Ignition Dimension (ID: chaintruth) original
Produced by Burning Finance
Author 丨 Xie Zhongxiu
Editor 丨Rao Xiafei
The issue of social security for flexible workers has become one of the focuses of attention at this year's two sessions of the National People's Congress.
On March 5, at the opening ceremony of the Fifth Session of the 13th National People's Congress, Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council made a government work report, mentioning the improvement of the social security policy for flexible employment when making arrangements for the work arrangements for 2022.
During the two sessions of the National People's Congress, Wang Li, an online ride-hailing driver, asked Sun Jie, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, through the "Answers to Questions of powerful countries" column of the People's Network, saying, "The new format has brought us new opportunities... However, there is still a lot of pressure to live in big cities, and I hope that the state can introduce more policies to strengthen the social security of practitioners in new formats, so that we have less worries. ”
In this regard, Master Sun, an online ride-hailing driver, has a deep understanding, "We drive on the platform, but we do not belong to the platform, there is no contract, insurance, and there is no protection." Doing this line, there are many occupational diseases, and within two years, the lumbar spine, shoulders and neck will definitely have problems, but they can only be responsible for themselves. ”
In this regard, Burning Finance and Economics learned that the flexible employment company platform is carrying out relevant social security work, such as meituan said that it is working on the pilot of occupational injury protection for riders, and Didi has also established measures such as working hours protection, occupational injury protection, health care, exclusive commercial endowment insurance, and public welfare assistance.
However, judging from the feedback from current riders and ride-hailing drivers, the acceptance level is not high. "Medical insurance and pension are paid by themselves, so it is better to carry them in their own pockets."
Driving an online car has a high income and low threshold, and it used to be a good job. Volkswagen also mentioned from time to time when joking, "If you really can't do it, go to drive an online car."
As early as 2014, there was news that "online ride-hailing drivers earn more than 10,000 yuan per month". "But until now, the income of online ride-hailing drivers is also more than 10,000 yuan." Can the over 10,000 yuan in 2014 and the over 10,000 yuan in the present be compared? Master Sun said bluntly.
From February 26 to March 5, Burning Finance communicated with a number of online ride-hailing drivers and learned that the income from online ride-hailing could indeed exceed 10,000 yuan.
For example, Xiao Shu in Shanghai said that the monthly flow income can reach 20,000 yuan. Master Li and Master Cao in Beijing told Burning Finance that the monthly turnover income is about 14,000 yuan. Xi'an Beike said that the monthly flow is 9,000-11,000 yuan in good times, but only 6,000-8,000 yuan when it is bad. Lao Zhuang in Quanzhou also said that when the situation was good in the past, the flow of water could be about 12,000 yuan a month.
"But it's just running water, and it doesn't take into account the daily fuel cost and the cost of the car." Master Sun said helplessly.
Master Sun introduced, "We run about 500 kilometers a day, and the fuel cost for a month is more than 4,000 yuan. In terms of car costs, Master Sun bought a car two years ago in order to run Didi, investing about 100,000 yuan, "the operation car is forced to scrap for 8 years, but according to our 100,000 kilometers a year, the engine will be scrapped in six years." In order to sell for a good price, my plan is to change the car in three years. According to this calculation, the cost of the car is 3600 yuan a month. "Xiao Shu, who rents a car, also has to deduct the car rental fee of 6400 yuan / month."
"In first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, the monthly flow of running online ride-hailing cars minus various expenses, drivers who earn more than 10,000 yuan are after all a very small number of cattle people, and most drivers can get their incomes of only seven or eight thousand yuan, and in some cities that are not large in second- and third-tier cities, running online ride-hailing cars can already run very well with about 4,000 yuan." Beike said bluntly.
But this "over 10,000 yuan" income requires the online ride-hailing car to be "locked" in the driver's seat for more than 12 hours a day. "In my understanding, ride-hailing is an hourly worker." Xiao Shu said.
Time is the most important measurement tool for ride-hailing drivers. "50 yuan / hour", "25 kilometers per hour", "2 yuan per kilometer", "work 12-13 hours", "work 16 hours" and other similar "Internet black talk" and other similar "internet black talk" frequently appear in the discussion of online ride-hailing drivers.
