Beijing online car-hailing market bid farewell to foreign cars, non-Beijing owners: rice bowl gone
Beijing, April 2 (Reporter Ma Chuang) According to the Voice of China "News Vertical and Horizontal" report, after Didi stopped sending orders to non-Beijing brand vehicles in the Third Ring Road last Monday, from yesterday (1st), Didi stopped sending orders to non-Beijing brand vehicles throughout Beijing. Data show that after the implementation of the new policy, Beijing’s standard online car-hailing will drop to 10% of the previous. In the face of Didi’s new policy, how do non-Beijing car owners who do not meet the requirements respond? In the face of concerns about "whether it will return to the difficulty of hailing a taxi", what new measures will Didi take?
On March 20, Didi stopped sending orders to non-Beijing brand vehicles in Beijing’s Third Ring Road. Nine days later, Didi sent a notice to drivers on the client side, announcing that it would stop sending orders to non-Beijing brand vehicles throughout Beijing from April 1.
Didi Chuxing staff said that the successive adjustments to the policy were to implement the relevant regulations in the Beijing online car-hailing rules. "According to the regulations of the Beijing online car-hailing rules, Didi will stop sending orders to the whole Beijing area, including those outside the Sixth Ring Road, before April 1."
Some non-Beijing drivers have started looking for new jobs after the new rules were issued. Didi suggested that non-Beijing drivers go back to the place where the license plate belongs to continue to take orders, or participate in the recycling of used cars, discounted car purchases, and discounted car rental schemes. Some non-Beijing car owners expressed difficulty in this regard. "Sending a message is like an advertisement, which will definitely affect the driver, because my job is gone, I plan not to run, there is no way. There is definitely no business going back to the local area, and I will not recycle the newly bought car."
In December last year, the Beijing Municipal Transportation Commission and other departments jointly issued the "Detailed Rules for the Administration of Online Booking Taxi Business Services in Beijing", requiring that online car-hailing must be "Beijing people drive Beijing cars". At that time, Beijing gave a five-month transition period to facilitate drivers and online car-hailing platforms that meet the standards to submit applications and accept assessments. According to the regulations, engaging in online car-hailing services requires participating in national and local exams. Only after passing can you register for employment, and the valid period for registration of professional qualifications is 3 years.
Although the exam questions were generally not difficult, Master Wei, the driver, said that he was a little unable to take the exam. "If you want to drive, you must first get a license, and you must take the online car-hailing driver’s license and service license. How can we pass the exam? If you ask me to participate, I will not participate."
Didi’s new policy may be difficult for non-Beijing car owners to buy it. Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, said that although the implementation of the new policy may lead to some contradictions at the beginning, in the long run, the Internet sharing economy is still the general trend. "In the future, the market supply and demand may be unbalanced, and the supply will continue to decrease while the demand is still very large, so the price may rise in a short period of time, and it is very likely that you will not be able to get a car. This is the negative impact of the implementation of the new policy. At present, the sharing economy has just emerged. Including the friction between traditional industries and the sharing economy, it may require legal regulation. Conservatively speaking, it may be conducive to social stability."
After Beijing stopped sending orders to non-Beijing-licensed vehicles, how are the current business conditions of online taxi drivers and taxi drivers who meet the standards? Many people are worried that they will face the problem of difficult taxi hailing again in the future. How will Didi respond to this?
According to media reports, previously in Beijing, about half of the online car-hailing vehicles operated by foreign license plates used to account for about half. Now, coupled with the requirements of vehicle wheelbase, license plate and household registration, it is estimated that the online car-hailing cars that meet the requirements may only account for 10% of the current stock. Didi staff said that there will be new ways to deal with it in the future. "Since the reduction of transportation capacity may affect the success rate and waiting time of users in some areas and some times, we apologize for this. At the same time, we have also taken various measures to improve efficiency and hope to meet user requests as much as possible."
In Beijing, many passengers have already felt that it is becoming more and more difficult to order a car. Some industry insiders believe that the impact of Didi’s suspension of foreign-brand cars will be felt soon, and this part of the impact will be mainly on express and special cars. Unlike the worried non-Beijing-brand drivers, many "Beijing-brand" online car-hailing drivers who meet the detailed regulations are full of expectations for the future. "Suddenly there are not so many cars, can you not live much? These days, it is obvious that there is more life, but the delivery distance is far. It is time for Didi to start promoting and rewarding drivers, which is the key."
Some Beijing taxi drivers believe that the new method of dispatching orders will ease traffic congestion to some extent. "Big cities are already very congested, and traffic in Beijing will be much better after the new policy. It is long overdue to stop them. At that time, the review will be very strict, and it will definitely be safe. Taxi companies are also in the background, and they are all safe to a certain extent. It is difficult to say whether private cars are safe or not."
With the implementation of the new policy, only 10% of the stock of online car-hailing that meets the standards is left, which may not pose a threat to the traditional taxi market for the time being, and taxi companies do not have to exclaim "the wolf is coming" as before. As for the future development of online car-hailing, Zhu Wei said that the only thing left is to carry out refined operations in the public sector, and ways such as ride-hailing, data economy, and cooperative entrepreneurship may inject new blood into the online car-hailing industry. The development speed may not be as fast as in the past, but deep cultivation under the legal framework is the only way to consolidate the foundation of the enterprise.
Zhu Wei analyzed that the first way to develop more is to add more hitchhikers, because the current proportion of hitchhikers may be relatively small, and their own vehicles, fixed routes, and usually can bring a few more people. This kind of behavior may exist in large numbers in the future, and it is also worth encouraging. The second is the data economy. Under the current model of the sharing economy, including vehicle information and vehicle route information, it must be counted in the big data platform of smart travel and smart cities. In the future, Didi will integrate and communicate data with the government and taxi companies in this regard, and there will be many good directions for the entire Beijing travel in the future. Third, Didi will have some travel, including a business plan to cooperate with drivers. At present, Didi, including the implementation measures for the implementation of the new policy in the future, must take the current law as the bottom line. If there are new situations and new problems when "Internet +" develops in the future, the country may further refine it, and there may be changes in legislation and law enforcement.