"It's really getting harder and harder to run a ride-hailing car," said Mr. Li, a ride-hailing driver he knew at 51, exhausted after 10 hours of sports car time.
Before the pandemic, Mr. Li ran a seafood and aquatic product shop, and his monthly income was quite good. After the outbreak of the epidemic, the business of the store was seriously affected, and the customer flow plummeted, and finally the store had to be closed. After the epidemic ended, in order to make money to subsidize his family, Mr. Li became an online car-hailing driver, running cars step by step.
He said that in mid-2022, he became an online car-hailing driver, and because it is a new account, the platform will have some incentive policies, and there will be additional rewards for reaching the task volume every day.
Now that I have been running for more than a year, the number of orders sent on the platform has decreased significantly, and I have waited near an office building for one hour during the rush hour without receiving a single order! I run 200 kilometers a day, and my net income per month is on average more than 3,000 yuan. Not only that, the platform commission is up to about 35%, and sometimes the unit price of the order is so low that you can't even afford to eat a fast meal.
After the platform launched the "fixed price" and "special express" mode, the commission ratio of the order platform should also be two or three percent, except for the commission, there is not much at all. If you encounter a traffic jam again, you basically can't make any money. What is surprising is that when the fixed price mode is turned on, it is difficult to receive ordinary orders, and when the fixed price mode is closed, there will be fewer orders sent by the platform.
The platform has a very clever algorithm that assigns tasks based on the driver's performance and rating. If the driver goes out every day and reaches the task volume of the platform, then the probability of the driver taking the order is higher. If the driver is idle for a few days and is not open, it will be difficult to receive orders in the future. In order to achieve the platform's rating, Mr. Li had to increase his working hours to maintain his income.
Drivers who respect the rules of the platform can still drink soup, and drivers who work against the rules of the platform don't expect to make money.
Another online car-hailing driver in Xiamen, Master Lin, also complained to 51 Jun that when he entered the industry in 2020, he ran down for more than 300 yuan a day, and on holidays, he also had a turnover of 1,000 yuan a day, and at that time, he could easily earn more than 10,000 yuan a month.
It may be that there are more and more people running online car-hailing, and from 2022, income has plummeted. Although the departure time has increased from 10 hours to 12 hours, it only earns 200 yuan a day, and this does not deduct the operating costs of the vehicle. Working hours have increased and are not as high as the income level of two years ago.
I believe that most online ride-hailing drivers will encounter some of the problems mentioned in the above cases. If you have less money, your income will decline, and you will only be able to eat and clothe for a day...... It has become a common phenomenon that monks have more meat and less meat.
The online car-hailing market has formed an involution, and from a national perspective, the data on the growth of online car-hailing is very amazing. According to data released by the Ministry of Transport, as of February 28, 2021, a total of 3.291 million online car-hailing driver licenses and 1.229 million vehicle transportation licenses have been issued in various places.
As of February 29, 2024, a total of 6.713 million online ride-hailing driver licenses and 2.821 million vehicle transportation licenses have been issued in various places.
In just three years, the number of online car-hailing drivers has increased by 3.422 million, and the number of vehicle transportation licenses has increased by 1.592 million. Ride-hailing drivers have undoubtedly become one of the fastest-growing industries in mainland China. However, when there is an imbalance between supply and demand in the market, the competition in the industry will become extremely fierce.
In May last year, Dongguan, Sanya, Wenzhou, Jinan, Suining and other places have successively issued online car-hailing saturation warnings, reminding local online car-hailing bicycles that the average daily number of orders is less than 10.
For today's drivers, driving an online car-hailing service is only an urgency to make ends meet. I have supported insurance, leasing companies, and car repair shops, and when I get to myself, I deserve to eat.
Under the involution, online car-hailing drivers have not thought about changing careers and going through the procedures for returning to the online car-hailing network. Taking Guangzhou as an example, in August last year, a total of 115 online ride-hailing platforms were licensed in accordance with the law. 2,500 online car-hailing units were withdrawn from operation, and 164 "Online Taxi Reservation Driver's Licenses" were cancelled.
But when you think that the online car-hailing driver can be safe and sound after returning the car, it is a big mistake, but you don't know that the leasing company has a lot of routines.
In June last year, an online car-hailing driver in Zhejiang rented a Dongfeng Nissan Venucia D60 online car-hailing car for a monthly rent of 3,013 yuan for a three-year lease period.
("Rent-to-buy": The leasing company realizes the purpose of purchasing the vehicle in installments by the customer by leasing the vehicle for a long time and disposing of the second-hand car.) At the end of the lease period, the ownership of the vehicle is transferred to the customer. ）
When renting a car, the leasing company promised to return the car halfway, but when the online car-hailing driver wanted to return the car recently, he was told that he could not handle the transfer, and the car had to be mortgaged to another company, and the escrow company would rent out the car and pay the driver every month until the loan was settled.
This kind of case of "renting instead of purchasing" is not an isolated case. There are a lot of complaints about "renting instead of purchasing" on Black Cat, most of which are focused on the obstruction of returning cars, car rental companies withholding more deposits, and illegal service fees, most of which are still being processed.
Previously, online car-hailing has become the re-employment choice of many unemployed people because of its low entry threshold. There are more entrants, and the profit model of the platform has changed. The commission is high, the rules are played, and the car is ...... These industry chaos have been exposed one by one, making online ride-hailing drivers complain.
Sun Shu, CEO of Didi, an online ride-hailing company, once explained the issue of Didi's "commission" of online car-hailing, saying that in 2020, Didi's online car-hailing drivers' income accounted for 79.1% of the total amount payable by passengers.
But by 2024, Didi's commission will generally be as high as 25%-29%, and even the coupon amount of the special express will be calculated on the drivers' heads. The ride-hailing drivers who worked hard to run cars ended up being the group with the least distribution of benefits.
Source: Poster News
Even with high commissions, the profitability of the platform is still worrying. Taking Didi as an example, in 2023, Didi achieved a total revenue of 192.38 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36.6%, a net profit of 535 million yuan, a positive annual net profit, and an adjusted EBITA loss of 2.163 billion yuan.
If the bad atmosphere of the platform is not rectified, more and more drivers will quit, and the prospects of the online car-hailing industry will become more and more bleak.
At the Hangzhou job fair, a slogan of 5,000-15,000 yuan per month was used to recruit drivers, but no one cared
Recently, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that driverless taxis will be officially launched on August 8. GAC Aion and Didi will join hands to mass-produce driverless L4 taxis in 2025. From the perspective of the trends of car companies, driverless taxis will become the mainstream trend in the mobility market.
Driverless taxis can really achieve mass production, which is undoubtedly a "bombshell" for online car-hailing drivers, and this will also be a big impact on travel platforms.
However, as far as the current situation is concerned, unmanned driving technology will not be promoted on a large scale because of the need to improve safety and regulations. Before that, the only thing the platform has to do is to continuously improve the system to help drivers avoid risks, and if they don't pay attention to it, the online car-hailing industry may be labeled as a black car and block its own road.
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