In 2021, the new transportation format will seize the development opportunity and emerge, and the care of the legitimate rights and interests of users and practitioners has also been put on the agenda.
Reporters Xu Jie and Dong Yujun
As a typical traditional format, the transportation industry has spawned new vitality in the process of interacting with new technologies and new industries such as information technology and modern financial services, which in turn has stimulated the public's vision of a better life.
Under the background of the construction of a transportation power and "double carbon", while the new transportation format ushers in new opportunities for rapid development, there are also many shortcomings that need to be filled. Therefore, relevant policy documents, laws and regulations and industry standards are accelerating in the opening year of the "14th Five-Year Plan".
In this large and important industry, industries such as ride-hailing, freight and express logistics have attracted much attention because they are closely related to public life. Then "growth", "security" and "compliance" can be used to describe 2021 in these three major industries.
Ride-hailing
From a wild run to steady development
In recent years, with the rapid development of the mobile Internet, online ride-hailing has sprung up, providing people with more choices for daily travel, replacing traditional travel modes and creating a large number of jobs.
According to the statistics of the national online ride-hailing supervision information exchange platform, as of November 30, 2021, a total of 255 online ride-hailing platforms across the country have obtained business licenses, and a total of 3.864 million online ride-hailing driver certificates and 1.499 million vehicle transportation certificates have been issued in various places, with an average daily order volume of about 21 million.
Master Wang, a ride-hailing driver, sighed to the Securities Daily reporter, "If there were more than 100,000 online ride-hailing cars in Beijing before the epidemic, it is now estimated to be more than 3 times, which can be described as fierce competition and great pressure." ”
The significant increase in the number of ride-hailing vehicles reflects the ambitions of major ride-hailing platforms. In July this year, with the removal of Didi products, waist players once again gained the opportunity to compete for market share. Taking Cao Cao Travel and T3 Travel as an example, on September 6, Cao Cao Chuxing announced the completion of the B round of financing of 3.8 billion yuan, which is also the first domestic equity investment obtained by the online ride-hailing company this year; subsequently, T3 Travel completed a new round of financing on September 23, and at this time, it has been two years and four months since its last round of financing (the angel round in 2019), and the amount of financing is as high as 7.7 billion yuan, which is also the largest single financing obtained by the online ride-hailing company from 2018 to the present.
A senior executive of a head online ride-hailing platform told the Securities Daily reporter, "At present, there are many participants in the online ride-hailing market, and mainstream players include three categories: aggregation platforms, car companies and regional small travel companies. From the perspective of financing scale, capital is gathering to the head enterprises, the Matthew effect has begun to appear, and the game and competition of diversified forces in the online ride-hailing market have also made the industry pattern full of variables. ”
Wang Xianjin, vice president of the Scientific Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport, said in an interview with the Securities Daily reporter, "The Ministry of Transport has always been cautious and inclusive of the development of new formats, which is also the reason for the rapid development of the industry, but it has not slackened in ensuring the standardized development of the industry and public safety." ”
In reality, personal safety and security seems to be separated from the rapid development of the industry. Taking the online ride-hailing industry as an example, chaos such as low barriers for drivers to enter, chaotic charging standards, and lack of safety and security measures have buried hidden dangers for the safety of passengers' personal and property.
Data security issues also run throughout the year. Among them, in early July, Didi Chuxing encountered a safety review as a typical representative event. On July 4, Netinfo China released a message saying that Didi Chuxing had been removed from major app stores in accordance with the Cybersecurity Law of the People's Republic of China due to serious violations of laws and regulations such as the collection and use of personal information. Subsequently, on July 16, the Cyberspace Administration of China, together with the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of State Security, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Transport, the State Administration of Taxation, and the State Administration of Market Regulation, jointly entered Didi Chuxing to conduct a network security review. But as of now, the results of the review of the incident have not been disclosed to the public.
In addition to the hidden dangers of consumer safety, practitioners are also facing a lot of pressure. Because of the impact of the epidemic, the demand side has shrunk seriously, and the profits of drivers have been significantly damaged. Many ride-hailing drivers can only maintain their earnings as much as possible by extending their working hours.
An online car driver told reporters that he went out at 6 o'clock in the morning and went home at 11 o'clock in the evening, working for about 18 hours, so as to barely ensure that he could get more than 500 yuan of flow per day, "otherwise he would work for the platform, and he would not earn a penny." Because drivers need to pay higher platform commissions.
