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In the early morning of the 10th, Didi Chuxing’s page showed that the service was suspended. Surging News reporter Wang Xin, picture
On the early morning of September 10, it was the second late night when Didi suspended its late-night (23:00 to 5:00 the next day) service from September 8 to 14.
Without Didi, is it convenient for citizens to travel late at night, whether other online car-hailing software is easy to take a taxi, and whether the taxi business has changed? With these questions in mind, Surging News conducted travel experiences in five cities in Shenzhen, Guangdong, Zhengzhou, Henan, Kunming, Yunnan, Changsha, Hunan, and Chongqing in the early morning of September 10.
Shenzhen, Guangdong:
Shenzhen "outside the customs", other online car-hailing platforms can hardly call a car
In the early morning of September 10, at Bantian Subway Station on Bulong Road in Shenzhen, three taxis passed by surging journalists waiting on the side of the road. None of them were waiting for the green "Airbus" car that was expected to appear.
It was a day after Didi announced the end of its nightly service, leaving many in a city of more than 10 million young people at a loss. Bantian belongs to Shenzhen’s "outside the customs", or suburb, nearly 20 kilometers from the Luohu Diwang Building in the center of the city.
According to a 2015 report in Nanfang Daily, if calculated according to the 10.7789 million permanent population in Shenzhen in 2014, an average of 43 Shenzhen people use Didi Express once. And Shenzhen 16,000 taxis, but nearly half of the time every day is empty, and the income of their buddies has dropped by 1/3.
The sudden cancellation of Didi’s night service also seems to have disrupted the lives of many people. Long accustomed to the clear price of online car-hailing, without Didi, surging news reporters downloaded two taxi apps, Shenzhou and Meituan.
But it is not easy to call an online car, Meituan system prompts "the current city has not been opened"; Cao Cao system prompts "the current line has not been opened".
Finally, when the fourth taxi passed by, the surging news reporter successfully stopped it. From here to the Starlight Covenant Garden, the distance is 3.3 kilometers, and the fare is 24 yuan. Compared with the estimated price of 20.9 yuan tested by Didi’s software, it is not expensive.
The driver, surnamed Liu, appears to be in his 40s. He claims to have been driving a taxi for five years. With the advent of online ride-hailing, business has been going from bad to worse, but he still needs to pay more than 9,000 yuan a month. "When you open your eyes in the morning, you will think about how you will get 300 yuan today."
Asked why he didn’t go online to hail a car, the answer was "I’m used to running a taxi." Didi’s suspension of night service has indeed brought business to taxis. Mr. Liu said that Sept. 8 happened to be a Saturday, the first night that Didi stopped night service, and "it was basically not empty."
However, the business on the evening of September 9 was not as good as on the evening of September 8, maybe because on Sunday, maybe people knew that it was not good to take a taxi and rushed to the destination early. Before receiving the surging news, Master Liu said that "five or six kilometers were empty."
Master Liu did not gloat over Didi’s recent negative cases. But he also felt that people’s understanding of taxis was biased. He believed that at least taxis in Shenzhen were more standardized. Not only were the cars clean, but the large screen installed in the front seat, the driver’s license and fee information switched on the screen in turn, "there is no phenomenon of slaughtering customers."
The surging news mentioned that the judicial case study center of the Central University of Finance and Economics recently released a survey report and found that since 2017, there have been 183 criminal convictions involving cruise taxi drivers who violated passengers. The center believes that the incidence of criminal cases of cruise taxis is actually much higher than that of online taxi-hailing, but because online taxi-hailing is an emerging business and attracts general attention in society, once online taxi-hailing is involved in criminal cases, it will be more exposed in the media than traditional cruise taxis.
But Master Liu believes that taxi drivers are dedicated to driving for a living, and there is no purpose for making friends or other impure motives. They should be safer than online car-hailing, "and individual black sheep cannot be ruled out."
In his opinion, those "black cars" should be the target of public criticism. Not only are they charging sky-high prices, but their safety cannot be guaranteed, and they also seize their business.
Although Didi’s temporary suspension brought a short-term business explosion to taxi drivers, Master Liu was not too excited, but he could not hide his competitive psychology. "They should stop for a while longer."
