Various cities have launched a major operation to resume work and production. At the same time, everyone expects that the new infrastructure can help the post-epidemic economy to recover and revitalize, and hopes to be full of vitality as soon as possible and get on the right track.
In order to prevent the epidemic from spreading by means of transportation, how does the new infrastructure spring breeze bathe different areas of the transportation industry? People travel will invite experts, entrepreneurs, and scholars inside and outside the public transportation industry to discuss the new infrastructure under the prevention of epidemic prevention. Look at their analysis.
The experts we invited today are: Gu Dasong, President of the China Public Transportation Association's Car-hailing Branch, Associate Professor of Southeast China University Law School, and Executive Director of the Transportation Law and Development Research Center of Southeast University.
People travel:
Director Gu, I am very pleased to have this opportunity to talk to you about the new infrastructure and post-epidemic resumption work. With the promotion of the new infrastructure policy, what opportunities does the online car rental industry usher in? How to make good use of this opportunity?
Gu Dasong:
From the new infrastructure policy: charging piles are an important category, which further promotes the development of new energy vehicles. After the charging pile arrangement reaches a certain level, a network effect is formed, which is combined with the electrification of the car-hailing travel field, which is a major development direction that deserves attention.
The domestic requirements for electrified car-hailing vehicles are becoming more and more obvious. In November 2018, in the Shenyang City Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Promotion of New Energy Vehicles and Promoting the Industry to Be Larger and Stronger, Shenyang City requested the addition of online taxis, all of which were pure electric. New energy vehicles; encourage cruising taxis to be updated to pure electric vehicles; Kunming City will be implemented from January 1, 2019: the new online car must be pure electric vehicles, and fuel vehicles and hybrid vehicles will not be issued vehicle operation certificates. In September 2019, the Interim Measures of Shenzhen Municipality on the Administrative Measures for the Service of Online Rental Cars (Revised Draft) requires that newly registered online car-hailing vehicles must be pure electric vehicles... The car hire must be a pure electric car! Similar cities include Nanjing, Shenyang, Foshan, and Sanya. In August 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a reply to the Recommendation on Studying and Setting a Timetable for Prohibiting the Sale of Fuel Cars to Accelerate the Construction of a Powerful Automobile Country. On the basis of the overall plan, study and formulate a timetable for the exit of fuel vehicles.
From the perspective of electrified car-hailing, charging piles are laid in advance according to the needs of the city. When convenience meets people's daily needs, this matter is more logical. At the same time, there are also some hidden dangers in the online car rental format, especially the offline operating companies like this non-platform side, such as car rental companies, used to use fuel vehicles in the past. There are operational difficulties in heavy asset leasing, and at the same time, there are many risks caused by renting purchases. Because of the low cost of electricity and the intensive use at the same time, charging piles are further improved as an infrastructure, and enterprise new energy vehicles may become an opportunity for companies operating offline.
The combination of efficient organization and management and charging pile foundation matching may be the transformation trend of offline operating companies. The data shows that the pile-to-pile ratio increased from 7.84:1 in 2015 to 3.50:1 in 2019. Although the growth rate is fast, the scale still has a large gap with the planned target (1:1). Since the operation of charging piles is a heavy asset industry, only when the utilization rate of DC piles is higher than 8% (based on 60kW piles) can profits be achieved, and cooperation with offline operating companies will be a win-win situation.
At the same time, the new infrastructure is not only referring to infrastructure, but in my understanding it can also be new basic public services. Infrastructure construction in the field of transportation should not rely solely on government input, especially in the field of public transportation. Provide a policy environment, or provide appropriate financial support to achieve government-enterprise cooperative governance through the procurement of (quasi-) public transport companies, especially those in new transport formats that have emerged in recent years. For example, the government’s investment in the establishment of public bicycle companies may not be as effective Procurement of travel services provided by bike-sharing companies, as well as some basic travel services, such as travel services for people with disabilities or vulnerable groups can also be government procurement services. Leverage limited funds to mobilize the industry and stabilize the fundamentals of the enterprise at special times. When the government has done a good job in policy planning and proper support during the special stage of the epidemic, the enterprise will keep up and keep up with market forces. The burden of the government.