"That's how we calculated. Generally 2 yuan / km, 25 km per hour, the hourly income is 50 yuan. If you open 12 hours a day, then the daily turnover can reach 600 yuan, and you can earn 14,000 yuan a month. After all, it is impossible to drive for 30 days, nor can it guarantee that the daily flow of 600 yuan can be guaranteed. Master Cao explained.
Nowadays, with the "more cars and fewer passengers", people continue to pour into the online car industry, while the frequency of passenger taxis has decreased, as well as subsidies have decreased, etc. In order to earn the same income as before, online car drivers have to fall into the "inner volume" and increase the length of sports cars.
"This job is to fight for time, the more you do, the more you pull, the more you earn." Now the industry 'inner volume', before may run 12 hours to earn 10,000 yuan, now have to run 16 hours. Master Sun said helplessly, "I leave the car at 8:30 every morning, and I usually don't take the car back until 12 o'clock in the evening." ”
With such a high intensity of work, the driver of the online ride-hailing car is an occupational disease, but there is no guarantee. "Many ride-hailing drivers have only been working for two or three years and have fallen into many occupational diseases, such as lumbar spine, shoulder and neck, as well as gastrointestinal diseases and so on." Beike said.
At present, Xiao Shu and Lao Zhuang have bid farewell to the line of online ride-hailing drivers. Master Sun and Beike are also planning to leave. "I was a 'rent-in-lieu' pit, and I had three months to pay off my car loan." I won't do it when I'm done. Beike said. Master Sun also said, "This profession, whether it is a position or income, there is no room for growth, and for a long time 'locked' in the driver's seat, it is easy to have physical and mental problems, and if you work for a few more years, you will not do it." ”
Rolls, it's really too rolled
Lao Zhuang joined the army of ride-hailing drivers since 2015.
That was also the time when the war in China's online ride-hailing market was the fiercest, and the competition between Didi and Kuaidi was the most intense. In August and September 2012, "Fast Taxi" and "Didi Taxi" appeared in Hangzhou and Beijing respectively. After that, as Kuaidi and Didi each received investment from Ali and Tencent, the two major taxi forces expanded rapidly.
Around 2014, the competition between the two entered a white-hot situation, and Didi took the lead in opening the red envelope war, and the fast one was not far behind. According to the media, Didi and Kuaidi's "payment + red envelope war" was fought until May 2014, and the two sides burned nearly 2 billion yuan.
"At that time, in order to grab the market, passengers took the car at a 10% discount, and the driver directly subsidized it." Lao Zhuang recalled. It is said that at that time, in order to rob passengers, discounts were everywhere, such as the first single free, the second single fare of 30 yuan platform subsidy of 29 yuan, the third single use coupon taxi halving and so on. Sometimes even for 1 yuan, you can get a taxi. "I still have the impression that I have sat on a fold of Didi, I don't know if it is because of the newcomer discount." User Yue Yue recalls.
On the driver's side, subsidies have not fallen, and subsidies such as 10 single rewards of 100 yuan and 20 single rewards of 200 yuan have emerged in an endless stream.
Under the large subsidies, there are more singles and subsidies, and it is more profitable to drive online car-hailing. "When I started in 2015, I used my family car, the express car. At that time, Didi did not have much classification, just express cars and special cars. In 2017, my car was upgraded to a private car. The impression is that 2017-2019 is the highest income of KaiDi, and the hourly salary can reach more than 50 yuan. Lao Zhuang said.
In 2016, Didi acquired Uber to firmly position itself as the "leader" in the domestic ride-hailing market. But in order to promote the use of drivers and passengers, subsidies have declined but have not completely disappeared, and this situation has continued for nearly two years. "The subsidies have been much less in the past two years." Master Sun said.
Lao Zhuang also said, "Probably from 2020, the income will not be enough." By November 2021, I saw that the hourly flow dropped to 30 yuan / hour, and I would not run. "Income failure is affected by a variety of factors, including "more cars and fewer passengers" and subsidies declining. "The number of people running Didi has been increasing, but the passengers have not kept up, and of course the income of 'monks with more meat and less meat' has declined." Master Sun said bluntly.
