The implementation of the new car-hailing policy has reached its first anniversary, and it is urgent to improve and correct it
The other party said that the place was spacious and they could sleep, but the result was a large truck. The weather was excellent and the road conditions were excellent.
On July 28, 2016, the Ministry of Transport, MIIT and other 7 ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Interim Measures for the Management of Online Booking Taxi Business Services", which came into effect on November 1, 2016. Our country immediately became the first country in the world to recognize the legitimacy of online car-hailing. Now the implementation of this new policy on online car-hailing has reached the "first year". However, compared with the beginning of the break, the praise is not strong now, and various online car-hailing problems are emerging in an endless stream.
Experts pointed out that the New Deal has clarified the legal status of online car-hailing, enabling online car-hailing to enter the stage of standardized development from brutal growth. However, new problems have arisen in the process of policy implementation, and new mechanisms need to be established for law enforcement supervision by relevant departments. The provisional implementation rules in various places still need to be continuously revised and improved.
Taxi-hailing difficulties still exist
In May 2010, Yidao Yongche was established, which opened the curtain on the online car-hailing industry. Since then, platforms such as Didi Dache, Kuaidi, and Uber have entered the market one after another. The strategy of "burning money and subsidies" to occupy the market has caused the online car-hailing market to grow wildly. In 2016, the introduction of the new policy on online car-hailing proposed for the first time to include Internet special cars in the management of reserved taxi cars, and specific requirements were given in various aspects such as platform online car-hailing license plates, driver qualification identification, and vehicle access.
According to data released by the Ministry of Transport on July 28 this year, after the implementation of the new policy on online car-hailing, 24 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) had issued implementation opinions, 133 cities had announced implementation details, and 86 cities had publicly solicited opinions.
Li Qiang is a driver of a company in Shijiazhuang City, and has a lot of free time due to the nature of his work. In 2015, seeing the prosperity of the online car-hailing market, he bought a BYD sedan, settled in two online car-hailing platforms, and became an online car-hailing driver. "At that time, he specially bought a small-displacement domestic car, which could earn more money at a low cost, but now it is restricted." Li Qiang told the Legal Daily reporter that his car has a wheelbase of 2,600mm and an exhaust capacity of 1.5 liters, which does not meet the requirements of Shijiazhuang City for online car-hailing.
On July 21 this year, the "Interim Measures for the Administration of Online Booking Taxi Business Services in Shijiazhuang City" came into effect, stipulating that vehicles applying for online car-hailing business should be passenger cars with a number plate and registered in the city with more than 5 seats (including 5 seats) and less than 7 seats (including 7 seats), with a wheelbase of not less than 2675 mm and a displacement of not less than 1.8L or 1.4T. The driver engaged in online car-hailing services has a household registration at the place of service or a residence permit at the place of service.
In comparison, the regulations of Shijiazhuang City are not strict. In Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other places, in addition to the various standards stipulated by the state, the new policy of online car-hailing also requires the driver’s household registration, license plate, model, etc., and the vehicle wheelbase and displacement requirements are higher. For example, the Beijing New Policy requires that after a private car becomes an online car-hailing, it must be changed to an operating vehicle, the driver is a Beijing household registration, the vehicle is a Beijing license plate, the displacement of a 5-seat sedan is not less than 1.8 liters, and the vehicle wheelbase is not less than 2650 mm.
These requirements will undoubtedly many platforms net about the car driver out of the door. Some media reports, Beijing net about the car exposure draft released, a car rental company in the city has 1/3 of the driver returned the car, and even some of the vehicles have not yet expired on the lease.
Now, Li Qiang has quit the online car-hailing industry. "Although Shijiazhuang’s official new policy has been much looser than the previous exposure draft, my car still does not meet the requirements, and I have to stop when I get checked later. I have to take exams and apply for various things. Now I don’t earn as much as before, so I simply don’t do it." Li Qiang said.
Like Li Qiang, with the end of the transition period for the implementation of the New Deal across the country, more and more online car-hailing drivers and vehicles have withdrawn due to non-compliance with standards, causing the phenomenon of difficult and expensive taxis to take again in many cities across the country.