Understand the basic public services more accurately, and handle the relationship between the government and the market well. Like bike-sharing companies and online car-hailing companies, when the industry encounters major difficulties, they will pry and support, which is positive for the entire market. The promotion side, and the providers of these public services can be state-owned public transportation companies, or they can be market-based startups in the new form of transportation, which corresponds to the new infrastructure. The custom bus now being implemented is a market-oriented intensive service, like the current Chengdu for the returning workers, returning students, and community residents who go out shopping... providing point-to-point customized travel services is an epidemic. At the next special time, the basic travel services purchased by the government, the government pays for the services, which is good for urban development and relieves the pressure on enterprises.
People travel:
Since the outbreak, the online car-hailing branch has been actively involved in the fight against the outbreak. Can you combine the situation of the branch and member units to talk about your personal feelings?
Gu Dasong:
As a new market-oriented format in the field of public transportation, car-hailing is mainly a cooperative relationship between enterprises and front-line employees, which is relatively loose relative to traditional formats. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, what kind of social responsibilities and how the online car-hailing companies, especially platform companies, have to bear have been paid close attention to by the society. In the early stage of the epidemic, some cities suspended online car-hailing but did not stop patrol cars (traditional taxis), which shows that the society and the government have doubts about whether the industry can take social responsibility in a special period.
When all the traffic stops, the small taxi business as a supplement to public transportation is necessary to provide the necessary travel services. Online car rental is also needed by the society, but in extraordinary times, everyone will have some doubts. For example: Will the tight time of online car rental suddenly adjust the price? Can a relatively loose organization form play an active role and be brave?
T
herefore, the online car-hailing branch issued the Initiative on the broad participation of online car-hailing industry practitioners in actively participating in epidemic prevention and disaster relief travel services on the first time (January 31), hoping to encourage online car-hailing on the basis of strengthening scientific protection The industry takes social responsibilities bravely, promises to never raise prices, actively provides emergency travel services and voluntary free services, pays special attention to ensuring medical travel, provides travel services within the capabilities of the frontline medical staff, and responds to requests from medical institutions to provide material transportation and general medical treatment Services such as mass counseling.
The branch’s initiative was reported by Xinhua News Agency and other national authoritative media. Xinhua News Agency’s relevant reports emphasized the branch’s initiative to resolutely raise prices and take social responsibility during the epidemic prevention and control period, including the official website of the Central Cyber Office After more than 50 central and local media forwarded the Xinhua News Agency report, the industry also generally responded to the call of the branch, actively carried out travel services while maintaining the original pricing level, and actively provided free volunteer services for medical staff to provide travel protection. The social responsibility of the new car-hailing format has stood the test.
People travel:
Traditional taxis (cruise cars) and online car-hailing are treated differently. As a legal expert, where should the online car-hailing industry be protected?
Gu Dasong:
Since the epidemic, people in the community have first paid attention to online car-hailing platforms, such as Didi, T3, Meituan, Shouqi and other Internet platform companies. However, they have not paid enough attention to the online service companies of online car-hailing, or even do not know their existence. . But in fact, the operation service company provides personnel to cooperate with the vehicle and the platform, so the offline operation service company is very important. At the same time, the legal status and social recognition of offline operating service companies are weak, and it is difficult to survive in the cracks.
For example: the online car rental platform company proposed a rent-free initiative, which is actually different from the cruising car companies for rent-free drivers, platform companies and offline operating service companies are different legal entities, in fact, most of the vehicle deposits are offline Operating service companies charge, exemption and postponement are mostly borne by the latter.
Most of the offline operating service companies have bank loans. According to incomplete statistics, it is found that more than 70% of the operating service companies have experienced car repatriation and loan arrears, and even serious car repatriation. It is even more difficult for them when the triple pressure of loan repayment, car refund and no income comes together.
