeurs exceeded 150 million.
A reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" recently interviewed and found that while the chauffeured industry has made great progress, there are also problems such as irregular services, such as increasing the price of the chauffeur's seat, the chauffeur bypassing the platform to directly accept orders, etc. The case of theft of the owner's property on a single trip.
Experts interviewed believe that the chauffeur-driven industry has emerged with market demand to meet people's needs for driving services. However, as the chauffeur-driven industry is still in the initial stage of development, problems such as irregular services are inevitable and need to be viewed objectively.
It is recommended that the chauffeured chauffeur industry rely on market competition to solve its own non-standard problems; it is also possible to formulate industry standards such as access and services through the chauffeured chauffeur industry self-discipline to improve the service quality of the industry; on the basis of industry self-discipline, relevant departments or local Conduct legislative research, accumulate experience, formulate legal norms in line with the actual driving industry, ensure the healthy and sustainable development of the driving industry, and meet people's travel safety needs.
demand-driven market
integrate into people's life
Recently, near Times Garden Middle Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing, the reporter saw Mr. Cheng, a chauffeur in Beijing. He was wearing glasses and a set of chauffeur overalls.
The 35-year-old master Cheng has lived in Beijing for many years. Because of an accidental opportunity, he "stepped into" the chauffeur-driven industry in July 2015.
At that time, Master Cheng was running a fire therapy shop, and there were often chauffeurs who came to the store for consumption. During the chat with them, Master Cheng found that this industry not only has free time, but also makes money.
He thought about earning more money to support his family in his spare time.
After being introduced by a friend, he part-time became the first batch of chauffeurs on a chauffeured platform.
After paying fees, receiving training, and passing the driving test, Master Cheng, who has more than 5 years of driving experience, began to accept orders through the platform.
He clearly remembered that the first order of business was from the Century Jinyuan Shopping Center in Haidian District, Beijing to Shiyuan Road, and the customer's car was a Passat.
After the guests are safely transported to their destination, the tour ends.
"The first order, I earned 119 yuan, which was a lot at the time, and I was very happy." Master Cheng said.
In the following days, as long as Master Cheng is free at night, he will take orders online and earn five or six thousand yuan a month.
Later, the business of the fire therapy shop was getting worse and worse and the rent was rising. He decided to close the store and work full-time as a driver. The monthly income immediately rose to more than 10,000 yuan, and it didn't cost much.
After working as a chauffeur for a long time, in addition to earning money, the gratitude he received for delivering the guests safely to his home also gave him a sense of accomplishment.
One winter night in 2018, Master Cheng received an order for a chauffeur service in the suburbs of Huairou near Baiziwan on the East Fourth Ring Road.
When the weather was cold, he rode an electric car to the appointed place, which was the door of a KTV, and the guest was a man in his forties and fifties.
Master Cheng vaguely remembered the conversation between the two.
As soon as the guest met, he asked, "Huairou, are you going?" He replied, "I'm here, go." Once the order is received, I will definitely send it back to you." The guest asked again, "Then why did you come back?" He said, "We have a way to come back."
Master Cheng told reporters that he actually didn’t want to go at that time. It was very cold at night, and it was a long way to ride an electric car on a road of 60 to 70 kilometers. However, considering the mood of the guests returning home, he gritted his teeth and decided to send the guests.
After arriving at the destination, the guest's mother was waiting at the door of the house, took out a bottle of hot drink and put it in his hand, telling him to stay at her house for one night if he couldn't go back to the city.
Master Cheng was very moved but insisted on leaving. The old lady said to give him a bowl of hot noodles to warm him up before leaving.
He wanted to go home early, but declined.
On the way back, the lights were dark. He rode an electric car alone according to the navigation. It was cold and frightening. Fortunately, on the way, he met other drivers and took a taxi back to the city, and then rode the electric car home. It was almost time to get home. Its daybreak.
Looking back on the experience of more than 6 years in the business, Master Cheng can't remember how many guests who were drinking or even drunk were sent home safely.
Master Chen, who is in his 40s this year, has been engaged in full-time chauffeur service in Beijing since 2017. He once called the police to ensure his safety when sending a drunk guest.
It was an early morning in the summer of 2019. Master Chen took an order from Sanlitun to a female guest who ended up in the Asian Games Village.
When he arrived at the navigation address, he found that it was a storefront, not a residence.
Master Chen got out of the car and shouted through the window for many times without waking her up, "You can't push or pat the female guest, and you can't leave her behind." Considering the safety of the guest, he had no choice but to contact the platform. The platform instructed the police to ask for help, and the police contacted the family members of the guests. He did not leave until the family members arrived at the scene.
A number of chauffeurs interviewed by reporters said that since they are engaged in chauffeuring, it is their duty to deliver guests safely to their homes, and it is also an undoubted professional ethics.
Behind the chauffeurs such as Master Cheng and Master Chen, there is a large-scale chauffeured industry in my country.