According to a survey by Didi Chuxing, the difficulty of hailing a taxi in June 2017 increased by 12.4% in Beijing, 17.7% in Shanghai, 13.2% in Guangzhou, and 22.5% in Shenzhen compared with June 2016. Among the cities with reduced difficulty, Chengdu decreased by 1.8% and Sanya decreased by 1.0%.
Liu Ting, who often travels between Beijing and Shijiazhuang, told reporters that even during off-peak hours and non-bad weather, taking a taxi outside Beijing’s CBD is likely to require queuing in the app to order a car, and Shijiazhuang is not too good. In the past, when you opened the software map, there were no more cars. "The queuing function was only launched by Didi this year. The appearance of this function is actually to admit that you have to wait longer during peak hours. This function is to retain users and let you not give up." Liu Ting said.
Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, believes that the difficulty of taking a taxi is due to the small number of taxis, and the difficulty of taking a taxi is due to the high price. After the formalization of online taxi-hailing, the difficulty of taking a taxi is increasing. In the final analysis, the entry threshold for platforms, cars, and people is still too high.
In response to the problem that it is difficult and expensive to take a taxi after the new policy of online car-hailing, Wu Chungeng, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Transport, said that for the difficulty of taking a taxi, the new business format of Internet + online car-hailing is standardized and continuously cultivated. Ultimately, a diverse, differentiated and quality taxi travel service system will be formed, and the market will be gradually improved to alleviate the demand for mass travel. At the same time, it is called for all localities to increase the implementation of the public transportation priority strategy.
"Grey Area" after New Deal
Feng Haoze (a pseudonym) is an online car-hailing driver in Shijiazhuang City. He drives a southeastern DX3 SUV with a wheelbase of 2610mm and a displacement of 1.5 liters. "I definitely don’t meet the conditions, but I don’t meet the conditions. There are only a few cars that can meet the conditions." Although Shijiazhuang’s new car-hailing policy has set a three-month transition period. The transition period has expired on October 20 this year, and the new policy has been officially implemented, Feng Haoze said he is not worried: "I have already communicated with the platform. The platform said that it is fine and will never check. They are afraid that I will not run away, so they keep giving me relief."
When it comes to the relevant qualifications for running online car-hailing, Feng Haoze said that he has obtained the "Online Booking Taxi Driver’s License", but no matter how specific it is, he can’t explain it. "I have done everything else, and the rest should be applied by the platform. Anyway, it will not delay the sports car." Feng Haoze believes that for online car-hailing, the relevant departments will definitely not seriously investigate, "If you can’t see it outside the online car-hailing, how can you check it? Can you still find this car all over the street? Besides, as long as you check it, you will get stuck in traffic. If you really want to investigate them, you will be suspected of’fishing and law enforcement ‘, and you will be scolded to death." Feng Haoze said.
In fact, although the new policies for online car-hailing in various places have passed the transition period and begun to be officially implemented, there are still illegal vehicles and drivers, and many platforms, drivers, and online car-hailing vehicles are walking in "gray areas" and continue to hide from regulators.
In July this year, the media released the relevant data, our country has more than 300 prefecture-level cities, has announced the details of the reform, has been or is seeking opinions add up to only more than 210; Didi, Shenzhou two major platforms to obtain business licenses in the city were only 22, 33, the national network about the driver license only about 100,000 drivers, the national network has obtained legal identity about the car driver, less than a drop of a platform peak driver total 0.6%.
Some experts said that the relatively large online car-hailing market, the small number of online car-hailing drivers who have obtained legal status, not only shows that the high threshold of the new online car-hailing policy has "scared away" a group of drivers, but also shows that there are some problems with the relevant approval. Among them, the most criticized is that some urban online car-hailing drivers have too difficult test propositions.
Which dynasty did Huang Zongxi belong to? Which country is the mascot of the bat? Since the beginning of this year, some media have continuously reported some "strange" test questions in the local online car-hailing driver exam. According to reports, the Shenzhen online car-hailing driver test question bank has a total of 148 pages and more than 3,600 questions, ranging from traffic laws and regulations to human geography, place names and routes, vehicle safety, to English, Cantonese, Mandarin, and etiquette. The online car-hailing drivers who participated in the exam complained that "if you want to drive an online car, you must know astronomy and geography from above." The passing rate of the first online car-hailing driver exam in Shenzhen was only 7%.