At the same time, the master car-hailing driver is on the front line and is in a dilemma. If you leave the car on the line, there is a risk of infection. In case of infection, they may also become a source of infection; at the same time, if you do not leave the car on the line, there is no income. The first-line car-hailing driver was infected while leaving the car. Although the state has paid for treatment, it still has a big impact. Suppose an extreme situation. If unfortunately passed away, who will give the pension? Although some large platform companies have launched special pneumonia insurance for outbreaks, subsidies of 300 yuan per day for drivers infected with the outbreak (individuals are not more than 30,000 yuan), but this does not solve all the problems. Therefore, we hope that the country, enterprises and society will jointly support and establish The online car driver assistance fund can play a certain role.
Therefore, for the damage caused by force majeure in the epidemic, whether it is the loss caused by rent or outage, the entire car-hailing industry should mobilize all parties to be the most affected small and micro enterprises (offline operating service companies are mostly small Micro-enterprise), the first-line ride-hailing drivers encounter difficulties and calls, the entire industry needs to overcome difficulties and risks together to better survive this difficult period.
People travel:
In some cities, the saturation of ride-hailing has caused a series of social problems. As an industry organization, what can we do to help?
Gu Dasong:
Ride-hailing is a market-oriented industry, which originates from the market and must also be subject to market rules. The current epidemic is an emergencies. Emergencies need to be provided with bail-out policies so that enterprises can survive. This is a special case, not a market cause.
Before the epidemic, in fact, in some cities, there was a phenomenon of oversupply of car-hailing cars. The market was cruel and there would be fierce competition. However, we now lack two points:
The first point: the current detailed industry information release and early warning are not enough. Some places have begun to do so. The whole country needs to be further strengthened. For example, how many vehicles are in operation in provinces and cities, and how many orders are operated every day? What is the revenue? What is the actual labor intensity? Even after buying a car, how long can the full vehicle life cycle be profitable? In combination with other similar formats, are there new opportunities in the types of jobs that can be converted quickly? Is the opportunity cost large or small and so on.
Objective industry early warning is where social organizations and industry organizations play a role. When the information is sufficient, it avoids the phenomenon of drivers getting stuck in the car-hailing companies. Of course, some local transportation authorities are also doing this kind of work. For example, the pre-employment examination will give a reminder, but it needs to be further strengthened;
Another point: the driver buys a car or the company buys the car and rents it to the driver. There is a problem of delisting costs. So much money has been converted into costs. If delisting, there will be problems caused by high exit costs or sunk costs. Whether the platform can innovate and make an insurance category according to a single amount, if the car with less orders, the platform cost, etc. will be reduced by insurance, it may not be a one-size-fits-all. Switch to operational insurance, so that when the market is saturated, the exit cost is also lower, and the social risk will be lower, that is, the online car rental industry may need to further promote innovative insurance products.
People travel:
From the point of view of the China Internet Car-hailing Branch, what are the key points of work next?
Gu Dasong:
The following work will be done from six aspects:
1. Continue to speak for the industry and forward the association's initiative in a timely manner to let the government and society know that the industry can bear social responsibilities, withstand the test of the epidemic, and dispel the doubts of the public and the government.
2. Recognize advanced, and strive to create an industry red list in collaboration with relevant departments, so that the paid enterprises and drivers will be recognized. Not only is it an encouragement, it is also helping the industry build good credit.
3. Actively appeal for the mezzanine of offline operating companies, calling for management policies and financial institutions to give relief policies. For example, it is recommended that cities not park cars online, so that operations can be carried out under the premise of ensuring safety. Kind of production self-help.
4. Docking of resource information, such as masking of anti-epidemic supplies, disinfection and other resources, or even donating, to do some work for the first-line enterprises and drivers.
5. Promote the formation of self-rescue in the industry, so that the country can help some, do something by themselves, and respond internally and externally, will better pass this period!
6. Further promote the elaborate industry information release and early warning mechanism. Help industry companies, especially private SMEs, make full use of Internet, artificial intelligence, big data and other technologies to achieve guidance.