Recently, some passengers have reported that they have encountered various new problems when taking online car-hailing, such as private charging, additional fare increases, refusal to carry passengers, and forced passenger carpooling. After in-depth investigation, a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily found that the above chaos does exist. With the development of the online car-hailing industry, these new problems have to be taken seriously.
offline payment
"You can only get off after scanning WeChat and paying."
A reporter from Beiqing Daily recently investigated and found that when taking a taxi on an online ride-hailing platform, the driver was asked to scan the code offline to pay the fee.
In March this year, Ms. Yang, a college student, and her roommate traveled from Beijing to Jinan. When they took a taxi online to a hotel on an online ride-hailing platform, they were asked by the driver to scan the code offline to pay. Fortunately, the roommate refused strongly at the time, or they would have paid two fares, Ms. Yang said.
A user named "Zhang Wei" reported that when he arrived at his destination by taking an online taxi, he found that the door could not be opened. "You can only get off after scanning this WeChat to pay, otherwise we will always be exhausted," the taxi driver said to Zhang Wei. Due to the rush to work, Zhang Wei could only scan the driver’s private WeChat payment code to pay the money. Unexpectedly, the driver did not settle the bill on the platform in time, but ran for more than an hour before settling the bill, resulting in Zhang Wei having to pay extra for the order that was not settled online.
The Beijing Youth Daily reporter saw that the online car-hailing platform stipulates that if the driver actively requests and guides the passenger to pay offline without any reason or for various reasons, and collects the passenger’s offline payment of the fare, the platform can deduct its service points, and deduct improper income and 50-200 yuan from the illegal driver’s account as credit liquidated damages. At the same time, the platform has the right to deduct the platform’s receivable service fee; if the violation of these rules or related fee rules is repeated, the platform can suspend the service for 1-7 days at the same time; if the circumstances are serious, the service will be suspended for 15 days; if the circumstances are particularly serious, or if the amount is huge, the service will be permanently suspended.
disguised markup
Additional price increase for long-distance orders is an unspoken rule.
At the same time, various online ride-hailing users specifically called the driver to request a fare increase before getting on the bus. After getting on the bus, the driver proposed a return fee, a fare subsidy, and a disguised fare increase such as asking passengers to add high-speed fees and parking fees at will.
Passenger Xiao Liang told the Beiqing Daily reporter that he once took a taxi from Dongguan to Shenzhen Airport and called a car at a price of more than 300 yuan on the online car-hailing platform. Unexpectedly, after the driver arrived, he said that he had to add an additional return high-speed fee of 50 yuan before he was willing to run the order. After Xiao Liang refused, the driver left. Xiao Liang continued to call the second online car-hailing, and the driver also said that he needed to add a return high-speed fee of 30 yuan. Because he was in a hurry to catch the plane, Xiao Liang finally had no choice but to agree to the driver’s request.
Another passenger, Ms. Liu, said that she had taken a taxi from Beijing to Langfang for a meeting. The driver first asked to cancel the order online and pay offline. Ms. Liu refused the request for safety reasons. Then the driver asked for an additional return fare, which Ms. Liu agreed to because of time constraints. Finally, the driver added the fare to the platform’s fare details.
Beiqing Daily reporter learned that the online car-hailing platform also has regulations on this. There are platform rules that say that if the driver is dissatisfied with the platform’s charging standards, the passenger is required to pay the extra-order fee; the passenger is required to pay the waiting fee; the station order violates the platform rules by requiring the passenger to pay the extra-order fee and other price increases on the grounds of empty driving or queuing, etc. For each illegal order, the platform can deduct its service points, and can deduct improper income and 50-200 yuan from the illegal driver’s account as credit liquidated damages; for repeated violations of these rules or related fee rules, the platform can suspend the service for 1-7 days at the same time; if the circumstances are serious, the service will be suspended for 15 days; if the circumstances are particularly serious, or if the amount is huge, the service will be permanently suspended.
So, why do drivers still violate the regulations? Beiqing Daily reporter learned that orders with fees such as high-speed fees are more common in cross-city orders, because drivers cannot take orders in different places, so they can only return by air. It is reported that online car-hailing cannot take orders in different places, because its operation certificate is in the local area. In the online car-hailing system, drivers cannot receive orders for return trips in different places. If the driver is found to be operating illegally, he will face fines and detain the vehicle.
forced carpooling
Drivers receive orders on multiple platforms for exclusive carpooling
A reporter from Beiqing Daily noticed that netizens also reported more situations, including drivers taking orders and carpooling on multiple platforms without permission. Passengers from Hunan said that they clearly chose "exclusive" on the platform, which was more than ten yuan more expensive than "carpooling", but after getting on the bus, they found that there were already three passengers in the car. When he questioned, the other party’s attitude was arrogant, saying that "there is no’exclusive ‘now."
