“Internet car rental has not only improved the efficiency of car use but also saved travel costs. It is a matter worthy of encouragement and promotion. However, according to the current regulations, companies that do not have passenger transport qualifications recruit private cars to be affiliated with third-party companies. There is no doubt that the act is illegal," said Jiang Suhua of Beijing Yingke Law Firm on Sina Automotive.

Last Wednesday, a paper ban from the Beijing Municipal Traffic Committee caused the entire Internet car rental industry to fall into panic. The documented strictly prohibited car rental behavior mainly includes two aspects. One is to call a private car to a third-party company for car rental. The other is Unqualified car rental companies operate in passenger transport.

Many companies such as Easy Access Vehicles, PP Car Rental, and Youyou Car Rental have responded quickly to the new regulations. Most of them say that the company model does not involve passenger transportation and the service provided is not a substitute. For example, the Easy Access Vehicle announcement stated that it does not regard itself as a “leasing company” but rather as a “vertical information platform providing travel services”.

However, traditional large-scale car rental companies don't think so. "The de facto relationship between car leases exists. No matter how the surface is packaged with the concept of sharing economy, it is very difficult to change the nature of alleged non-compliance." Vice President of a domestic mainstream car rental company Sina Motors stated that he believes that the current market environment is very unfair to traditional car rental companies, and that small-scale Internet car rental companies that do not have the qualifications, the financial resources, or even the service standards are not able to use the low cost to erode the market share of legitimate car rental companies. .

Through big data sharing, the car parked in the parking lot is run up, while the owner who is sitting in the office blowing cold also earns money by the way, or when you get to work, the back seat of the car is loaded with a passerby who not only does it. Helping you to share the oil money, you can also chat with you boring, this is the "car sharing, P2P car rental" and other Internet fresh stuff to depict us a beautiful scene.

However, if the current regulations are strictly enforced, many Internet car rental companies such as easy-to-access vehicles, PP car rental vehicles, and Baojia Car Rentals may die before dawn. The market size of this emerging industry is currently several hundred million yuan. "General Manager Li Zuyi even predicted that the market value of the future will be as high as 400 billion yuan.

A policy can spawn an industry, and a policy can also ruin an industry. According to Ma Yu, the research institute of the Ministry of Commerce, an unreasonable management model has led to the strange phase of “legislators suffer losses and illegal gains”. The government should rethink the past management ideas of the car rental industry and embrace the tide of the Internet era. Open the door to encourage competition, rather than follow the old administrative concepts.

Walking on the edge of the law

The focus of the issue was on whether the company's actions were illegal. According to analyst Jiang Suhua of Beijing Yingke Law Firm, who analyzed Sina Motors, whether there was any violation of the behavior of the car rental company. The important point was how to define which part of the fee charged by the car rental company was profitable, and which part was Cost, "There is no profit for public welfare behavior," Jiang lawyer said.

Car rental companies use Internet technology to build information service platforms, linking people with travel needs with those who have idle cars, which not only improves the efficiency of car use, but also saves travel costs. It is a matter worthy of encouragement and promotion.

However, the platform operation itself requires financial support. The platform side charges part of the user's fees to maintain its own operations. This should be seen as the company's cost, but if the company is not just sharing information, but the difference is earned through the platform. The nature will change, and the information service platform will become the actual passenger transport operator. This is the violation of the law that has been cracked down by the document “has failed to obtain legitimate passenger operation qualifications to engage in operational activities”.

Lawyer Jiang Suhua told Sina Automotive that according to the current legal interpretation, the car rental company is not qualified to operate passenger transport. If an unqualified company does indeed have the responsibility of recruiting private cars to affiliate to third-party companies and participate in passenger transport operations, there is no doubt that this is illegal.

On the other hand, lawyer Jiang Suhua also stated that because it is difficult for car rental companies to make financial disclosure transparent, the definition of cost and profitability has become very difficult. This is also a difficult point that confuses the industry to determine whether the taxi software is public welfare and whether it is illegal.

From the perspective of the easy-to-use vehicle's own interpretation, the company only uses smart car platforms to complete resource integration, and then collect commissions for each transaction according to a certain percentage. However, this part of the commission is not defined so far.

In addition to illegally punishing private cars, the other focus of discussion is whether, in the event of a traffic accident, how the rights and responsibilities of the parties are defined, the car is privately owned, but at the same time, the company is affiliated with the company and the company is accompanied by taxi drivers. There is cooperation between the parties. After the accident, there are many responsibilities involved. It is very difficult to define the responsibilities of the company even if there are disputes over whether the operation itself is regarded as commercial operation. Previously, the industry’s discussion of the legal responsibility for carpooling was based on this concern.

Regarding how the document will affect the industry, lawyer Jiang Suhua believes that if strict regulations are implemented, some companies may be forced to readjust their business scope. However, what kind of effect the policy will eventually produce depends on the communication and negotiation between the company and the government.