It was nearly 3 am on the return journey, and the number of empty taxis on the road gradually increased. Surging News downloaded Yidao and Shenzhou special cars respectively, trying to try online car-hailing services on these two platforms.
Open the Easy to Software, the system prompts that you need to recharge before making an appointment, but after recharging 30 yuan, you call a car three times in a row, and after waiting for 1 minute and 30 seconds, there is a reminder "Sorry, the drivers are in the service and no one is taking orders for the time being".
The estimated cost of the Shenzhou special car is 36.24 yuan, which is much higher than the price of taxis and Didi, and the distance between the driver and the passenger who delivered the order is 7 kilometers, so he has not rushed over. In desperation, he can only cancel the order and stop a taxi again.
This Master Zhang looked a little tired and said listlessly that he would not leave work until 6 o’clock, and the business would only decrease later. He did not feel that Didi’s outage had brought him too much business. "The business was still taken away by other platforms."
Judging from the taxi experience that night, his judgment may be correct. Just like because they are used to mobile payment, the surging news reporters have no cash on them, and the 17.5 yuan fare when they get off the bus can only be transferred by WeChat.
On the bar street of Zhengzhou Nongke Road, several taxis are waiting at the entrance of a KTV. Surging News reporter, Duan Yan Chaotu
Zhengzhou, Henan:
At 1 am, there are many empty taxis on the street, and the business is better than before the outage of Didi
At 1:30 a.m. on the 10th, at the gas station (second ring) about 200 meters south of the intersection of Chengdong Road and Longhai Road in Guancheng District, Zhengzhou City, seven or eight taxis with green lights were queuing up to refill.
Although Didi is out of service, it can also measure the price. Surging News enters the destination "Nongke Road Bar Street", which shows that the express train is 20.9 yuan, and the preferential price is 23.8 yuan, but the call prompt "Suspension of late-night (23:00-5:00 the next day) service from September 8th to 14th". Call the car through the Autonavi software, the interface prompts that Didi is out of service late at night, and you can call the first car to book a car. The page shows that there are also coupons "up to 25 yuan off, unlimited times". Click on the "comfortable" vehicle, the first car is estimated at 35 yuan, and the Shenzhou special car is 45 yuan. Try to call a car, and soon there will be a car to take orders. In the end, Surging News called "Nongke Road Bar Street", and the fare to the destination was 19 yuan.
The surging news saw many taxis on the way with green lights.
Zhang told the surging news that he works the night shift (from 6:00 pm to 6:00 am the next day), and in the past, business was good on Friday and Saturday nights. Usually, he can run three or four hundred yuan on Saturday night. On the first night of Didi’s outage (the evening of September 8), there were many online taxis at the gas station, and the taxi business was much better. He ran more than four hundred yuan.
"Look at the taxis running on the road, most of them have green lights on." Mr. Zhang said that after 11 o’clock at night, whether Didi stops operating or not, it is because there are more cars and fewer passengers. "The cake is so big, and Didi stops operating, it is just a taxi to eat more." After 11 o’clock at night, whether Didi stops operating or not, there is no difficulty in taking a taxi in the urban area of the Third Ring Road.
In the bar street, many KTVs, bars, and clubs are parked in front of three or four taxis waiting for customers, and taxis with green lights passing by from time to time on the street. The waiter’s brother, Mr. Liu, told Surging News that waiting at the bar gate, they have to pay 100 yuan a month to the bar security guard, and more than a dozen cars pay for his bar. He either waits at the bar gate in the middle of the night or runs on the street, but basically does not go to the train station to queue up for customers, because sometimes he is unlucky and may queue for half an hour and an hour to get a starting price. Because it was Sunday night, the business that night was not very good. From 12:00 pm on the 9th to 1:00 am on the 10th, he only pulled two orders and got 30 or 40 yuan.
After the flight attendant was killed in Zhengzhou, taxi business was better than before, according to several waiting brothers. Mr. Wang said that on the first night of Didi’s outage on the night of September 8, business was indeed much better. In the second half of the night, it pulled more than in the first half of the night. In the first half of the night (6:00 pm to 12:00 pm), he pulled 200 yuan, and in the second half of the night (12:00 pm to 6:00 am the next day), he pulled 300 yuan. Usually on Saturday nights, he pulled about 400 yuan.
