Original title:
The regular driver is led by the nose by the brush order, and the "black driver" is indistinguishable…
Shenwan Exclusively Reveals the Chaos in the Driving Industry
Shenzhen Evening News, November 18, 2018, at 1:40 am on November 17, the bar street in the shopping park in Futian District was still lively. Under the neon lights, some customers staggered out of the bar with loud music. At this time, the chauffeurs who had already been waiting at the door of the bar swarmed up. "Boss, do you want a chauffeur?" "Chauffeur, no starting price." E-chauffeur, Didi chauffeur, Dida chauffeur, drunk chauffeur… The drivers’ badges flashed with various words "chauffeur", and most customers ignored the chauffeur’s shout and walked straight to the taxi. Mr. Wang, who lived in Huanggang, Futian, had a drink with his friend. He was still sober and was about to open the e-driving APP to place an order when he was surrounded by a group of drivers. In desperation, he called a driver, "How much is it to Huanggang?" "Two hundred." The driver wearing the clothes of a certain driving company glanced at Mr. Wang and blurted out. Less than 5 kilometers away, if you take the driving platform, it only costs one hundred yuan.
Driving is still an emerging industry in our country. Due to the lack of relevant industry guidelines and legal norms, the driving industry with Internet wings has developed rapidly, but it has always been in an embarrassing situation. Recently, a reporter from Shenzhen Evening News interviewed a number of drivers in Shenzhen. From their accounts, we can glimpse the current development of the driving industry, and we can also think about the issue of "where is the driving industry going".
rise
From traditional to O2O driving industry is developing rapidly
At the Xiangmihu Food Court, Zhou Liang, wearing a jacket with the words "Didi Driving" printed on it, was riding a shared bicycle at the entrance of various restaurants to solicit business. Whenever someone passed by, out of professional habit, Zhou Liang would quickly stop the bicycle: "Driving? You can leave immediately!"
Zhou Liang, 42, has 20 years ** driving experience. In 2000, after he was discharged from the army, he went to work as a security guard in a company in Shenzhen. Due to the low income ** security guards, Zhou Liang started a part-time job in a small company in 2010. In 2004, the first company in the country to focus on "driving services" appeared in *******. Since then, there have been companies specializing in driving. At this time, the development ** the driving industry is slow, and the driving companies are all small-scale local companies. In 2011, the "drunk driving punishment" was **ficially implemented, and the demand for "drunk driving" services soared. The driving industry ushered in the ****** ** development.
Zhou Liang caught up with this "spring". With his skillful driving skills and upright personality, Zhou Liang was deeply loved by customers and became friends with many bosses. Some bosses even called Zhou Liang when they were on business trips, and asked him to be a personal driver, with all-inclusive food and housing, and a few hundred yuan in tips. After tasting the sweetness, Zhou Liang printed business cards and worked harder to promote himself. After accumulating a certain number of customers, he left the driving company and quit his stable security job to plunge into the industry. "At that time, I could earn five or six hundred yuan every night, and it was easy to earn tens of thousands of yuan a month," Zhou Liang said with a smile.
At the entrance of Xiangmixuan, e-driver Li Zhenghai is staring at his mobile phone, waiting for business to arrive.
In 1987, 25-year-old Li Zhenghai left his hometown in Wuhan and came to Shenzhen to work in sales. In 2012, after being introduced by a friend, 50-year-old Li Zhenghai took up a part-time job as a driver at night. "At that time, the income of doing a driver was 50-50% of the company’s income, but there were few drivers, and the business was good. Sometimes the income of doing a driver was higher than my salary in sales. At that time, I was not busy during the day and came to run a driver at night, and I could earn at least three or four thousand yuan a month."
The era of driving bonuses has allowed many people with driving skills like Zhou Liang and Li Zhenghai to enter the industry, and it has also allowed capital to sniff out business opportunities.
