After the vice chairman of the trade union "undercovered" the car-hailing service for half a year...
Our reporters Li Yuze and Chen Xiyuan
"Hello, master."
"Hello, please fasten your seat belt, wear a mask, and scan the location code."
As Geng Xiaoli spoke, he opened the order, started, and hit the road. A set of actions flowed smoothly.
Geng Xiaoli was all too familiar with such a scene.
He looked at the road with bright eyes and looked like a professional online car-hailing driver. Under the mask, "Master Geng" has another identity unknown to passengers - Secretary of the Party Group of Jiangsu Taizhou Federation of Trade Unions, Vice-President.
"Mixed" into the team of online car-hailing drivers
The origin of the story stems from a "send warmth" activity.
In 2021, Taizhou Federation of Trade Unions will carry out a series of "send warmth" activities for "two companies and two members" around the new employment form labor groups, including giving free medical examinations.
"But after a month, few car-hailing drivers went to participate in the physical examination." Geng Xiaoli continued to investigate and found that there are many service "blanks" in the car-hailing group.
"Online car-hailing drivers do not have a self-employment license, no taxi transportation certificate, and no labor contract?" With a lot of doubts, Geng Xiaoli came up with a bold idea: use his spare time to "mix" into the online car-hailing Driver team, understand their real work status and actual needs.
In order to successfully "mix" into the team of online car-hailing drivers, Geng Xiaoli began to take the online car-hailing car to and from get off work every day, and took the opportunity to chat with the online car-hailing driver, which also allowed him to meet the first friend who led him into the industry - "Black" Skin".
Zhang Maodan, the "black skin", has been an online car-hailing driver for 3 years.
After learning that Geng Xiaoli wanted to be a part-time car-hailing driver, "Black Leather" enthusiastically led him to a car rental company.
In this way, Geng Xiaoli spent 400 yuan to download the "Didi Car Owner" app.
After reviewing the materials and passing the exam, he officially became a "Master Geng".
Later, Geng Xiaoli learned that the 300 yuan was a "bonus" for the introducer.
He began to perceive the "deep water" in the car-hailing industry, which also added impetus to his "undercover" operation.
After obtaining the consent of the organization, on December 18, 2021, on a cold and windy morning, "Master Geng" started his journey as an online car-hailing driver.
This "undercover" is not too cold
It was the first time to conduct research in this way, and Geng Xiaoli was a little nervous.
"What if an acquaintance hits my car?" Geng Xiaoli glanced at the rearview mirror worriedly whenever a passenger got in the car.
He wrote over and over again in his mind, trying to explain why he wanted to be an online car-hailing driver with various reasons.
Soon, the feeling of exhaustion replaced the feeling of tension - the work of the car-hailing driver is far more difficult than Geng Xiaoli thought.
I hit the road at 9:30 in the morning, and at 1:00 in the afternoon I remembered that I hadn't had lunch yet.
Parking the car on the side of the road, Geng Xiaoli took out the bread that he brought from home in the morning, sat in the car and started nibbling: "Whether it is lunch or dinner, I usually don't get out of the car to eat, because I'm afraid it will be too late." Bread, poured a few sips of mineral water, and brushed the crumbs off his clothes, Geng Xiaoli started the vehicle again.
"It's really tiring, especially if you drive ten hours a day, you feel like you're going to be paralyzed." Feeling the same way, Geng Xiaoli finally understood why no one came to participate in the trade union's free medical examination.
In addition to personally experiencing the work of car-hailing drivers, Geng Xiaoli also successfully "undercover" 4 WeChat groups of car-hailing drivers in Taizhou, with a total number of nearly 1,000.
"There are a lot of complaints in these 4 groups." Geng Xiaoli saw all of them——
"As soon as I wanted to go to the toilet, I was sent an order, so uncomfortable!"
"It's only a few dozen yuan after receiving the order in the morning, and the money is all earned by the platform..."
"The passenger had to get off the bus on the no-stop section just now, and he would be fined again. This day has been in vain again!"
Geng Xiaoli and some of the online car-hailing drivers added their contact information to learn about their living conditions through online chat and offline "meeting appointments".
One of the drivers, who is called "Single King", left a deep impression on Geng Xiaoli - he ran 47 orders in one day, which is the amount that most drivers run in two days.
"This is all obtained by overdrafting his body." Geng Xiaoli once again lamented the difficulty of the online car-hailing driver group.
Accurately hit "pain points"
After half a year of "undercover" research, Geng Xiaoli has a full understanding of this industry. He found that the difficulties of online car-hailing drivers are far more than physical hardships. Problems such as high platform fees and excessive fines for violations need to be solved urgently.
To this end, in the first half of 2022, Geng Xiaoli wrote the "Experience Research Report on Online Car-hailing Drivers".
Immediately, the Taizhou Federation of Trade Unions introduced a series of service measures to care for groups such as car-hailing drivers.
Now, as long as the disputes and demands of car-hailing drivers in Taizhou are reported to their trade unions, they can be submitted to the local federation of trade unions through the trade union federation, and summarized to the relevant local departments for coordination and handling.
As of June 2022, trade unions at all levels in Taizhou have collected more than 40 complaints from online car-hailing drivers.
Through negotiation with the traffic police department, 12 minor penalties for minor violations caused by emergency medical treatment, road construction and other reasons have been written off.
Not long ago, the Taizhou Federation of Trade Unions invited six online car-hailing drivers to meet and communicate.
As soon as he entered the conference room, he saw that the former "Master Geng" was actually "Chairman Geng", and several driver masters widened their eyes.
"Chairman Geng, hello." When he stepped forward to shake hands with Geng Xiaoli, everyone felt both unfamiliar and familiar, "I didn't expect leading cadres to be the drivers of online car-hailing."
After half a year of getting along, a precious friendship has been formed between them. Geng Xiaoli said with a smile, "I still prefer you to call me 'Master Geng'."
Driven by their friend "Master Geng", these online car-hailing drivers actively joined the labor union.
Geng Xiaoli also called them together from time to time to ask about their status and needs.
"We hope that through this survey, the online car-hailing driver industry will be more standardized and reasonable, and at the same time, the online car-hailing driver group can feel the warmth of society and make them live in this city happier." Geng Xiaoli told reporters.
"Our job is to go into all walks of life and into people's lives. I believe that there will be more 'a certain master' going to the masses." Geng Xiaoli said.
(Cheng Jing participated in the collection and writing)