The ride-hailing industry has entered a "crossroads"
Reporter Guo Yangchen and Quartz Jing report from Shanghai
The ride-hailing industry may be at a crossroads.
In an interview, the reporter of "China Business Daily" learned that with the rapid growth of orders in the online car-hailing industry, the vitality of the industry is increasing, and more and more people are joining the team of online car-hailing drivers, which has brought about the intensification of involution in the industry. The increase in the number of drivers has led to a decline in average daily revenue, and many drivers have reported that they need to work longer hours to maintain their income.
From the perspective of enterprises, in the past few years, major online car-hailing platforms have started a price war to compete for market share. Nowadays, with the entry of aggregation platforms and the intensification of involution in the industry, many online car-hailing orders are "paid at both ends", which further amplifies the revenue dilemma of drivers.
Because of this, many ride-hailing companies are also accelerating their transformation to reduce costs and increase efficiency, so as to seek long-term sustainable development. It is reported that on the one hand, online car-hailing platforms such as Cao Cao Travel, Xiangdao Travel, and T3 Travel have joined forces with car companies to launch customized cars to provide customized services for drivers and passengers while reducing costs, and on the other hand, they are considering the layout of Robotaxi (self-driving taxis) in advance from a longer-term perspective, which is also considered to be the direction of breaking the situation in the online car-hailing industry.
Controversial "commission ratio"
"I rented a room with a fellow villager in Pujiang Town, Minhang District, put a bunk bed, and shared the monthly rent of 500 yuan per person. But we usually pick up and drop off guests in the central city or at the train station or airport, and many times we sleep directly in the car for the night. Li Bing (not his real name) has been driving online ride-hailing in Shanghai for many years, he told reporters.
On weekdays, Li Bing's least favorite thing is orders from aggregation platforms. He told reporters that compared with the orders of the self-operated platform of online car-hailing companies, the income of drivers for similar distances will be about 20% less. "However, many passengers like to call a taxi on the aggregation platform, on the one hand, they can call dozens of platforms at the same time, and the speed of calling a taxi is fast, and on the other hand, the discount margin of the aggregation platform is often greater. ”
"After the order ended, the passenger paid 98.11 yuan, but the driver's side showed that the passenger only paid 71.46 yuan, and 26.65 yuan disappeared out of thin air, but the driver only received 52.17 yuan. Coincidentally, recently, Gu Dasong, executive director of the Traffic Rule of Law and Development Research Center of Southeast University and president of the online car-hailing branch of the China Urban Public Transport Association, posted a screenshot of an online car-hailing order.
The reporter noticed that based on the order data of the driver's side, the commission ratio of the above orders was 27.06%, which was within the warning line of 30%. However, judging from the data on the passenger side, the actual commission rate is as high as 46.82%.
Ji Xuehong, director of the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of North China University of Technology, told reporters that the Ministry of Transport's "Sunshine Action" requires that the percentage of online car-hailing platforms cannot exceed 30%. Under normal circumstances, the percentage of the aggregation platform is 14%, and the rest is taken by the online car-hailing company.
"Our survey found that the average commission ratio of the online car-hailing industry is 25%-27%, but there are indeed some orders with a high commission ratio, more than 30%. Orders with a commission of more than 40% should be an individual case, but will cause a particularly bad feeling for the driver. Ji Xuehong explained.
Due to the increasing number of drivers, the overall order volume and income have decreased, for which Li Bing even prepared 3 mobile phones to take orders on multiple platforms at the same time. In his view, from the "fixed price" model in the second half of 2023 to the current "high commission ratio", some of the hot spots of public opinion in the online car-hailing industry are ultimately due to the general decline in drivers' incomes.
According to data from the Ministry of Transport, as of December 2023, the number of registered ride-hailing drivers in China reached 6.572 million, exceeding 6.5 million for the first time. According to this estimate, there were 142,000 new ride-hailing drivers in China in December, and 1.482 million in 2023.
"The issue of 'commission ratio' has attracted widespread attention, and the core problem is the decline in income. Ji Xuehong's research found that at present, 50% of online car-hailing drivers earn 30-45 yuan per hour, and if the median is 38 yuan, the income for 10 hours is 380 yuan, deducting various related costs, the income belongs to the middle and low income.
Customized ride-hailing is emerging
On December 18, 2023, Xiangdao Mobility announced that it had reached a strategic cooperation with SAIC-GM-Wuling, officially announcing the launch of a new customized online car-hailing model - Xiangdao Customized Edition. It is reported that the new car is based on the customization of shared operation scenarios, and it is planned to be the first to be launched in Nanning, Liuzhou, Guilin and other core cities in Guangxi in early 2024.
In terms of Xiangdao Travel, in the face of the new trend of travel market development, the customized development and manufacturing of online car-hailing is the core link. Through the "Xiangdao Customized Version", Xiangdao Travel can not only directly improve the experience of drivers and passengers, but also further enter a new stage of refined operation.
Coincidentally, in March 2023, Cao Cao Mobility officially released the shared custom car brand Cao Cao Automobile, and at the same time launched the brand's first customized car, Geely Cao Cao 60.