"There are drivers coming into this market all the time." Master Sun said. According to the data released by the Ministry of Transport, as of January 31, 2022, a total of 260 online ride-hailing platform companies across the country have obtained business licenses, and a total of 3.988 million online ride-hailing driver certificates and 1.583 million vehicle transportation certificates have been issued in various places.
At the same time, since the Ministry of Transport began to systematically release the basic situation of the operation of the online ride-hailing industry in October 2020, during the 15-month period from January 2020 to January 2022, the number of online ride-hailing platform companies that have obtained business licenses for online ride-hailing platforms nationwide has continued to increase, and the number of online ride-hailing driver licenses and vehicle transportation certificates issued by various localities has also increased.
Data source/national online ride-hailing regulatory information exchange platform
Cartography/Burning Finance
"But the number of passengers has not increased." Master Sun said. According to the data disclosed by the Ministry of Transport, as of January 31, 2022, the national online ride-hailing regulatory information exchange platform received a total of 704.203 million orders in January, but the number of orders has not yet reached the average since the release of the data. In June 2021 and August 2021, the order information received by the national online ride-hailing regulatory information exchange platform in a single month also showed a month-on-month decline.
"Taking Beijing as an example, many tourists cannot enter because of the epidemic and other reasons. This has resulted in a large number of passengers being missing. Master Sun said. Some passengers have also changed their travel habits, "In the past, there were many subsidies, and taxis were also very cheap." But now there is no subsidy, it is much more expensive, and sometimes there is no taxi, or special car. Yue Yue said.
According to a survey data done on the platform by the Strawberry Pie questionnaire, 74.1% of netizens who have used Didi taxi said that since Didi was removed from the shelves, the frequency of use has decreased. Some media reports also pointed out that since Didi was removed, its daily order volume has decreased by 20%, and its market share has also lost 20%.
Drivers had to get caught up in the "inner roll" — they used to run 12 hours, now they have to run 16 hours to earn the same income as before.
In addition to the long time, ride-hailing drivers have also begun to downgrade the inner roll. For example, Master Sun recently downgraded his "preferential enjoyment" to "express", "without subsidies, there are fewer people playing preferential treatment, and they can't make money." And "as long as it is a single, the visitor will not refuse", open the special express and the carpool ticket.
The income of e-hailing drivers is generally composed of basic fares, rewards and others (high-speed fees, bridge tolls, passenger fare increases, remote dispatch, thank you red envelopes, etc.). In addition to the basic fare, rewards are also an important source of income for drivers. "In the past, Didi could get a reward of one or two thousand yuan a month, but now it is almost gone." Master Sun said.
Many drivers have turned to other platforms. In July 2021, Didi went public in a low-key manner, and was subsequently asked to remove the relevant app, and was initiated by the Cybersecurity Review Office. The "dragon head" is crumbling, and other platforms are "unveiling the pole", in order to attract drivers and passengers, they also resort to the subsidy move.
"I opened a METUan, and the monthly subsidy income is about 1800 yuan." Xiao Shu said. There are also drivers who told Burning Finance during the chat, "I am a Didi driver, but the noon peak AutoNavi platform has rewards, so generally at noon I will drive for a while." ”
Pits, pits everywhere
But for online ride-hailing drivers, the "volume" is not something to worry about, and what bothers them the most is a variety of "pits", such as car rental companies and different forms of "cutting leeks" on online ride-hailing platforms.
Renting a car and driving a ride-hailing car is the current situation for most ride-hailing drivers.
"In the Beijing market, there should be about 70% more drivers who rent a car and drive an online car than those who use their own car to drive an online car." Master Sun introduced, "Rent a car to open an online car, first, because the requirements for driving an online car are relatively high, such as Beijing car, Beijing brand, but also have a certificate, to prepare for these, too difficult and too complicated; second, there are some drivers, want to run first in the early stage, test the water." I myself also rented a car for half a year, and then Bought a car to run after measuring. ”
"Shanghai ride-hailing requires a local big brand (non-Shanghai C's Shanghai license plate) and a vehicle license. Therefore, foreigners can only come to Shanghai sports cars through leasing companies, because they can't apply for operating licenses. Xiao Shu said. As a result, many leasing companies also came into being. In the answers and note replies about online ride-hailing drivers on platforms such as Zhihu and Xiaohongshu, Burning Finance and Economics can also see the shadows of many leasing companies, mostly declaring "daily flow of 800-1000 yuan" and "guaranteed monthly salary XXX yuan".