Wu Chungeng said in July this year that in response to this situation, the Ministry of Transport formulated relevant training materials in a timely manner and actively guided local governments to take targeted measures to create a good test preparation environment for localities and candidates. At present, the exams across the country have entered the normal track, and the test pass rate has reached 65%. Later, on September 8, the Ministry of Transport issued the "Notice on Reforming the Work Related to the Taxi Driver Qualification Examination" to simplify the test content.
In some cities, relevant platforms have begun to gradually change the rules for dispatching orders in accordance with the local new policies, but for restrictions such as household registration and models, although some urban transportation departments have begun to investigate and punish off-site license plates or non-local household registration online car-hailing in crowded areas such as airports and railway stations, but in more places, especially in small and medium-sized cities, relevant departments have not kept up with supervision and law enforcement, making a large number of online car-hailing safe to walk in "gray areas".
The New Deal urgently needs to be improved and revised
"Our government is very open, and the Chinese government is the first in the world to legalize online car-hailing, which is a very big step," Liu Qing, president of Didi Chuxing, said at a forum in Dalian’s Summer Davos in June 2017. At the same time, he admitted: "But at the same time, when online car-hailing is launched, there will definitely be a gap between left and right in the implementation of various places."
In terms of operating online car-hailing without a license, the Interim Measures of the Ministry of Communications and other seven ministries and commissions and many other cities only stipulate fines for online car-hailing platforms, without more severe penalties. Shijiazhuang, on the other hand, stipulates that if the platform company fails the assessment, it will be ordered to rectify within a time limit. During the rectification period, it can suspend the acceptance of its new vehicle and driver registration and other businesses; if it refuses to rectify or rectify and fails to meet the standards, it will be cancelled according to law and the right to operate will be withdrawn. "Reclaim the right to operate" means revoking the platform’s business license, which can be described as "one kill" for the online car-hailing platform.
Either the relevant regulations are more relaxed and reasonable, or more stringent law enforcement supervision has become a dilemma in the implementation of the new policy for online car-hailing in some cities.
The introduction of the new policy of online car-hailing was originally to make the online car-hailing market have laws to abide by and develop healthily. Its ultimate goal is to provide passengers with safe and high-quality services, provide citizens with more choices for travel, and make the taxi industry more standardized and efficient. However, the management of online car-hailing in some places still cannot get out of the curse of "one tube will die, and one tube will be messy" in the past.
In Zhu Wei’s opinion, in the current online car-hailing market, the platform insists on doing this, and the online car-hailing drivers and passengers also think this is right, so there can only be a deviation between market demand and government regulations. However, for the laws and regulations that have come into effect, participants must strictly abide by them, and the industry will find some way out, and these ways will become "gray areas" between black and white. "The existence of’gray areas’ first damages the credibility of the government, and laws and regulations should be strictly enforced." Zhu Wei said that the relevant new policies should solve problems during the temporary and trial implementation process, so as to go better after a long trial.
Some experts believe that the current restrictions on online car-hailing in some cities in terms of household registration and models are debatable. The restrictions on the household registration of online car-hailing drivers are suspected of restricting the legal labor rights of workers, and the restrictions on displacement are also contrary to green and environmentally friendly travel. "The introduction of some local online car-hailing regulations is not only to ensure travel safety and comfort, but also to give the old industry a space for compromise?" Zhu Wei said that many of the current new policies for online car-hailing deserve deep consideration and revision.
According to relevant data, in the past 13 years, the number of taxis in the four major first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen has increased very limited, while the population size and per capita disposable income have increased significantly. Among them, the number of taxis in Beijing and Shanghai increased by only 9% and 4% respectively in 2013. The population size increased by 53% and 49%, and the per capita GDP increased by 289% and 276% respectively.
This shows that the online car-hailing market is huge and the future development is still limitless. But in fact, since the implementation of the new policy on online car-hailing for one year, based on relevant data, only Shenzhou and Shouqi have continued to grow in the number of users of online car-hailing platforms.
Wu Chungeng said that the Ministry of Transport will further improve and perfect relevant supporting measures and policies, give play to the role of checks and balances in the social credit system, formulate a memorandum of joint punishment for serious illegal and dishonest online car-hailing operators and drivers, establish an industry blacklist system and market exit mechanism, and continuously improve the quality and level of industry services, so that passengers can have a real sense of gain in the reform.