At two o’clock in the morning, The Paper proposed to go to the train station in downtown Zhengzhou. Mr. Wang said that business was not good on Sunday night, and he had waited 20 minutes at the entrance of the KTV before waiting for the order from The Paper. At Zhengzhou Railway Station, parking is not allowed around the exit, and taxis are all queued in the square, with 30 or 40 cars in line. At the place where passengers queued to get on the bus, a black car driver asked passengers if they were taking the car, but because there are many taxis, no one from The Paper chose to take the black car.
"It’s not difficult to take a taxi in Zhengzhou at night," a Didi driver told The Paper. In fact, after Didi stops operating, car owners can choose to register for other online car-hailing platforms, but it takes time to pass the review, and Didi stops operating for a few days.
"There are bad people in all professions." Many taxi drivers said they did not feel that online ride-hailing was unsafe, but many of them did have ideas such as making friends, so it was naturally difficult to avoid some bad things from happening. The key was to do a good job of supervision. Some taxi drivers did not shy away from competition, saying it was best to shut down Didi.
Kunming, Yunnan:
Some citizens said that it is very inconvenient not to have Didi.
Mr. Zhao, who lives in Kunming International Convention and Exhibition Center, said that because his mother was hospitalized in the First People’s Hospital of Yunnan Province, he had to go to the wheel guard every night. When Didi announced the rectification on September 8, he didn’t know the situation that day. Because he couldn’t get a car, he waited on the roadside for 40 minutes that night and asked for help from his uncle. His uncle drove 20 kilometers to pick him up. "It’s okay in downtown Kunming. There are many taxis, but if you are far away, there is no car to call."
"Taking a taxi in Kunming at night depends on luck." Qian Zhibang, a resident of Kunming, said that there are many taxis in the urban area of Kunming at night, but his family lives in the Xinnanhai area of Xishan District, and he can’t get a taxi at all. Before, he basically used Didi to take a taxi at night. "Take a taxi in Kunming at night, or you will refuse to take it if you are too close, and you will have to negotiate the price if you travel farther. It is very inconvenient to lose Didi."
According to Li Xingfeng, a driver of Didi in Kunming, Didi’s rectification of night-time orders has little impact on their occasional drivers who run Didi, but it will have a certain impact on full-time drivers. Li Xingfeng said that in Kunming, in addition to Didi Dache, there are also Shenzhou, Yidao and Shouqi who can book online car-hailing. He also registered online car-hailing drivers at Yidao.
He said that the Shenzhou online car is a special car, so the price is more expensive. For example, if the price of the Kunming 10-kilometer express train is about 30 yuan, the Shenzhou special car needs more than 50 yuan. "People who usually do business are unwilling to take a special car, and the Shenzhou special car is only suitable for business reception." And Yidao and Shouqi have formed a vicious circle because of their limited market share. "Because there are not many people taking taxis in Yidao and Shouqi, there are not many registered drivers. In turn, there are fewer drivers who take taxis. They are unwilling to take a taxi and wait, forming a bad cycle. I think Didi currently accounts for more than 80% of the market share." Li Xingfeng is an online ride-hailing driver in Didi and Yidao, but he only occasionally picks up on Yidao every day when he only has no orders on Didi, "On average, he only runs one order a day on Yidao, and there are not many people."
Chongqing:
A taxi company has issued an initiative to ensure that citizens travel at night
Rainy nights, cooling down.
At 1:35 am on September 10, in a few hours, office workers will usher in a new week of work.
In Jiu Street, Jiangbei District, Chongqing City, Mr. Li took a taxi home after entertaining friends from other places. Mr. Li said that after a group of three friends came from Shanxi, he drove to the airport to pick them up and parked his car near a hot pot restaurant on Jiu Street. After eating hot pot and singing, it was early morning.
Mr. Li gestured for a taxi parked on the roadside to come over, asking his friend to get on the bus first. After telling the master the destination, Mr. Li got on a taxi waiting for passengers at the back.