With the rise of the mobile Internet and the popularity of smartphones, e-driving was born in 2011. Since then, many Internet driving companies such as Didi Driver and Dida Driver have entered the market one after another, promoting the driving industry to enter the market rapidly. The emergence of the driving platform has led to a large influx of capital, and the business of individual driving and small company driving has gradually declined. Switching to the driving platform is the final choice for most individual driving and small companies. In 2016, Li Zhenghai officially became an e-driving driver. In the same year, Zhou Liang also joined Didi Driver.
contradiction
Occupy the market, expand and recruit
At 9 p.m., in the commissary opposite Xiangmixuan, e-driver Zhang Dong bought a 15 yuan fast food, which was his lunch and dinner today. From 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., the system did not have a single business for an hour. At this time, there were about 100 drivers waiting for business in the Xiangmihu Food Court.
"Now there are more drivers, fewer customers, and more monks and less porridge." Zhang Dong said that except when there are a lot of customers, it is common to not receive the system order for several days.
In February 2017, Zhang Dong came to Shenzhen to visit friends, and everything about the coastal city made Zhang Dong from the northeast curious.
Zhang Dong traveled all over Shenzhen, spending more than 10,000 yuan a month, and also asked his parents to subsidize thousands. "I had no money at that time, and I thought I could always earn some money in a big city." Without a degree, Zhang Dong, who was only skilled in driving, signed up for e-driving. Submitting materials online, the interview questions and answers were simple, but the battle during the road test surprised Zhang Dong, "At that time in Qianhai Road Test, nearly 100 people queued up, and I waited for more than 3 hours to get my turn." The registration fee was 100 yuan, the clothing fee was 500 yuan, the pre-stored information fee was 300 yuan, and the electric car was 2,300 yuan. A few days later, Zhang Dong became an e-driving driver.
In order to expand the market, even small driving companies are recruiting a large number of drivers. Fatty is one of the leaders of driver recruitment in Shenzhen, and is called "the boss" by other Dida drivers. Dida Driver is a Foshan-based company founded in 2015. "The company wants to develop the driving market in Shenzhen, so it sent me from Foshan last year." According to Fatty, in order to recruit more drivers, Dida Driver has lower requirements for drivers. There is no need for road tests in Shenzhen, and the driving experience meets the requirements. Fatty can recruit more than 20 people every month.
A large number of drivers are flooding into the driving industry, and the market has not yet been standardized, causing problems to surface.
Brushing the order allows the driver to be led by the nose
"All drivers pay the same registration fee and information fee. Why do some people have a single pick-up and some people don’t." Zhang Dong was a little angry.
E-Driver had made a rule that the driver could exchange E coins for the crown, and then get the platform’s priority to send orders within the crown time limit. Zhang Dong opened his phone and showed the rules for obtaining the crown: 1900E coins = 24-hour crown, 1500E coins = 12-hour crown, 1200E coins = 6-hour crown, 800E coins = 3-hour crown, 450E coins = 1-hour crown. "From 8:00 pm to 12:00 pm, you can only have 12 E coins if you are online for 4 hours." And swiping orders is a faster way to get E coins. The driver uses two mobile phones to place and receive orders respectively, simulates the real driving route through the battery car, and escapes the system monitoring. One order costs 6 yuan at his own expense. By swiping 6 orders, he can get 450E coins in exchange for an hour’s crown.
In March 2017, through the WeChat group, Zhang Dong developed a relationship with the e-driving regional captain and learned about a more "convenient" way to swipe orders. If you give the regional captain 200 yuan, you can get the platform’s one-month swiping permission, and you can swipe 6 orders at one time every day, without having to ride a bicycle to simulate the route.
After a month of brushing the order, Zhang Dong calculated an account for himself. The income is more than 4,000 yuan, after deducting the living expenses and the daily brushing fee of 36 yuan, there is not much left. "The crown can only take one or two orders in an hour, and it can’t make a lot of money. But if you don’t brush the order, the platform will send too few orders, and you can’t make money." Recalling the experience of brushing the order, Zhang Dong’s evaluation of himself is: "Being led by the nose."
"One-sided rules of the game"
"The platform stipulates that the driver must deposit a few hundred yuan in the information fee account, otherwise it will be blocked. If the customer does not pay, the platform information fee will be deducted, but once the customer does not use the platform, the driver’s money will not be returned."
