Text: Lee H.Y. Yin.
Edit |Shi Zhiliang.
From the embargo on online car-hailing to the lifting of the ban, in five days, a storm in a teacup was set off around Pudong Airport.
Whether it's passengers, ride-hailing or taxi drivers, when interviewed, they generally believe that the necessary regulation should exist to regulate the market, make it easier for passengers to get in the car, and avoid the recurrence of unprotected black cars.
When it comes to the embargo, haste and doubt are the key words in their eyes.
"Suddenly" embargoed?
On January 29, the Shanghai Municipal Road Transport Administration issued the "Notice on Prohibiting the Operation of Online Car-hailing at Pudong Airport" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), which mentioned that in order to ensure the smooth and orderly landside traffic of Pudong Airport, especially during the Spring Festival travel period, online car-hailing is strictly prohibited from soliciting passengers in the Pudong Airport area.
At that time, a person close to the relevant management ministries and commissions expressed their incomprehension to Caijing Auto (ID: caijingqiche): the airport's embargo on online car-hailing may be to improve the quality of management services and enhance the image of urban services; However, the Spring Festival is a time when transportation capacity is tight, and people have long been accustomed to online car-hailing and calling a car, and they have a hunch that it will cause inconvenience. "I hope that the relevant departments will make a package of management preparations, otherwise the cost of policy implementation will be very high. ”
At first, it was not strictly enforced, and it felt like a little bit of an increase. Mr. Zhang, who was on a business trip on January 30 and returned to Shanghai on February 2, told Caijing Auto (ID: caijingqiche) that when waiting for a flight at the airport on the day of the business trip, there are still multiple ride-hailing platforms that can choose to pick up the car at the designated location in the parking garage of Pudong Airport. At that time, he also asked the airport security, and the other party said with a stunned face that he had not heard that he could not call an online car-hailing, but he also reminded him that he must take a legal and compliant car to avoid being decei......ved
Another Mr. Su, who traveled with his family, could only stand in line outdoors and wait for a taxi because he was worried that he would not be able to take an online car-hailing, and finally he chose to drive to Pudong Airport by car and parked his car in the parking lot, "It is always raining in Shanghai these days, and it is very cold at night, and when the evening flight comes back, the child must be sleeping in a daze, and the cold wind blowing outdoors will be troublesome ......as soon as he catches a cold."”
On the evening of Feb. 4, taxis were almost hop-on.
Photo by Lee Hyun Yin.
When Mr. Su parked his car in the parking lot, he didn't feel that there were more cars in the garage, and he wondered if it was because there were more private cars coming in, and there were fewer online car-hailing cars.
When Mr. Zhang returned to Shanghai and wanted to call a taxi again, he found that the online car-hailing platform had drawn a frame, and the entire airport and the surrounding area were in the enchantment, and he could not call a taxi. The software shows that "in order to implement the relevant regulations of the city and maintain the traffic order around Pudong Airport during the Spring Festival, from now on, online car-hailing at Shanghai Pudong International Airport will not be supported".
On the way to the taxi pick-up point, someone accosted him from time to time, whether to take a taxi or not, get in the car and leave, ** cheaper than taxis, more expensive than usual online car-hailing. He finally chose to take a taxi, and when he arrived at the pick-up point, he queued for 5 minutes before getting into a taxi. After all, taxis and online car-hailing can issue invoices, while black cars have no invoices and are not guaranteed.
Behind the abundance of taxis**, there is a continuous influx of taxis for "support". Taxi driver Master Wang is very young, came to Shanghai for more than a year, currently in a state-owned background taxi company sports car, he is very impressed, the night of the policy proposed, the team reminded all drivers - try to support Pudong Airport, can not let passengers wait.
At that time, he was a little confused, how long this policy could last, and what would happen after the Spring Festival? Of course, his mind was thinking, and he and many taxi drivers rushed to Pudong Airport.
As the constraints of online ride-hailing platforms become stronger and stronger, Master Wang has clearly felt the change - in the past, after sending passengers to Pudong Airport, they needed to enter a special waiting garage and wait for follow-up orders, which usually took hours to receive an order. Nowadays, Pudong Airport only needs to wait for three or four hours to queue up to take orders, business has improved a lot, and the taxi driver is very motivated.
Why Pudong Airport?
