"After running for a month and a half, the car was repossessed. Not only did I not earn a penny, but the deposit was not returned to me." Guo Xiang (pseudonym), a driver from Wuhan City, Hubei Province who took online ride-hailing for the first time, not only did not taste the "sweetness", but was "slapped". The problem lay in a "contract" he signed with the car rental company. In fact, this model of online ride-hailing through companies signing contracts has existed in the industry for a long time. Drivers only need to pay a certain amount of rent to easily enter the industry using vehicles provided by car rental companies.
However, a reporter from "Rule of Law Weekend" found that in recent years, a "guaranteed mode", also called "work mode", has emerged on online ride-hailing aggregation platforms. Under this model, online car-hailing drivers who choose to rent a car sign a contract with the leasing company. The driver needs to take orders according to the platform and time period specified by the company. The platform will pay the driver a "salary" ranging from about 5,000 yuan to tens of thousands of yuan every month.
Behind this seemingly "guaranteed harvest despite drought and flood" model, there are many contract traps hidden. Since August this year, transportation administrative departments in many places have issued warnings on the risks of online car-hailing operations, some of which are directed at the "work mode" car rental routine.
"There are many clauses in the contract, such as deductions for various purposes and high liquidated damages, etc., so you can fall into it accidentally," Guo Xiang said.
Guo Xiang, 40 years old, has a heavy family burden but a low income. He heard someone talk about "the income from online car hailing is not bad", so he decided to give it a try since he could drive.
Because the cost of buying a car was too high, Guo Xiang decided to rent a car and run online ride-hailing services. In June this year, he rented a car from a third-party platform that cooperated with Yiwang’s ride-hailing aggregation platform. The lease period was 7 months and he paid a deposit of 8,000 yuan. Guo Xiang, who originally thought that after renting a car, could freely ride online for ride-hailing, he encountered various restrictions.
According to the car rental contract signed with the travel platform, Guo Xiang is Party B, and its online car-hailing city is Wuhan. "If it needs to be used outside the scope, Party B should notify Party A in advance and obtain Party A's consent." His designated cooperation platform for online car-hailing is a certain platform, and the number of completed orders must be ≥ 500 orders per month. If the standard is not met, a fine of 500 yuan will be imposed. "If the standard is not met for 2 consecutive months, Party A has the right to take back the vehicle and hold Party B accountable for breach of contract."; From the date of picking up the car, the minimum monthly turnover must reach 8,000 yuan, so that Guo Xiang can receive a salary of 4,500 yuan from the company, and all the turnover exceeding 8,000 yuan will be given to Guo Xiang. If the monthly turnover does not reach 8,000 yuan, Guo Xiang's "vehicle usage fee" of 4,000 yuan will be deducted for that month; if he does not drive out the car for 3 consecutive days or the daily turnover amount is lower than the agreed amount, it will be regarded as a breach of contract, and "Party A has the right to take back the vehicle."
In this way, Guo Xiang ran online ride-hailing for more than a month, and his turnover finally reached more than 8,000 yuan. Because he had to wait for the platform to deduct the monthly rent, fines and other expenses before transferring the remaining amount to him through the bank. When he could finally withdraw the income, Guo Xiang's hope was completely dashed. In mid-July, he was told that because he drove the car outside the "Wuhan main urban area" sports car range limited by the contract, the car was forcibly repossessed. Not only would the 3,000 yuan fee for car collection be deducted from the deposit, but if he wanted to get the car back and continue driving, he would also need to pay a 4,000 yuan pick-up fee. Guo Xiang decided to terminate the contract with the platform because he did not receive the income from the sports car, but still had to "repay money". However, the two parties could not reach an agreement on the refund of deposits, running water and other fees.
"I'm still wrangling. I can only rent a car from a large online car-hailing platform and run it first, otherwise there will be no income." Guo Xiang is very helpless, and this time the car rental does not have so many "traps". He also runs this online car-hailing platform full-time and no longer takes orders from the online car-hailing aggregation platform.
Because "many new entrants in the industry don't understand and don't even know how to operate the software," Guo Xiang's car rental deposit was paid in cash by the staff of the car rental company who accompanied him to the bank to withdraw it. In his opinion, the contract was "fooled into signing." Not only the contract, but also the various commitment letters signed are also full of "traps."
The "Voluntary Acceptance and Enforcement Commitment Letter" he signed requires that drivers must be on duty for 7 consecutive days in the first week of employment, at least 12 hours a day, at least 26 days a month, and have at least 12 hours of effective online time every day.
"Not only is the work intensive, but it is also easy to break the contract. When returning the car, there are various reasons for deducting the deposit, running water, etc." Guo Xiang recalled that in addition to the mandatory vehicle repossession personnel fees and fines he encountered, the car damage charges were also very high. "If the car key, which normally costs two to three hundred yuan, is broken or lost, you will have to pay two to three thousand yuan."
In the imagination of many novice online car-hailing drivers, they simply rent a car. After renting a qualified car from a certain platform or the car rental company they cooperate with, they can choose to join various different online car-hailing platforms. In fact, it is a "direct operation model" like Guo Xiang.
Direct operation means that the online car-hailing platform or the rental company that has a cooperative relationship with them independently recruits some drivers. The drivers will be managed uniformly and can only run on the designated platform. A driver who has been engaged in online car-hailing for many years told reporters that direct-operated drivers have priority in dispatching orders to the platforms they serve, and their income will be more stable and more guaranteed. However, the direct-operated model of online car-hailing aggregation platforms is "very pitiful". Basically, some small platforms in the aggregation platform are designated for drivers to run. "If the order volume is not enough, the sales volume cannot be increased, and they cannot go to other platforms to drive cars."