Another passenger also said that she booked a ride on the online ride-hailing platform to go to the high-speed rail station "exclusive". The price is much more expensive than the car-sharing, but when the car arrived, she found that two passengers had been taken. The other party said that this was her relatives and friends. In the car, she photographed the situation and finally complained to the platform customer service, who agreed to refund the price difference between the two yuan "exclusive" and "carpooling".
In this regard, some experts said that according to the relevant provisions of the Civil Code, if the carrier reduces the service standard without authorization, it shall refund or reduce the fare according to the request of the passenger. Online car-hailing drivers use multiple platforms to take orders without permission, resulting in passengers who should have exclusive ride space but are forced to carpool, which is equivalent to lowering the service standard to a certain extent, which is a breach of contract. Drivers should charge the ride fee according to the carpooling price, or refund the full amount.
Driver refuses to take
Unwilling to take orders in the form of "one price"
The price of "one price" orders is lower than that of ordinary orders, and it does not change with the time of the journey. Many drivers are reluctant to accept similar orders because of the low price. At the end of February this year, a video of an online ride-hailing driver refusing to take or abusing passengers on a one-price order hit the hot search, triggering discussions among many netizens. A reporter from Beiqing Daily saw that the incident in the video happened on February 24 this year. When Mr. Wu called an online ride-hailing car in Shenzhen, Guangdong, the driver asked him if he was a one-price order, and called the platform customer service in the car, claiming: "The passenger doesn’t want to spend money, and he can’t bear to take a car. Let him walk over. I don’t serve this kind of passenger." Mr. Wu said that the driver felt that he had lost money by taking the "one-price" order, not only insulted the passenger as a "loser", but also let him off before he reached his destination.
Similar situations are common in scenic spots or congested road sections. Drivers believe that the order takes too long, so they are unwilling to accept the order in the form of "one price". However, passengers believe that this is stipulated by the platform, and since they have also spent money, they should enjoy the service.
observe
Source control should be strengthened
There have been drivers and passengers who have caused trouble to the traffic law enforcement department because of the above problems. Law enforcement officials said that drivers have objections to the platform’s charging model and cannot be transferred to passengers, infringing on passengers’ reasonable and legitimate rights and interests. Hangzhou Traffic Law Enforcement Team reminds: Taxi (including online ride-hailing) drivers deliberately detour, refuse to take, drop passengers halfway, and forcibly carpool are illegal acts. If a similar incident occurs, the driver will be punished by administrative penalties.
Some analysts believe that the reason why there are a large number of online car-hailing drivers who take unreasonable orders and charge fees is that the actual income of drivers is reduced in the saturated environment of the online car-hailing market. In this case, some online car-hailing drivers may take risks and take chances and make the above-mentioned violations and illegal acts. On the other hand, the benefit distribution and order distribution mechanism of online car-hailing platforms are unreasonable, and the commission of online car-hailing platforms to drivers is too high, resulting in low actual profits for drivers after each order is settled. In addition, the platform strictly controls the number of orders and the order amount of drivers every day through the order dispatch mechanism, resulting in limited income regardless of how long the driver actually works every day. Therefore, some drivers have to charge privately in order to survive and force passengers to fight. Furthermore, passengers’ awareness of rights protection is not strong enough, which also condones this part of the dishonest online driver.
According to the analysis, it is time to treat the chaos of online car-hailing drivers. The government and relevant departments should strengthen source control, standardize the business license of platform enterprise qualifications; consolidate the main responsibility of enterprises, crack down on illegal operations, supervise and inspect the implementation of safety production responsibilities, track services, interview warnings, and urge immediate rectification of potential safety hazards found. Online car-hailing platforms should increase supervision of online car-hailing drivers, strengthen travel norms for drivers and travel safety protection for passengers; organize regular training to improve the quality of online car-hailing drivers. At the same time, it is necessary to simplify the rights protection mechanism and enhance passengers’ awareness and willingness to protect their rights. Passengers should enhance their awareness of rights protection, choose services rationally, evaluate services reasonably, reduce disputes, and ensure safe travel.