In 2016, after the introduction of the new policy of online car-hailing in Shenzhen, Lin Hu, who did not have a residence permit, was transferred from a Didi Express driver to a chauffeur driver. In June 2018, after a chauffeur service ended, customers complained that Lin Hu did not turn off the headlights of the car, resulting in a dead battery. The e-chauffeur platform determined that Lin Hu was fully responsible without investigation, blocked his account, and deducted 9 chauffeur points. "There is monitoring in the community. I paid 30 yuan for the information fee for that order to the platform, but there was no basic inquiry for me." Lin Hu chose to appeal, but was unsuccessful.
Driving points are one of the rules set by the platform, similar to driver’s license points. When the driving points are lower than a certain point, the driver will be blocked by the platform for the corresponding number of days, and once the 12-point driving points are deducted, the driver will be permanently blocked by the platform.
In early September 2018, there was a rainstorm in Shenzhen, and e-driver Zhang Dong sent customers from Longhua to a community in Futian. The water at the entrance of the community was quite deep, and the road conditions could not be seen clearly. A sharp stone punctured the car tire. According to the process, Zhang Dong called the e-driver company to apply for insurance.
However, in the accident judgment standard of e-driving, the driver is fully responsible for the collision between the vehicle and the item. In addition, once the accident is claimed through the platform, the driver has to hand over 800 yuan to the platform for accident liability. Not only that, Zhang Dong’s account was frozen for a week, and 9 points were deducted from the original 10 points. The driver understands that there is only 1 point left, which means that he does not dare to accept any platform orders before the end of the year. Zhang Dong can’t understand that each order has been deducted from the insurance premium by the platform, but why is it so difficult to apply for insurance? After compensating the customer for the tire maintenance fee of 830 yuan, Zhang Dong cancelled the insurance application. After the application was approved, Zhang Dong’s account was restored to normal in less than 5 hours.
"It’s just squeezing the driver." This is how Li Zhenghai feels. In August this year, Li Zhenghai received an order and arrived at the destination, only to find other drivers serving customers. Li Zhenghai’s order was yellow, but what frustrated him even more was that the customer forgot to sell the order. "Some customers place orders together with a few people in order to have a driver arrive earlier, but those customers are drunk and forget that they have placed an order at all. If the customer does not sell the order, I cannot receive other orders."
The driver can also cancel the order, but according to the e-driving regulations, the sales order must pay the information fee of the order to the platform or deduct 200 E coins. "What if we have an opinion on the rules of the agreement?
The telltale signs of this inequality may already be apparent.
In 2015, in order to fight a price war with Didi Driver, e-Driver used the name of "pre-stored information fee" and used the driver’s money for marketing. At that time, e-Driver launched the "Wednesday free order" activity. According to the rules of the activity, the income obtained by the driver through the activity was frozen in the driver’s account and could not be withdrawn. It could only be used to pay the information fee to e-Driver. Only when it exceeded 1,000 yuan could the part exceeding 1,000 yuan be withdrawn, and the payment was delayed for one month.
Guo Bing, a lecturer at Ningbo University Law School and a doctor of law, said that according to the provisions of the "E-commerce Law", platform operators have the power to formulate service agreements and formulate transaction rules, but the exercise of this rule-making power should follow the relevant provisions of the "E-commerce Law". It is unreasonable and illegal for platforms to bundle the interests of drivers through transaction rules.
Chaos
Many drivers don’t go online until after 10 o’clock
At 6 p.m., Wang Lin put on a helmet and put on a shirt printed with Didi Driver. He checked the badge, seat cover, and trunk pad. After confirming that all the materials were neatly prepared, he opened the Didi facial recognition system. The verification was successful, and the driving work began.
At 7 p.m., Wang Lin rode a small battery car to Xiangmihu BBQ on time, waiting for the system to send orders. Walking towards Xiangmixuan, you can see three or two drivers along the way, most of them only wearing vests and LED badges printed with various words on the driver. "The platform requires the driver to take a 5-piece set, and there are regulations on what kind of clothes and shoes to wear." This is Wang Lin’s first month as a driver, and he is very attentive to his work.