According to the industry data report released by e-driver, the Criminal Law Amendment (VIII), which was implemented from May 1, 2011, included drunk driving as the crime of dangerous driving, and investigated the criminal responsibility of the driver. From December 1, 2011 to 2021 On April 20, 2019, the cumulative demand for chauffeured drivers nationwide exceeded 1.6 billion, and the number of chauffeured users exceeded 150 million.
Zheng Xiang, a professor at the Law School of Beijing Jiaotong University, believes that chauffeur-driven is the act of a professional driver driving the owner's car to a designated place and charging a certain fee when the owner cannot drive to the destination by himself.
Judging from the time and development scale of chauffeured driving, chauffeured driving has developed into an industry and industry.
In Zheng Xiang's view, chauffeured driving is essentially a driving service. With the intervention of capital, the early personalized chauffeured service has gradually transitioned to relying on the chauffeured platform to provide services to realize the process and standardization of driving services.
Hu Muzhi, a member of the Traffic Management and Transportation Law Professional Committee of the Beijing Lawyers Association and a partner of Beijing Zhengda Law Firm, believes that the driving industry has developed rapidly along with drunk driving.
In Hu Muzhi's view, on the one hand, chauffeurs have adapted to market development, expanded labor employment, and become the main source of income for many families. They also meet people's diverse travel needs and become an indispensable part of people's daily lives. On the one hand, the chauffeur-driven industry has obtained a large amount of funds and resources, and the use of information and Internet platforms has enabled chauffeur-driven enterprises to gradually mature in terms of business scale, management level, personnel quality, service capabilities, and safety assurance.
in the early stages of development
irregularities
In the past two or three years, Tao Lin (pseudonym), who is in his 40s, has called for a chauffeur at least once a week.
As an executive of a technology company in Beijing, drinking and socializing has become part of his job.
That time on March 11, he finished socializing at a restaurant near the North Fifth Ring Road in Beijing, and it was already 11 o'clock in the evening.
After drinking half a catty of liquor, he walked out of the restaurant, took out his mobile phone on the side of the road, and placed an order on a certain platform for a driver, which showed that he would have to wait 20 minutes.
After a while, the driver came over on an electric car, and after confirming with him, folded the electric car into the trunk.
After Tao Lin was seated in the back row of the car, he opened the car door and sat in the driver's seat, then drove off.
Tao Lin recalled: "I went to sleep after drinking and got off the bus to go home."
Just past the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger, Li Lei (pseudonym), who works in a public institution in Beijing, called for a chauffeur three times, all three times because of drinking at a class reunion.
The reason why he insisted on placing orders on a certain driving platform is because the driving is convenient and the service is standardized, "the platform itself has a supervisory role".
According to Tao Lin’s observation, the platforms he often use have strict requirements on chauffeurs, such as driving experience of more than 5 years, as well as pre-job training. When chauffeurs provide services, they take the initiative to say hello, and they also respond quickly when there are problems and complaints.
But Taolin also encountered two irregular chauffeur services.
One night in the summer of 2021, he ate at a restaurant near Chaoyang Park in Beijing. After the dinner, he walked out of the restaurant to place an order for a driver on a certain platform. Several drivers who were waiting at the door of the hotel gathered around to ask if he was okay. Need to drive, and said that you can go directly without waiting.
Without thinking much, he negotiated a price with one of the chauffeurs, and the chauffeur drove him home.
"I usually go home from there about 70 or 80 yuan, and I spent more than 100 yuan that day. Fortunately, I got home safely. If something goes wrong, I really can't find anyone." Tao Lin said, another time, his name was Dai After driving home, the other party asked him to pay an extra 50 yuan when he got out of the car. He was stunned and refused the other party's request. After all, his home was not in a remote location.
Chen Xiaodan (pseudonym), who lives in Jizhou District, Tianjin, calls for a chauffeur two or three times a month on average. He places orders on a certain platform most of the time, and has encountered several irregularities.
For example, once, he ordered a chauffeur on a certain platform, but the chauffeur who came was wearing the work vest of another platform. He thought that it was a chauffeur anyway, and he didn't get into it.
Chen Xiaodan told reporters that many problems he encountered were that many chauffeurs were waiting at the door of restaurants and KTVs and did not take orders through the platform. If such chauffeurs provided services, once there was a problem, it was impossible to find someone who could take responsibility. main body.
In addition, according to public reports, the problems existing in the chauffeur-driven industry also include: some chauffeurs steal the owner’s property on the way to accepting orders; some chauffeurs leave halfway; some drivers even look for chauffeurs after drinking, but the other party turns out to be yes, drink and drive...
Recently, the People's Court of Yuanzhou District, Yichun City, Jiangxi Province held a trial for a theft case, and sentenced the defendant Xu to 11 months in prison, suspended for one year and six months, and fined 5,000 yuan.
It turned out that Xu was a chauffeur who took an order to send a car owner to the destination on August 18, 2021. It turned out that there was a silver-white watch in the car, so he "sends" the watch.
Two days later, the owner of the car found that the watch was missing and contacted Xu to ask him whether he had taken the watch in the car. Xu denied it.