Pudong Airport has three terminals, which handle a large number of passengers throughout the year. Compared with the large number of shopping malls, corporate headquarters, and large residential areas near Hongqiao Airport, Pudong Airport is indeed far away from the city.
Pudong Airport used to be our favorite order, running a long distance, worth a dozen small orders. Master Liu, an online car-hailing car, said to Caijing Auto (ID: caijingqiche) that not everyone can get orders for running to the airport, and they need their own service scores to be high enough to give priority to orders.
Online car-hailing likes Pudong Airport very much, and often after sending guests to the airport, they will choose to park in the basement and listen to the broadcast to choose the order; Sometimes, the "drop by order" for the specified region will be set in the background of the platform.
At 10 p.m. on February 4, in the parking lot of Pudong Airport, passengers called for online car-hailing and responded quickly.
Photo by Lee Hyun Yin.
On February 1, the Shanghai Municipal Road Transport Administration, which issued the "Notice on Prohibiting Online Car-hailing from Operating at Pudong Airport", responded that there are sufficient taxis at Pudong Airport, and major hubs should be mainly guaranteed by cruise taxis.
In particular, when Pudong began to ban online car-hailing, Hongqiao Hub published an article through the official WeChat*** to welcome drivers to come to pick up and extend the free parking time.
In this regard, Wu Xuecheng, deputy director of the Passenger Transport Department of the Shanghai Municipal Road Transport Bureau, once explained in an interview with a reporter from CCTV that the Hongqiao hub is currently piloting the introduction of online car-hailing services as a supplement to the transportation capacity to meet the travel needs of citizens and passengers out of the consideration of "station-specific policies". At the same time, he said that the capacity of Pudong Airport cruise taxis is very sufficient, "The notice prohibits online car-hailing from publishing information on hailing, but does not prohibit sending passengers to airports and railway stations." ”
After the embargo was introduced, if the online car-hailing car sent passengers into the airport, they could not take orders directly. Usually they can only drive 20 kilometers to Chuansha Town to take orders, in the eyes of drivers, this empty run is too cost-effective, and objectively affects their motivation to send to Pudong Airport.
The embargo policy has also distressed some passengers, and Mr. Li, who lives in Beicai Town, Pudong New Area, is very entangled, and his home is almost 100 kilometers away from Pudong Airport. Because the distance is extremely embarrassing, the distance is too short to make money, and he has been looked down upon by taxi drivers in the past. As soon as you get in the car and tell the driver your destination, you will feel the air pressure in the car drop rapidly, and I have encountered many times when the driver has tried to put the passenger down halfway and hand it over to a peer.
In order to avoid conflicts between drivers who wait for too long and passengers who are close to each other. The relevant staff at Pudong Airport have also made efforts to introduce a protection policy, which allows for registration within 30 minutes of a 22-kilometer drive each way, and the driver can give priority to the next order after running back to Pudong Airport to reduce the waiting time.
However, Mr. Lee's home is just beyond the scope above. In order to avoid the blank eyes of taxi drivers, he chooses online car-hailing more often, preferring to wait a little longer for the time to receive orders, but also to avoid the embarrassment of both drivers and passengers.
Suddenly the lockdown was lifted
In the early morning of February 4, the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission released information on its official *** showing that from now on, Shanghai will resume online car-hailing operation services in the Pudong Airport area, and citizens and passengers can book cars in the Pudong Airport area through various online car-hailing platforms.
was caught off guard. Master Wang, a taxi driver, told Caijing Auto (ID: caijingqiche) that there was no news at all about the news, and the official post said that it would be opened in the early morning of February 4 late at night. Master Wang said that many taxi drivers were waiting in the waiting garage of Pudong Airport that day.
The wait is one night. Most of the flights at Pudong Airport after late night are only international routes, and the masters of long-distance running are well aware of the passenger traffic at the moment. On February 3, there were many more masters queuing in the waiting yard than before the embargo on ride-hailing, thinking about this market share, and listening to the call of the company and the team to "not let the passengers after landing not sit in the car". They were in the four waiting garages A, B, C, and D, lined up one after another, waiting for batches to be released.
At ten o'clock in the evening of February 4, in the terminal of Pudong Airport, there was a reminder sign for online car-hailing.
Photo by Lee Hyun Yin.