If it weren’t for the reporter’s reminder, Mr. Li would have forgotten that Didi stopped operating late at night on September 8. Mr. Li told The Paper that he usually drives to and from work, but if he is not going to the airport to pick up friends, he usually does not take a taxi on weekends. "In places like Jiefangbei and Guanyin Bridge, it is very difficult to park on weekends. Usually, it is very convenient to call Didi or take a taxi." Mr. Li said that after drinking with friends, he wanted to call a driver, but found several taxis parked on the roadside, so he decided to take a taxi home and take the light rail to work the next morning.
Li believes that it is still easier to take a taxi in Chongqing at night, after all, there are many fewer people outside at this point.
Based on his personal experience with late-night sports cars in the past two days, he thinks that whether Didi cancels late-night service will have little impact on taxi business. "Think about it, it’s raining in the middle of the night, and you have to go to work the next day," he said. "How many people can there be on the street?"
Mr. Zeng said that from 23:00 on the 9th to 0:00 am on the 10th, he received seven or eight orders, and there was not much time to empty. In the second half of the night, business was not very good. Only four orders were received within an hour, and only one of them ran more than 10 kilometers.
Mr. Zeng’s car is also equipped with "TikTok Travel", and although the software is always on, not many people call for a car.
Surging News learned from Chongqing Changshou District Zhongyue Passenger Rental Co., Ltd., that in July this year, six taxi companies, including the company, signed a contract with TikTok Travel, and all existing cruise taxis in Changshou District were connected to the TikTok platform. A few days ago, six taxi companies in Changshou District jointly launched an initiative with TikTok Travel. Please make every effort to ensure the capacity of night taxis, and do your best to ensure that citizens travel at night, so that everyone who returns at night can go home in peace.
Hunan Changsha:
When passengers say that the supply of customers is sufficient, the price starts at the floor.
At 1:30 am on the 10th, the surging news saw in a bar street on Jiefang West Road in Tianxin District, Changsha that the young people did not notice the coolness of autumn at all: short sleeves, miniskirts, slightly drunk and came out of the bar, seemingly not tired at all. Because in a few hours, most people still have to go to work, Xiao Meng, who came out of the bar, told his friends that he would come on Friday and Saturday next time. Then, Xiao Meng and his party walked to the roadside taxi with double flash.
Because most people go to bars to drink, Xiao Meng and other "car owners" usually take a taxi to Jiefang West Road. In recent years, Didi has become their first choice: "It’s convenient, on call."
Xiao Ting, who was traveling with Xiao Meng, said that as a post-98 girl, she also saw the news of female passengers being killed. "After seeing the news, my girlfriends are reminding each other that they must call to report safety after getting on the bus." She said, "For a long time, when I play Didi at night, I will secretly take a picture of the license plate and send it to my friends before getting on the bus, just in case."
After getting on the bus, Xiaoting told Surging News through WeChat, "Today’s brother is not so domineering, maybe because the supply of customers is not so sufficient. On the first day, when Didi stopped operating at night, the buddies in Changsha came to Jiefang West to pick up customers in the early morning like a market. There were more passengers and less cars, and the brother would sit on the ground to raise the price, or ask for a fight. Some men who drank too much wine quarreled because their brother did not want to use the watch."
At 1:42 a.m., Surging News tried various taxi-hailing software to find that: Cao Cao’s special car is available, and you need to recharge before you can call a car, with a minimum recharge of 30 yuan and a maximum charge of 5,000 yuan; Meituan’s taxi, which has not been opened in Changsha; TikTok travel is available, but the ride cannot be used from 11:00 pm to 5:00 am; Shenzhou special car is available; keep the promise, easy road, ride-hailing and other taxi methods are available.
Several brothers waiting on the roadside of Jiefang West Road said that after Didi stopped operating at night, business was much better, saying that they would not compete for customers, choose customers or sit on the ground to ask for prices. One brother said: "Facts have proved that taking a traditional taxi is the first choice for safety and speed."
This sentence attracted the laughter of a group of young men and women who just came out of the bar. (Surging News reporters, Zhao Meng, Duan Yanchao, Wang Wanchun, Jiang Gewei, Wang Xin)