At around 7:30 p.m., Zhang Dong rode a shared bicycle and wandered to the parking lot at the entrance of Xiangmixuan. He did not wear a helmet or a badge, only a vest and an LED badge. "E-driving also stipulates a 5-piece set, and facial recognition is required on the platform. Sometimes the company will come to check."
At 10 pm, Zhang Dong turned on his phone, and after successful facial recognition, he entered the platform. "The starting price for e-driving is 40 yuan before 10 pm, 60 yuan after 10 pm, 80 yuan after 11 pm, and 100 yuan from 12 am to 7 am. There are many orders at 8 or 9 o’clock, but they earn less money. Many drivers don’t go online until after 10 o’clock."
Taking private orders is risky, which is equivalent to "black driving".
Before 10pm, most drivers who do not go to the platform are taking private orders.
"The platform encourages us to collect customers by ourselves, and then create orders on the platform, so that although the information fee is only half of the platform’s order, 10%. But why should the customers I attract pay the platform?" Zhang Dong also began to accept private orders, "Some customers know that the platform will charge information fees, so they say they can go directly, so that we can make more money. Most customers still have to go to the platform."
Taking private orders, you don’t need to pay the information fee, but you also lose insurance protection and face the risk of being frozen by the platform, which is tantamount to "black driving". In Xiangmihu Food Plaza, almost every restaurant door will be surrounded by groups of drivers, there are platform drivers who take private orders, and there are "black driving" who are purely individual business.
In November 2017, Li Rong from Hubei received a private order at the Walmart on Qiaoxiang Road. After the customer took a picture of Li Rong’s license plate, he complained to the e-driver. Li Rong’s account was frozen, and he could not find a job. He became a "black driver" completely. Before that, Li Rong worked as an e-driver for a year and a half. "There are still hundreds of accounts, but they can’t be taken out." Li Rong squatted at the door, next to him, there were five or six "black drivers" standing in a row, staring closely at the guests walking out of the hotel.
Li Rong was a little dull, and years of sales experience did not bring him much experience in attracting customers. After leaving the platform, he could only watch the business being taken away by others most of the time among the drivers who were like wolves and tigers. He planned to wait until 11 o’clock in the evening to try his luck at the shopping park.
"Drive for yourself" Set your own charging standards
Lin Hu, wearing a pair of flip-flops and an old e-driving vest, shuttled through the doors of various restaurants, looking for business.
Since the "car headlights were not turned off and customers complained" incident, Lin Hu has started "black driving".
"There is no law on chauffeur driving in China, so there is no formal or irregular, only a platform and no platform." He pointed to his chauffeur suit and the LED badge flashing the words "drunk chauffeur driving", "These can be bought online, very cheap." Lin Hu believes that the key to doing business is communication. He evaluates himself as a conscientious person who will explain the situation to customers, record the sound and get on the car, and will not charge indiscriminately.
Most of the chauffeurs who left the platform were still in this line of work. Wei Ying was 54 years old this year, and her gray hair and tall figure were particularly conspicuous among a group of chauffeurs in their 20s and 30s. "Self-driving" was Wei Ying’s positioning of "black chauffeur".
In August 2015, when Didi first opened its driving service, Wei Ying became a member of Didi’s driving service. When she joined Didi, Wei Ying was still mainly driving buses. In August 2016, a customer was a little grumpy after drinking, and during the driving process, he made rude remarks to Wei Ying. After finishing the service, Wei Ying added the 8 yuan parking fee paid when he came out of the bar parking lot to the bill, but was accused by the customer of charging indiscriminately. According to the rules of the platform, the parking fee should be paid by the customer. Wei Ying, who was complained, did not receive the driving fee and was also deducted from the driving points. "10 years ago, I put him on the road directly."
After becoming a "black driver", Wei Ying developed a set of her own charging standards, with each order priced 30 to 50 yuan more than the platform. "There are no rules and regulations, and there is no need to be squeezed by the platform."