But the "pit" is also hidden in these places.
"Regular car rental ok, possibility to rent a car to run. However, companies that use the name of 'renting instead of buying' must be avoided. Beike is three years ago in the "rent-to-buy" model into the "pit", "a car of more than 100,000 yuan, tell you a down payment of 20,000 yuan, a monthly payment of 3,000 yuan, for three years." You can take this car to run an online car, the monthly flow is more than 10,000 yuan, minus the monthly payment also earns seven or eight thousand yuan. After three years of running, the money has been earned and the car has returned to you. The rental car company will also tell you that they have a cooperation with the online ride-hailing platform and can give priority to dispatching orders. ”
"It sounds like a good deal, but it's not like that at all." Beike said, "Running a ride-hailing car is a tiring and unprofitable job that hurts the body. If you have just entered the industry, and you have not yet understood clearly, you have entered the pit with the 'rent-to-buy' model, then congratulations you will be trapped for three years. In the past three years, even if you understand the industry, you can't give up. Because the car loan has to be repaid. ”
In the end, Beike has become a "leek" for leasing companies, online ride-hailing platforms and insurance companies, and "can't escape if you want to." Beike sighed.
Another problem that has been criticized by e-hailing drivers is the commission of the platform. "Now the percentage of online ride-hailing is generally 23-25%, and all platforms are similar." Master Li introduced. The level of the draw is not the focus of the driver's dissatisfaction, the opacity of the draw rule is.
Lao Zhuang said bluntly, "Many drivers do not know how the platform is drawn. I used to drive a special car, some normal draws, some passengers used coupons so the platform did not draw, and some passengers called the car but to the driver's hand became an orange single, the original price became 80% of the price, and then deducted didi after the driver only got 64% of the passengers to pay. ”
This situation is changing. On February 24 this year, the Ministry of Transport held a regular press conference, saying that this year will carry out the new form of transportation platform enterprises into the sunshine action. In terms of online ride-hailing, major ride-hailing platform companies will be urged to disclose pricing rules to the public, reasonably set the upper limit of the percentage of the platform and publicly release it, and at the same time display the percentage of each order in real time on the driver's side.
Some platforms are also changing. Burning Finance noted that in April 2019, Didi launched the "Ask And Answer" platform, and the first issue was about the much-watched sampling problem. At the same time, since the release of the first issue of "Questions and Answers" in April 2019, Didi has updated 11 issues of "Questions and Answers", of which 5 issues are about Didi's drawing questions. In August 2021, Didi also implemented a transparent billing function in some cities such as Shenyang and Changchun, and drivers can view revenue reports on the Didi owner APP.
Burning Finance also learned from industry insiders that the Didi transparent bill "driver income report" has been launched in cities where Didi's online ride-hailing operation is currently available. Each driver can log on to the Didi owner's terminal to inquire about the passenger payment amount, driver turnover amount, reward amount, and driver income proportion of each order.
However, at present, these are far from enough, and there are still e-hailing drivers who do not understand, indicating that they are not clear about the rules of withdrawal.
I won't do it for another two years
People who drive online ride-hailing are both full-time and part-time. For example, a driver I contacted before Burning Finance was a gas worker, who took advantage of his free time to pull some work and subsidize his family. For part-time ride-hailing drivers, it doesn't matter if they earn more or less, after all, it is the icing on the cake.
Full-time drivers are the majority of ride-hailing practitioners. "There are definitely part-time ones, but there are still many full-time ones." Master Sun said.
Someone once made such a crowd portrait for e-hailing drivers: they are in their forties, have low education, and have no skills to find other jobs. "In the past two years, due to the epidemic and industry changes, there have been more people who have failed to do small businesses and lost their jobs."
"That's basically the case." Master Sun said, "I just don't have the education and ability, and I can't find any other good job, so I chose Kai Didi." ”
During the epidemic period, Burning Finance also contacted a restaurant employee, because the restaurant did not open, so he came out to run Didi to earn some income.