The driver called the police the next day.
After identification, the stolen watch was worth 21,680 yuan.
Hu Muzhi believes that despite years of development, the chauffeur-driven industry is still in the initial stage of development, and there are no special laws and regulations to regulate it. Therefore, it is normal for the chauffeur service to have irregularities; car owners encounter such problems, You can protect your legitimate rights and interests by reporting to the police, complaining to the platform, etc.
In Hu Muzhi's view, car owners should have a sense of risk when looking for a chauffeur, seek a formal chauffeur platform, try to avoid finding a private chauffeur, and at the same time sign a relevant agreement with the chauffeur to set up a safer guarantee for themselves.
Zheng Xiang believes that any service will have the problem of low service quality caused by the personal reasons of the service personnel. Therefore, the entire chauffeured industry cannot be denied because of the irregular service of individual chauffeurs.
Wang Yunhui, an associate researcher at the Henan Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that at present, the chauffeured driving industry is growing, but there are still some problems, especially in the aspect of market supervision. The self-discipline organization of the driving industry is not conducive to the institutionalized management and standardized development of the driving industry.
Clarify the regulatory authority
Explore regulatory legislation
Since the rise of chauffeured driving, the exploration of industry norms has begun.
In December 2011, Chengdu, Sichuan Province established a chauffeur service industry association to improve the service quality of the industry and establish a unified service process.
In April 2014, the Shanghai Road Transport Industry Association Driving Service Professional Committee was established to implement the guidance for the chauffeured driving industry. By formulating industry rules and behavior standards, it focused on the basic work of practitioner qualification management and safety and quality.
In April 2021, the group standard "Requirements for the Safety Management of Vehicle Entrusted Driving Services" began to be implemented, which was jointly issued by the China Automobile Dealers Association and the China Road Traffic Safety Association.
According to reports, this standard will serve as a guideline to guide the industry's service safety work, standardize the safety management and control behavior of automobile service enterprises, and provide a basis for the handling of safety accidents in the process of automobile chauffeur service.
In Zheng Xiang's view, as a self-discipline standard for the chauffeur-driven industry, the content of the "Safety Management Requirements for Automobile Entrusted Driving Services" is already very comprehensive, which regulates that chauffeur agencies should establish a leadership and management organization for safe operation, and configure basic resources such as safety equipment and facilities. The guarantee, the education and training of the surrogate driver, and the operation process should meet the requirements of safe operation conditions.
"The next step is to conduct legislative research to understand the situation and effect of the implementation of group standards, and also to raise the specific measures that are relatively effective for major chauffeured platforms to the level of national regulations, and to carry out local regulations like the regulation of online car-hailing. Legislation, accumulate experience through local legislation, and then formulate legislation at the national level.” Zheng Xiang believes that, in addition, from the perspective of clarifying the industry competent authority, chauffeuring belongs to the transportation industry and should be supervised by the transportation management department.
Zheng Xiang proposed that to ensure the quality of chauffeur service, on the one hand, it is necessary to raise the entry threshold of chauffeur service personnel, train qualified chauffeurs, and improve the overall quality of chauffeurs.
For example, take measures to strengthen technical assessment, professional ethics assessment and related vocational education; on the other hand, it is necessary to standardize the behavior of service personnel and form supervision and management norms, such as through consumer supervision, platform self-discipline and government supervision, clarify the legal responsibilities of both service parties and the platform .
Wang Yunhui believes that in order to promote the continuous standardization and improvement of the chauffeured chauffeur industry, it is necessary to clarify the industry competent authority for the chauffeured chauffeur industry and regulate the chauffeured chauffeur industry at the level of policies and regulations.
First of all, it is necessary to clarify the competent department of chauffeured driving at the national level, which is responsible for overall management and policy formulation; secondly, it is necessary to establish a national unified chauffeured chauffeur industry association, and improve the service quality of the industry by strengthening industry self-discipline and improving the internal management of the industry.
In a word, it is necessary to let the main body of chauffeurs, regulators and consumers have laws to abide by, and to promote the healthy and orderly development of the chauffeur-driven industry.
In Hu Muzhi's view, formulating policies and legal norms is time-consuming and complicated, which makes the law lag.
Therefore, according to the new characteristics and new requirements of economic and social development, the national legislature can formulate basic legal principles, and the detailed rules and mechanisms for implementing feedback can be formulated and implemented by industry associations, so as to maintain the standardized and orderly operation of the chauffeur-driven market. .
"From the perspective of maintaining market order and safeguarding consumers' rights and interests, the market supervision department has the responsibility to supervise the driving industry. At the same time, self-regulation of the industry is also very important. For example, driving services are generally provided through online platforms. These online platforms should Under the guidance of traffic management, market management and other departments, perform the duties of front-line managers, supervise and restrain chauffeurs, such as strictly review the qualifications of chauffeurs, advocate standardized services in the chauffeur industry, and enable the chauffeur industry It tends to be standardized," said Yao Haifang, an associate professor at the Law School of Renmin University of China.