According to Master Wang, these drivers did not expect the lifting of the ban to be released so suddenly. That night, a large number of online ride-hailing vehicles poured into Pudong Airport, and some taxis that were originally going to take orders at night were unable to move in the waiting garage. The driver of the same convoy curled up in the car overnight until the next day, near noon, when he began to receive business ...... leaving Pudong Airport
At ten o'clock in the evening of February 4, Caijing Automobile (ID: caijingqiche) went to the T1 terminal of Pudong Airport, and the online car-hailing has resumed**, and it is very convenient to call a car; Taxi pick-up points are virtually unattended, so you can pick them up whenever you go.
At first glance, it's business as usual.
However, there are some places where things are clearly changing. For example, in the fixed signs that are common in airports around the world, the pick-up points of online ride-hailing are often clearly marked so that passengers who have just arrived at the airport can understand the situation.
However, there is no sign in the fixed sign in the T1 terminal of Pudong Airport that says how to take the ride. On the way to the parking garage, Caijing Auto (ID: caijingqiche) saw two prompts about online car-hailing, one is that after retrieving luggage, there is a temporary sign next to the elevator before leaving the station; On the way to the parking garage (pick-up point), a piece of paper is attached to the security guard tape indicating which parking garage the ride-hailing car is in.
Observation Notes丨Eight years ago
How can we better judge the situation today?
In the view of the department that issued the "Notice", the embargo on online car-hailing at Pudong Airport was not a sudden attack.
In 2016, Shanghai promulgated the "Several Provisions on the Administration of Online Taxi Reservation Services in Shanghai" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"), according to which online ride-hailing platforms are not allowed to publish ride-hailing information in the area of the cruise car business station of airports and railway stations; Ride-hailing drivers are not allowed to solicit passengers in the area of the airport or railway station cruise car business station.
In the view of the relevant person in charge of the Shanghai Municipal Road Transport Administration, the above-mentioned "Notice" is a reiteration of the provisions.
Combined with the different policy standards of Hongqiao Airport and Pudong Airport, it also reflects the temperature of one-size-fits-all and differentiated treatment on demand.
At 10 p.m. on February 4, in the terminal of Pudong Airport, the large screen of real-time information of public transportation showed that there were more than 1,000 taxis waiting for them, and the waiting time of passengers was about 1 minute.
Photo by Lee Hyun Yin.
In fact, when the above "Regulations" were established, they were still in the early stage of the development of online car-hailing companies, and at that time, many private car drivers joined the online car-hailing drivers with tickets, and there were also some confrontations and contradictions between taxi drivers and online car-hailing drivers across the country.
Today, there may be room for renegotiation of some provisions. For example, the driver's household registration.
According to the relevant management measures, as an online cruise taxi driver, you must be a local household registration, and the vehicle must be registered as an operating qualification and a Shanghai license. The latter is easy to do, and you can rent it monthly from a rental company, but the former is not easy. In the past, Shanghai taxi companies required drivers to be local, but in the last two years, this requirement has been lifted. Because the old people in the team have retired, few newcomers with local household registration are willing to do this work......
Just like the above question, in 2016, taxi companies required local household registration for recruitment, which may be due to practical concerns about public safety. Nowadays, the daily dynamic networking of vehicles, the abundance of urban Tianyan monitoring, and the replacement of new and old drivers, even taxi companies have begun to liberalize the driver's household registration requirements.
At the moment, the household registration of online car-hailing drivers is still required? Perhaps the time has come to rethink.
If the existing regulations and standards are mechanically followed, it is easy to cause widespread violations by ride-hailing drivers. What are the implications? This will exacerbate the enforcement pressure and cost of enforcement by relevant departments; For out-of-town ride-hailing drivers, regulation is the sword of Damocles that may fall at any time.
In interviews, ride-hailing drivers are generally willing to accept the necessary supervision, believing that it will give them peace of mind and avoid possible penalties for violations. In fact, if more online car-hailing opportunities are given for assessment, registration, and management, this can also better improve the quality of service and avoid bad money driving out good money.
From the local conditions of Hongqiao and Pudong airports, we can see the truth of the relevant departments. If the old regulations can be refined and updated, and online car-hailing drivers who want to get jobs and provide urban transportation capacity can be given a legal identity, it can better reflect the principle of a people's city for the people.