Indistinguishable "black driving"
"The’black driver ‘that will discuss with customers is still good, and some directly pretend to be platform drivers, and customers can’t tell the difference at all. There is also a mobile phone software called the driving artifact, which can imitate the platform’s pricing and charging, and the price can be manipulated no matter what." Speaking of "black driver", the fat brother who has been in this business for many years is very "experienced", "those who dress properly are not necessarily platform driver, and those who don’t dress neatly are not necessarily’black driver’."
Not only are customers indistinguishable, but even the driver is sometimes fooled. When Li Zhenghai first became an e-driver, he was robbed of business by the "black driver".
On the e-driving platform, there is a kind of order called "team leader order". The driver who is randomly assigned to the team leader will complete the order with the team members, and the team leader will receive an additional reward of 10E yuan. One day in June 2016, Li Zhenghai was assigned to the team leader order and needed to find two team members designated by the system to complete an order that required three drivers.
However, two "black drivers" pretended to be team members and stole the platform’s order. Sometimes, some platform drivers will also take the initiative to hand over the order to the "black driver".
At the entrance of the bar in the shopping park, Xiao Wu, the e-driver driver, had just received an order to Bao’an. The destination was too remote and it was not easy to take the car back and forth. This order was defined by Xiao Wu as a bad order. He wanted to transfer the order to the "black driver" next to him, but the transaction was unsuccessful, because it was an order that even "black driver" disliked.
How are the platform’s security obligations defined?
Lin Hu, an e-chauffeur driver, describes his relationship with the platform as "self-employment" without guarantees.
In the "Driving Service Agreement" formulated by the e-driving platform for drivers and customers, it is shown that the platform is only an intermediary who provides driving information services to drivers and customers, and the platform has the right to conduct quality monitoring of the driving service, but does not bear responsibility for disputes or disputes arising during the driving service process, nor does it bear responsibility for losses suffered by both parties during the driving service process or during the preparation service process and after the end of the service.
Is chauffeured driving a personal service or an enterprise service? What are the service specifications for the chauffeured driving industry? Is the platform’s formulation necessarily accurate? Where is the relevant resolution mechanism in the event of conflicts and disputes?
The driver, Lin Hu, asked four questions in a row, but he couldn’t find an answer so far.
Guo Bing, a law doctor, said that according to the liability provisions of the Electronic Commerce Law, the platform’s security obligations mainly lie in cyberspace and cannot be extended to physical space.
What should I do if something goes wrong? Of the ten chauffeurs, nine answered that they had not encountered a major accident. Li Rong, the chauffeur, thought for a moment and said, "This industry is uneven, and there are all kinds of people. Whether it is a customer or a driver, you can only be careful yourself."
life
There are still new faces waiting to enter the industry
In May 2017, after Zhou Liang made more than 400 orders on Didi, his account was frozen due to a customer complaint, and he returned to the state of "black driving". The high income eight years ago was difficult to reproduce, so Zhou Liang found a new job as a security guard, working as a security guard during the day and driving at night. "Security guards have three insurances and one gold. At least there is a guarantee. Driving depends on luck."
Despite all kinds of dissatisfaction, Li Zhenghai still sticks to the e-driving platform. The driver has no labor relationship with the platform, but for him, who is about to turn 60, at least he has insurance at work.
Li Rong still travels to various bars, restaurants and underground parking lots in Shenzhen, struggling to maintain his life. The fat brother has a fixed salary from the driving company, updates the recruitment information of Moments every day, and takes part-time driving in addition to recruiting people. Lin Hu still has hope for this industry, and hopes that conscientious enterprises will reorganize the industry norms and promote the development of the driving industry. Wang Lin’s driving career is just starting, no matter what happens or the first time he finds a platform, "The platform is always relied on, and there is evidence that can always be reasonable, right?"
In Qianhai Nanshan and other places where e-driving and Didi driving are tested, there are often hundreds of thousands of new faces waiting to enter the industry. Countless people who are looking for a way out come to test the waters, but there are also people who take off their driving clothes and leave after experiencing the hardships of this industry.
The only constant is that life goes on.
(The names of the drivers in the text are all pseudonyms.)
(Reporter Zhou Wanjun)