Master Li came to Beijing to drive an online car because he failed to do business with a friend, "At the beginning, he drove for others in the company, 8,000 yuan / month." Feeling that I was making too little money, I started renting a car and running an online ride-hailing car. Now, if you remove the rent of 6,000 yuan per month, you can also earn about 14,000 yuan, which is more than before. ”
In June 2021, Didi revealed in its prospectus that in the 12 months ended March 31, 2021, Didi had 15 million annual active drivers worldwide, of which 13 million were active drivers in China. At the same time, Burning Finance saw that the age requirement for Didi to recruit drivers was 22-60 years old for men and 21-55 years old for women.
In terms of age and occupation, in September 2020, NetEase Digital Reading pointed out in an article that data from Didi showed that Didi drivers aged 26-35 accounted for the largest proportion, 37%; followed by 36-45 years old, accounting for 35%; drivers aged 46-55 accounted for 21%; drivers under 26 and over 56 years old accounted for the smallest, only 5% and 2% respectively.
In terms of academic qualifications, 51% of drivers have high school/vocational high school/technical/technical school degrees, in addition, 24% of junior high school education, 18% of college/university non-undergraduates, and only 7% of college undergraduates and above.
However, in an ultra-high-intensity, overtime, and unsecured work environment, for most ride-hailing drivers, driving an e-hailing car is not a long-term job.
"I won't do it for two more years." Master Sun said, "In this profession, there is no room for growth in either position or income. You go from express to chauffeur, it's all driving, it doesn't make much difference. Especially in terms of income, the first two years just entered the bank flow income of more than 10,000 yuan, and now run for a few years, the flow income is still more than 10,000 yuan. ”
And "tired", paying and income are not equal, is the common feeling of online ride-hailing drivers. "It's all about exchanging money for yourself." Xiao Shu said bluntly, "Driving for more than 10 hours a day is already very tiring. And driving is a high-risk industry. The city of Shanghai still has a large number of tourists, but the traffic in the morning and evening rush hours is indeed too congested. ”
"Now there are only two ways to make money by running online car ride-hailing, one is to run the night shift, get out of the car at about 5 pm to the end of the night subsidy at 5 o'clock in the morning, but consider whether your body and spirit can be carried; the second is the morning, middle and evening peak online, 7-9 am, 11-13 pm, 17-19 pm These three time periods should also have good flow, but these three time periods have the most cars, mentality is the key, and be careful of stomach diseases." Lao Zhuang also said.
So there are drivers entering the industry, and there are constantly people leaving the industry.
Master Li is the one who entered, and he is also full of enthusiasm and expectation for driving an online car, "The income is much higher than before, which is very good." ”
But Xiao Shu and Lao Zhuang had already left. "Falling incomes can't afford to support a family, of course not." Lao Zhuang said. "I'm too tired, but the actual income is more than 10,000 yuan, which is not proportional to the payment, so I don't want to run after running for half a year." Xiao Shu said.
Master Sun and Beike were planning to leave. "The cervical and lumbar spine are starting to have a little problem. But it's not too uncomfortable, and you can do it for a few more years and make some money. Master Sun said. Beike is waiting for his "rent-to-buy" car to reach three years, "there are still three months to pay off the loan, and you can only run hard." ”
For young people who want to drive an online car, Beike suggested, "If you are around the age of forty, due to temporary unemployment, or the failure of entrepreneurship, even if you can't find a suitable job, you can also consider the transition of short-term online car-hailing." But I advise friends who are not more than forty or fifty years old, who still have thin skills, or even twenty or thirty years old, not to go astray. ”
Resources:
"Fast VS Didi: The Complete Record of The Great War and The Dead Bump", Source: Pintu Network;
"Didi Chuxing App removed from the shelves for rectification, more than 70% of netizens reduced the frequency of use", source: Strawberry Pie questionnaire;
"If you want to go to a good university, ordinary families need to work harder", source: NetEase Digital Reading.
*The caption and some of the inner text illustrations are from Visual China.
*In the text, Beike, Xiao Shu, and Yue Yue are pseudonyms
*Disclaimer: In no event shall the information herein or the opinions expressed herein constitute investment advice to any person.