The above-mentioned industry insiders told reporters that with the steady development of the industry from the previous rush to today, the online car industry has entered the stage of stock development, and at this time, it is necessary to solve how the participating parties distribute profits. In particular, the head online ride-hailing platform uses the market advantage to easily grasp the right to speak, and constantly improve the commission, and the driver can only be forced to accept. It is understood that the proportion of some online ride-hailing platforms has reached 25%.
As a limited means of attracting users in the short term, the price war seems to have a rekindle. In order to increase users and increase transportation capacity, some platforms will not hesitate to restart the subsidy model.
In response to the resurgence of the price war, the regulatory authorities have repeatedly interviewed relevant enterprises and obtained a "truce" commitment from enterprises.
In this regard, the above-mentioned head online ride-hailing platform executives told reporters, "In order to emerge in the competition in the online ride-hailing market, you can't only rely on short-term drainage methods such as subsidies, the key is to ensure a high-quality platform experience, and the tactics of relying on subsidies in the 'first online car war' have been blocked by the platform's own conditions and policies." ”
As the number of ride-hailing drivers increases, their social security issues are becoming a common concern. At the same time, all parties in society are also actively promoting the exploration of a diversified employment security system.
Many of the guiding documents issued this year have given relatively clear guidance on the protection of rights and interests for those with new employment forms. For example, on November 30, the Ministry of Transport and other eight departments jointly issued the "Opinions on Strengthening the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Employees in New Forms of Transportation", which pointed out that the relevant departments in various localities are required to urge online ride-hailing platforms to announce pricing rules and income distribution rules to drivers and passengers and other relevant parties, and after each order is completed, drivers should be clearly informed of the proportion of this lottery to protect the driver's right to know and supervise; urge the online ride-hailing platform to strengthen communication and consultation with relevant parties, determine the proportion of the draw in compliance, and publicly release it Urge online ride-hailing platform enterprises to publicly solicit the opinions of employee representatives, trade union organizations, and industry associations before determining and adjusting business strategies such as pricing rules and income distribution rules, and announce them to the public one month in advance.
Network Freight
Capital focuses on fierce competition
The freight industry will also be concerned by public opinion and capital in 2021, especially the same city freight that needs to be improved in specialization is the focus of capital. As of November 2021, in the same city freight track, Lalala has obtained a total of 8 financings, with a cumulative amount of nearly 15 billion yuan, ranking first in the industry in terms of both the number of financings and the amount of financing.
In addition to the fierce competition for freight in the same city, the trunk transport track is also showing a trend of "competing for deer". Among them, Fuyou Trucks filed an F-1 prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on May 14 to seek listing on the NASDAQ; Manbang Group landed on the U.S. stock market in June; and Luge also submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on November 12. In addition, there are G7 IoT, Zhongchu Zhiyun, Chuanhua, Zhongjiaoxing Road and other powerful enterprises are also continuing to exert efforts.
According to data from the Ministry of Transport, as of September 30, 2021, the scale of online freight companies has increased to 1,755. In terms of business volume, a total of 16.575 million waybills were completed in the third quarter of this year, an increase of 30% from the previous quarter. Enterprises such as JD Logistics and SF have also been actively deploying in the track in the past year. For example, JD Logistics launched the Jingyi network freight platform to create service products around truck drivers and living environments.
It should be noted that online freight platforms are frequently subject to regulatory review due to safety hazards. For example, the Manbang Group is under review for security issues, and the company has stopped its new user registration service during the review period.
An industry insider told reporters, "At the same time as the rapid development of the online freight industry, there have also been problems such as vicious competition, fictitious transactions, illegal invoicing and leakage of personal information. According to data from the Ministry of Transport, in the first three quarters of this year, 293 of the 1755 online freight companies did not upload the information of the waybill, accounting for 17%. ”
For example, Hefei Weitian Express Information Technology Co., Ltd., the operator of the digital freight platform "Luge", said in the prospectus that it was temporarily removed from the shelves by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology due to problems such as improper collection and processing of user information by the Kayou Belt App and related software development kits.
