Since September this year, a number of cities, including Quanzhou in Fujian and Lanzhou in Gansu, have been revealed to have relaxed their online car-hailing policies.
Recently, Hangzhou, Zhejiang also launched a legislative hearing on the "Hangzhou Passenger Taxi Management Regulations (Revised Draft) ", planning to include online car-hailing in the management of passenger taxis, and adjust the vehicle standards and driver access standards for online car-hailing.
Cheng Huiqiang, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council, said in an interview with the surging news reporter that online car-hailing itself is one of the paths to deepen the reform of the taxi industry, and the policy adjustment according to local conditions reflects the government’s open and scientific attitude towards emerging business models. Because there is still a time difference between the implementation of online car-hailing policies in various places, the exploration of leading cities can provide reference for subsequent cities to formulate local online car-hailing rules.
In July 2016, the "Interim Measures for the Management of Online Booking Taxi Business Services" was issued, which came into effect on November 1 of the same year. China took the lead in recognizing the legality of online car-hailing. Subsequently, detailed rules for the management of online car-hailing were issued in many places, many of which required drivers’ household registration and operating vehicle standards.
Detailed rules for the management of online car-hailing in some cities
Since September this year, Quanzhou and Lanzhou have been exposed to loosen the local version of the online car-hailing management rules. Hangzhou recently also held hearings on relevant policies.
From the above-mentioned rule changes in the three cities, they mainly include the following:
1.Lower the entry criteria for vehicle prices.
Compared with the previous implementation details, Quanzhou, Lanzhou, and Hangzhou have all previously established minimum price standards for online car-hailing.
Quanzhou originally required that the price of online car-hailing should not be less than 150,000 yuan, which needs to be more than 50% higher than that of mainstream taxis. Now it is adjusted to that the price of the vehicle should not be less than 1.2 times the price of the taxi. Lanzhou City will adjust the "online car-hailing price to be more than 140,000" to 1.5 times that of mainstream taxis.
According to media estimates from the two places, thanks to this, the entry threshold for online car-hailing prices in the two places has dropped by more than 30% to 50%.
2. Lower vehicle configuration standards.
Previously, Quanzhou detailed rules required that online car-hailing must be equipped with positioning devices and emergency alarm devices with driving record functions, and must use the "Beidou" satellite positioning system. The new rules cancel the designated system and only require the same technical conditions.
Lanzhou is in the new regulations.Deleted the relevant standards of "vehicle wheelbase 2700mm", "new energy vehicle wheelbase 2650mm or more", and "providing Internet wireless access, mobile phone chargers, paper towels, umbrellas, etc. for passengers to use".
Hangzhou’s draft amendment simply cancels all the original vehicle wheelbases and pricing standards, and treats online car-hailing and taxis "equally."
3. Lower the driver’s entry threshold.
In the new regulations (draft) of Lanzhou and Hangzhou, both will obtain the city’s household registration or the city’s residence certificate as the entry threshold for online car-hailing drivers.The previous one-year time limit for obtaining a residence permit in this city has been removed.
4. Reduce the difficulty of the exam.
On September 8, the Ministry of Transport issued the "Notice on the Reform of the Taxi Driver Qualification Examination", which reduced the number of question bank questions from 1200 to 500, and the ratio of the number of question bank questions to the number of test paper questions did not exceed 10:1.
5. Reduce administrative duplication of approval.
Originally, if an online car-hailing platform wanted to settle in Quanzhou City, it had to submit an application to the Fujian transportation authority, which would review the platform’s online service capabilities. Now it is adjusted to be reviewed and identified by the platform company’s registration place to reduce duplicate certification.
6. Reduce administrative intervention in the market.
The original rules of Quanzhou City require that online car-hailing drivers cannot "marry one woman and two" and cannot connect to two or more online car-hailing platforms at the same time. The new regulations cancel this regulation and adjust it to the driver signing an agreement with the platform provider and acting in accordance with the agreement.
It is worth noting that Hangzhou has also tried to incorporate online car-hailing into the management system of passenger taxis. To this end, Hangzhou has tried its best to conform to the existing taxi standards in terms of online car-hailing model access, and has proposed that the Hangzhou cruise taxi and online car-hailing exams will be implemented "two tests in one" and "two certificates in one". Drivers who pass the exam can not only drive online cars, but also drive taxis to achieve interactive flow.
The gray operating state persists
Regarding the adjustment of the new regulations on online car-hailing in many places, Surging News asked several online car-hailing platforms for their views, and the general response was: It is inconvenient to say more now.
According to data from the Ministry of Transport, as of the end of July this year, 133 of the 338 cities above the prefecture level across the country have issued detailed implementation rules for online car-hailing, and 86 are publicly soliciting opinions.
Some cities have been unable to issue detailed rules for the management of online car-hailing, and the slow progress of some online car-hailing platforms has led to the fact that online car-hailing drivers in many places are also in a state of gray operation.
In August this year, Guizhou Metropolis Daily said that Anshun City has been unable to introduce new regulations on online car-hailing. In the face of the city-wide illegal operation of special projects, more than 4,000 online car-hailing cars in the city have become "illegal vehicles".
At the same time, the number of cities where online ride-hailing platform companies have been allowed to land is not large.
In July this year, according to the People’s Daily, there are more than 130 online car-hailing platform companies in the current market. As of now, 19 online car-hailing platform companies, including Didi Chuxing, Shenzhou Special Car, Shouqi Car, and Cao Cao Special Car, have obtained business licenses. Didi Chuxing, Shenzhou Special Car, Shouqi Car, Yidao, and Cao Cao Special Car have obtained business licenses in 22, 33, 29, 8, and 13 cities respectively.