Taxi software may break the cab licence monopoly

In Beijing, it is common for a cold wind to reach a car for half an hour. White-collar Zhang Yuan is a taxi, often haunt the Beijing Chaoyang District of the World Trade and Chaoyang City, the two places even the black taxis are difficult to hit. But recently several mobile phone taxi software has attracted the attention of Zhang Yuan.

She used her mobile phone to download an app that was used 3 times and had a successful appointment to the car. Through this software is called the regular taxi, the driver answered after the Software page will show the driver of the taxi company, license plate number, driver surname and telephone, will also show the car at the time of the location and estimated arrival times.

After a period of time, Zhang Yuan feel that the software itself is good, but can eventually sit on the bus, and the quality of the driver has a direct relationship. In her use of the application of the interface, there is an option to add money, the minimum of 5 yuan, the maximum of 20 yuan. Also have time to choose, passengers can choose to wait 10 minutes or half an hour.

"The first time the driver came and didn't call, I called her several times before I found it and it took me a long time." Another time when the driver wanted to add money, I refused to add money, he will not pull. "Zhang Yuan said.

The driver's confusion

Beijing Yu Yang United Taxi Company driver Chang lives in Tongzhou, his community about fifty or sixty taxis, but a rain and snow and other bad weather, often only out of four or five cars, most of them to send their families to town.

In addition to bad weather, empty also makes drivers headache. "More empty, more compensation", "when the traffic jam, the fuel consumption is very large, 3 minutes traffic jam is equivalent to one kilometer of fuel consumption." "The New Moon Taxi Company's Master Li said, empty no subsidy, can only bear."

Master Li said, "Drivers are in a hurry to shift or go home, may not be able to pull the same direction of the passengers, but the driver wants to contact a short job, but the car stopped, if the passengers are going to the direction of the bus and the driver does not want to carry passengers, according to the Beijing Municipal Transportation Committee, is refusing Some drivers in order to be on time shift, would rather play a stop card, open empty all the way back, also do not want to because a may not on the way of the work and be complained about. "Helpless" "empty" greatly wasted its limited taxi resources, but also exacerbated the difficulty of a taxi.

Taxi software helps solve the problem of "empty" taxis. For example, some software, 6 kilometers within the call car tips, for taxi drivers to provide a choice, the driver can receive 6 kilometers within the call information, if the distance is appropriate, the driver can grab the job, reduce empty state.

Before August 2012, a 57-year-old taxi driver, Mengqingshan, could only use his cell phone to make phone calls, not even texting. But now he has been able to skillfully operate mobile phone software, but also the client's function to comment.

Mengqingshan that the taxi software can position the driver and the passenger location clearly, for the driver to provide real-time 6 km within the call order. In some taxi software trading orders, once the deal, you can not easily break the contract. If one of the passengers and the driver fails to "fail" according to the stipulations, there will be a corresponding penalty, which provides the basic protection for passengers and drivers. The use of this software is more convenient than telephone call car system, do not need manual transfer and record, direct feedback to the terminal through the network.

Mengqingshan use a taxi software to pick up the job, reduce the empty rate, can earn more than thirty or forty yuan a day.

Development software of a company marketing manager Zhuo Ran told the Chinese Youth Daily Reporter, software specifically for the Beijing Taxi development, has been with Beijing more than 20 taxi companies to establish cooperative relations, there are more than 7,000 taxi drivers and 100,000 passengers in the use of this software.

Drivers who use the software add more than seven or eight business per day to earn about 100 yuan.

But there are passengers worried, if everyone in the next order to call the car, the road is not more difficult? Zhuo ran that, with the popularity of smartphones, the use of taxi software will be more and more high, it may become the necessary choice for everyone to take a taxi. Even if the driver received a network order on the road does not stop, should also be in accordance with the requirements of the vehicle in the prompt to stop the status, to facilitate road passenger identification.

There are also passengers worried that the increase in the price auction model may shake the taxi pricing mechanism, the driver is more willing to accept the orders of passengers. A passenger in Shanghai said, "I can't get a car with less money." This is definitely a disguised refusal to hire passengers. Taxis are a service industry, but also public resources, pricing all have to open hearings, it is certainly unreasonable to start sitting. ”

Taxi Software History

3 months ago, Zhang Yuan began to use taxi software, some specializing in the taxi market, some entirely relying on car rental company vehicles, and some in between, both part of their own vehicles, but also in the development of the taxi market.

In the traditional sense, the taxi company controls the license plate, cannot shake. However, under the development of technology, the situation of the taxi market monopoly began to change. and car rental companies in China is relatively open, fully competitive market.

In foreign countries already have such technology, when the customer needs to use the car, just take out the mobile phone, open the relevant application software and GPS, you can locate nearby car rental company cars.

Theoretically, the use of this technology, if the car rental companies to rent a section, you can achieve the function of taxis. Moreover, this approach is better than taxis in terms of convenience, and the price is basically the same as taxis, but also free choice of models. In addition, users can also use the "send a car to pick up" feature, the cost will be deducted from your account.

But is the practice legal and compliance?

In fact, Beijing's traffic law enforcement departments can seize such vehicles as "black car operations", and airports and railway stations are off-limits to such rental businesses.

And even without legal risk, the car rental industry differs from the taxi industry. When taking a taxi, the taxi company and the taxi driver are the service providers, and if there is a problem, they should take the corresponding responsibility. But when there is a dispute with a car rental company with a driver, how is the legal liability to be defined? Also, there are already black cars rely on similar car rental software to start a taxi business, the line between car rental and black cars how to judge?

Doodle Fast Car Rental founder Yuntao told the Chinese Youth Daily Reporter, foreign use of mobile internet rental car is the trend, roughly divided into two modes.

One is the Zipcar mode. Car rental companies through the acceptance of members, issue membership card to operate. Parking in the residential area, members can directly access the Internet or through the telephone search car, the site is based on the distance between the car and its members, through the electronic map of the basic conditions and prices of vehicles, members choose the car. After the use of the time in the appointment to drive back to the original place, with membership card locked.

The other is Uber mode, that is, private car ride service provider. Users can send rental requests through the software. The car rental company will send the nearest driver to the location of the customer after locating it via satellite. This is a good way to solve the problem of calling a car in a big city.

One is the user driving, one is driver generation. The latter is closer to the taxi business. Yuntao said that the car rental company's large number of free vehicles into the passenger market, will greatly alleviate the rush hour taxi problem.

Many American taxi companies have started to use mobile Internet applications to serve passengers. It is reported that Chinese taxi drivers are also concerned about the changes in mobile internet technology. The monthly income of nearly thousand dollars is attracting more and more taxi drivers to contact the mobile Internet.