It should be noted that the survival pressure of drivers and the "opacity" of the platform also occur in the freight industry. According to the "2021 Truck Driver Employment Survey Report" released by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, 86.5% of truck drivers suffer from occupational diseases due to long-term sedentary driving and inability to eat on time.
To this end, in November, the Ministry of Transport and other departments jointly issued the "Opinions on Strengthening the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Truck Drivers" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), which pointed out that it is necessary to explore and promote the filing management system of the Internet road freight information trading platform, establish a social supervision mechanism, urge platform enterprises to fully listen to the opinions of engaged drivers, reasonably determine and adjust the rules of information service fees, membership fees, pricing rules, bidding mechanisms, dispatch rules, etc., and publicize them on the platform. It is not allowed to induce the cargo owner to unreasonablely reduce the price and the freight vehicle to overload and exceed the limit, and it is not allowed to induce the truck driver to viciously compete at a low price and overtime labor.
"What kind of guarantee responsibility the platform assumes, how to clarify the boundary between the operating costs of the platform and the driver's remuneration, etc., all require more open discussion and consultation between relevant departments and stakeholders, and formulate a development model that takes into account the reasonable benefits of all parties." The above-mentioned industry insiders said.
Industry insiders believe that whether it is an online ride-hailing platform or a freight platform, service quality is one of the core competitiveness of the platform. In the process of various enterprises launching preferential measures and actively expanding their business, the number of platform orders is expected to increase in a short period of time, but the growth rate may slow down, and improving service quality will become the key to the success of each platform.
Express logistics
Business volume breakthrough The price war has slowed down
The express logistics industry ushered in a significant breakthrough in business volume in 2021. On December 8, according to the data of the Express Big Data Platform of the State Post Bureau, the volume of China's express delivery business exceeded 100 billion pieces in 2021, ranking first in the world for 8 consecutive years, which also marked the development of China's postal express industry to a new level.
Up to now, 8 express delivery companies have been successfully listed, forming 3 brand express delivery groups with an annual business volume of more than 10 billion pieces and an income scale of more than 100 billion yuan.
Li Chengdong, an e-commerce analyst at Dolphin Think Tank, said that with the extremely hot live streaming industry in the past two years and broad development prospects, the scale of the domestic online shopping industry will become larger and larger in the future, and the huge market space will stimulate more express logistics companies to participate in it.
The problem of information leakage is particularly prominent in the logistics industry. A small courier receipt contains the user's name, telephone, address and other personal information, and the criminals deduce the user's consumption habits, economic ability, etc., and then carry out fraud. A courier told reporters that he usually handles 10,000 pieces of user information, and some people once wanted to buy it at a price of 2 yuan each.
On November 1, the Personal Information Protection Law came into effect, clarifying that no organization or individual may illegally collect, use, process, or transmit other people's personal information, and may not illegally buy, sell, provide, or disclose other people's personal information. Some insiders told reporters, "Protecting personal information will be a normalized supervision, which is conducive to the long-term healthy development of the company, accelerating the elimination of non-compliant enterprises, and enhancing market concentration." ”
Homogeneous competition among enterprises is also harming the interests of enterprises. For example, the revenue of express delivery single ticket has always been the focus of attention in the industry, and the fierce price war between express delivery companies has made the price of a single ticket in the industry continue to decline, and the single ticket revenue has fallen to a historical low.
The pressure from many problems is eventually transmitted to the courier. In July 2021, the "Opinions on Doing a Good Job in Protecting the Legitimate Rights and Interests of Courier Groups" was released, and at the end of August, it received a rapid response from all enterprises in the Tongda Department. Lai Meisong, chairman and CEO of ZTO Express, said, "Excessively extreme price competition will undoubtedly disrupt the market order and hinder the sustainable development of the industry, so it is necessary for the relevant departments to guide and regulate positively." ”
On December 3, the State Post Bureau held a telephone symposium for express delivery companies, at which Ma Junsheng, director of the State Post Bureau, clearly put forward the anti-internal volume requirements, "prevent unfair competition, and oppose acts that harm the interests of the industry and harm the interests of employees."
Wei Jianhui said that from the perspective of enterprises, with the easing of the price war brought about by regulatory intervention, the performance of express delivery companies has begun to marginal improvement, and the whole will enter a benign development channel. This means that service capabilities will become the focus of competition for express delivery companies.
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