Cao Cao said that in the past, the vehicles used in the shared travel operation were mainly low-profile private cars, and did not take into account the long-term driving of the drivers of the commercial vehicles and the requirements of passengers for the space and riding environment in the car.
"The car is a driver's entrepreneurial tool. The relevant person in charge of Cao Cao Travel said that turning on the air conditioner in winter will reduce the mileage of the tram, so Geely Cao Cao 60 is specially equipped with a heat pump air conditioning system, which can convert the heat in the air, the heat in the motor, and the heat caused by all aspects of the car into the heat of the air conditioner, so as to allow the driver to work comfortably and warmly on the basis of not affecting the vehicle's battery life. At the same time, the Geely Cao Cao 60 can be charged or replaced, and the battery replacement time is only 60 seconds, which can greatly help drivers save time.
The relevant person in charge of Xiangdao Travel also pointed out that considering the needs of online car-hailing drivers for flexible vehicle control and cost control, the "Xiangdao Starlight Customized Edition" makes operating costs more cost-effective by reducing energy consumption.
In view of the passenger experience, the reporter learned that on the Geely Cao Cao 60, every passenger can control various intelligent control functions in the car through the Cao Cao Travel mobile App or applet. In addition to the one-button ventilation and intelligent temperature control functions, there are also intelligent services such as shake the car search, free Wi-Fi, intelligent voice assistant, and music listening, which have won a good reputation since their listing.
In addition, the use of customized cars is also an important way for ride-hailing platforms to reduce costs. Ni Licheng, CEO of Xiangdao Mobility, said that the ride-hailing platform can provide automakers with the needs of operating vehicle characteristics, and automakers can reduce costs and provide support by customizing vehicles. Therefore, close cooperation between OEMs and mobility platforms is key to achieving product suitability, reducing costs, and driving the industry.
In Ji Xuehong's view, the most important thing about using customized cars is to improve the comfort of drivers and passengers, and at the same time reduce operating costs by using battery swapping technology. Additional products such as Xiaoice boxes can also be placed on the car, so that passengers can generate some shopping needs in the car scene. Overall, there is still some room for imagination in customized online car-hailing.
Seek autonomous driving
In the view of economist Yu Fenghui, the high percentage of the online car-hailing industry is inseparable from the fierce competition in the market and the single profit model. In order to cope with these difficulties, online ride-hailing platforms should strengthen technological innovation and improve service quality and efficiency, and the deployment of Robotaxi is one of the most important directions.
Call a driverless taxi out of the subway station, take an unmanned bus shuttle bus at the bus stop, and take an unmanned "minibus" through the scenic spots in the park...... In August 2023, with the empowerment of Xiangdao Travel, these scenarios have become a reality in Shanghai Haichang Ocean Park.
According to reports, in April 2023, Xiangdao Robotaxi was awarded the first batch of Shanghai Intelligent Network Taxi Demonstration Operation Notice and Demonstration Operation Certificate, and in July of the same year, Xiangdao Travel launched Robotaxi demonstration operation in the whole area of Jiading District, officially taking the first step of Robotaxi commercial operation. Up to now, Xiangdao Robotaxi has completed more than 260,000 safe autonomous driving trips.
In fact, it is not enough to rely on ride-hailing platforms to develop Roboxi, but also requires the joint empowerment of local governments, automakers, and autonomous driving companies.
In September 2021, T3 Travel and Qingzhou Zhihang officially launched the public operation of Robotaxi in Suzhou. According to the data disclosed by T3 Mobility, up to now, T3 Mobility's autonomous vehicles have traveled more than 600,000 kilometers, attracting more than 80,000 people to experience it.
Li Jingfeng, vice president of T3 Mobility, said that the large-scale commercialization of autonomous driving requires not only continuous iteration of technology, but also local governments to promote the implementation of relevant policies and regulations. T3 Mobility is willing to cooperate with "allies" such as car companies and algorithm companies to implement autonomous driving scenarios in various cities as permitted by policies and regulations.
Cao Cao Mobility has also accelerated the layout of cooperation in the field of autonomous driving. It is understood that in 2022, Cao Cao has reached a series of technical and strategic cooperation with Geely Automobile Innovation Research Institute Intelligent Driving Center, Jika Intelligent Technology, Langge Map, etc., and in 2023, it will sign strategic cooperation agreements with many enterprises such as CITIC Zhilian, Innovusion, Yunchi Future, Black Sesame Intelligence, and Zhongzhixing, covering high-precision maps, lidars, chips, intelligent cockpits and other fields.
"Cao Cao Mobility is committed to promoting Robotaxi to build an open commercial intelligent driving platform, and Robotaxi in cooperation with CIIC has been put into operation in Suzhou High-speed Rail New Town. The relevant person in charge of Cao Cao Travel said that in the future, Cao Cao Travel will also use the characteristics of its own platform enterprises to provide standardized business operation empowerment for various intelligent driving enterprises and realize the large-scale commercial landing of high-end intelligent driving.