For this, a middle-level manager of a taxi has also put forward a similar view. “On the one hand, the government needs to strengthen the management and regulation of the industry. On the other hand, companies need to maintain good communication and exchanges with the government. The most important thing is that The interaction between the two parties is benign, so that the problem can be well resolved."

“There will be some tacit agreement between the enterprise and the government, but the content of the consultation may not be disclosed for the time being.” Several industry figures expressed their views on the final outcome of the policy. “The idea of ​​a travel information platform is only for the outside world. Is how to negotiate with the government to communicate."

The traditional car rental company's grievances

Regarding the momentum behind the rectification campaign, many media believe that it is the beneficiaries of the current system—the traditional car rental companies that have been hit by the Internet’s car rentals. However, these industry giants with billions of assets also have their own grievances.

“This is very unfair to our large companies. Car rental is a capital-intensive industry on a large scale. It is not for anyone who wants to play, but we are also officially filing in government departments and obtaining legal qualifications. These small companies have neither funds nor qualifications, nor are they provided with services, but they compete with us at a very low cost." Executives of a major car rental company complained to Sina Automotive that, in his view, regular car rental companies are being subject to numerous alleged violations. Small businesses erode the market.

The executive believes that the easy-to-use vehicle claims that he is an information sharing platform is not established. The taxi driver and private car owner have completed the de facto car rental transaction. There is a de facto lease relationship, no matter how the concept of the sharing economy is applied on the surface. Packaging, it is very difficult to change the nature of suspected illegal violations. In addition, small and medium-sized companies are not perfect in terms of standardized services and insurance claims, and they are also a potential risk for consumers.

Without qualifications, it may be suspected of violating existing laws and regulations. According to Sina Automotive, car rental qualifications and passenger transportation qualifications belong to a relatively scarce resource, especially in cities such as Beijing, where cars are subject to car purchases. The government's idea of ​​controlling the total amount of cars is to approve both qualifications. Very strict, and passenger transport qualifications are more difficult to obtain than car rental qualifications. In Beijing, the accreditation of accreditation mainly lies in the Transportation Commission, and in other places, the qualifications of some regions even require higher leadership “special approval” to be released.

Ma Yuxiang, researcher of the Ministry of Commerce, pointed out to Sina Automotive that the traffic commission and the transportation management bureau have strict control over qualifications for the sake of ease of management. Under the current system, as long as “managing several big companies, the entire industry will "If we liberalize the examination and approval, all companies in the market can carry out passenger transportation business, which is a great test for the government's management capabilities.

“The law-abiding business operators suffer losses and those who violate the rules and regulations are profitable” This is a summary of Ma Yu’s research on the contradictions between formal car rental companies and grassroots internet companies. Ma Yu believes that the most important reason for this phenomenon is unreasonable government management. mechanism.

Unmanageable management model

“The government’s crackdown on black vehicles in the past decade or so has been very intense. Every year, local governments will organize special operations to crack down on black vehicles. However, the result is that the more vehicles that die, the more black cars are killed. In the past few years, only suburban districts and counties have seen black cars and now they are even downtown. Both the CBD and the CBD have seen black cars everywhere. It has proved that the crackdown on black cars is a failure. According to Ma Yu's research, there are about 100,000 black cars in Beijing. This scale not only exceeds the number of regular taxis, but also compares with any Internet car rental. The company’s fleet is huge. He believes that the existence of a large number of black cars is due to the government's consideration of controlling the total amount, suppressing supply, and not granting or granting qualifications, resulting in long-term market demand not being met. When a regular taxi is "a vehicle is difficult to obtain", Black cars will follow the law and create gaps in the law.

Ma Yu pointed out that under the conditions of complete market economy, the problems arising from the car rental industry should be solved by the industry associations through self-negotiation, instead of relying on the government's administrative department to kill them with a red paper. However, in the current stage of social development, various associations that seem to be everywhere are not independent industry organizations, but are products that are attached to government departments. This congenital deficiency causes the “association” to fail to achieve self-management of the industry. Supervise self-discipline.

How to renovate the black car? Ma Yu said that letting the black car “wash white” is the right way. The government has liberalized the management and control of the car rental industry, giving the driver and the legal status of the car rental company under the premise of ensuring the safety of vehicles and the quality of personnel. It is the supervision of normalization of the sun and the possibility of expanding the tax source. The problem of getting a taxi difficult can also be solved through market regulation. However, this may not be worth the benefit to the law enforcers. "Let the black trucks whitewash and let go of market access, which means the loss of rights and the doubling of responsibilities."

“The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee put forward the criteria for letting the market play a decisive role in the allocation of resources. Internet car rental is a brand-new business model that facilitates people's transportation and the government should not suppress such market competition.” Ma Yu urged The government embraces a new round of new technology revolution in the Internet.