For online ride-hailing drivers, this direct operation model is also called the "work model" and "guaranteed model". It attracts drivers through false publicity and exaggerated income, and induces them to sign contracts in the name of zero threshold, low deposit, no deposit, and basic salary, and stipulates high turnover indicators in the contract. This model will also "lock the turnover" of the driver, that is, the contract stipulates that the driver's turnover income will be collected and distributed by the leasing company, and the driver has no right to directly control his/her turnover.
When drivers are in "work mode", in addition to facing various breach of contract matters, various deductions from deposits, and high fines like Guo Xiang, drivers will also be set in the contract with flow indicators that are difficult for the driver to complete. If they cannot complete it, the driver will be required to make up the difference, or charge liquidated damages on the grounds of breach of contract.
"From 7:30 in the morning to 9 in the evening, I can make 50 yuan in sales an hour, at least 600 yuan a day." Listening to the vision described by the staff, in September this year, Zhang Xing (pseudonym) from Jiangsu signed a vehicle use agreement with a third-party platform of an online ride-hailing aggregation platform. According to the agreement, Zhang Xing does not need to pay rent. He only needs to pay a deposit of 5,000 yuan, and the company will provide vehicles and dispatch orders on the designated platform. If he has a monthly turnover of 9,000 yuan, he will receive a basic share of 4,820 yuan and a platform reward of 2,000 yuan. "The more runs, the more the share will be." If the monthly turnover of 9,000 yuan is not reached, the corresponding deposit will be deducted.
However, Zhang Xing, who had been running online taxis for a few days, found that his daily turnover was only more than 200 yuan, which meant that it was difficult to meet the monthly turnover target.
This is not an isolated case. An agreement the reporter learned from other online car-hailing drivers showed that if online car-hailing and rental drivers need to make a monthly turnover of 9,000 yuan on the designated platform, the settlement will be basically divided into 4,000 yuan and a 1,000 yuan subsidy; for every additional 1,000 yuan in turnover after that, the monthly settlement share will be 1,000 yuan more. Yuan, until the monthly turnover is 12,000 yuan, a 7,000 yuan share and a 1,000 yuan subsidy will be settled; if the turnover is above 12,000 yuan, a 7,000 yuan share, a 1,000 yuan subsidy and the excess turnover will be settled; if the monthly turnover reaches 9,000 yuan, the settlement will be deducted by 4,300 yuan accordingly. At the same time, it is also agreed that the driver must have a daily turnover of more than 300 yuan, cannot be out of the car for 3 consecutive days, and must be out of the car for 26 days in the whole month. Violation of any of the above provisions will be regarded as a breach of contract and must pay liquidated damages.
Or they are unable to complete the quota and violate the contract. Even if drivers like Guo Xiang complete the quota, their labor rights are being infringed. "During off-peak periods, you can only run 'fixed price' orders, and you cannot stay in one place for more than 30 minutes. You must fully obey the platform's schedule." During Guo Xiang's more than a month of driving, in order to complete the turnover target, there was basically no rest time. "You must strictly calculate the time for eating and going to the toilet."
In fact, in January last year, CCTV exposed various "routine car rental" traps. The Shanghai police discovered that in many districts across the city, drivers were being recruited with high salaries as bait, inducing drivers who wanted to work in online ride-hailing jobs to sign car rental contracts with hidden "trap clauses", and through new fraud techniques that allowed them to seize deposits and make illegal profits after breach of contract.
The vehicles provided by these fraud gangs are bound to niche and unpopular platforms, and they will set production standards for drivers that cannot "reach the line"; they will also cause scratch accidents for drivers, resulting in the vehicles being forcibly repossessed; they will install software on the vehicles to control the vehicle's fuel and power cuts, so that they can falsely claim that the vehicle is faulty and need repair and repossess the vehicle; they will intentionally lend out defective vehicles to demand compensation from the driver's negligence, or falsely claim that the vehicle has traffic violations to defraud the driver's deposit. Through concentrated crackdowns, the Shanghai police at that time successfully destroyed 19 new "routine car rental" fraud criminal gangs, arrested more than 190 suspects, and the amount involved amounted to more than 15 million yuan.
However, "routine car rentals" still occur, and relevant regulatory authorities continue to speak out, reminding online ride-hailing drivers not to step into the trap.
The reporter consulted the official websites of local transportation administration departments and related public reports. According to incomplete statistics, since August this year, at least more than ten cities including Fuzhou, Nanjing, Xi'an, Kunming, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Zunyi, Chongqing, and Guiyang have issued risk warnings for online car-hailing operations, many of which directly target the "work mode" car rental routines.
On October 19, Nanjing Transportation Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Supervision Bureau and Nanjing Taxi and Car Rental Association jointly issued the "Nanjing Online Car Hailing Operation Risk Warning" stating that some transportation channel companies: driver recruitment agency companies (mainly engaged in recruiting drivers and earning recruitment agency fees Intermediary companies, human resources companies that charge vehicle fees or vehicle price differences), vehicle contracting and operating companies (companies that are mainly engaged in subletting other companies' vehicles, recruiting drivers and operating them, and earning rent differences and management service fees), there are behaviors that infringe on the interests of employees in order to obtain improper benefits. Among them, including the risks of cooperation in "work mode", etc.
On November 6, Fuzhou Road Transport Development Center issued a reminder letter to online car-hailing drivers, pointing out that individual online car-hailing platform companies, offline vehicle management, leasing companies and car sales companies have induced drivers to purchase or lease vehicles by falsely promoting "the online car-hailing market has many orders and high profits" and guaranteed income; in the contract, The company sets strict assessment standards, high turnover indicators and other strong clauses, and then induces drivers to sign contracts with zero thresholds and low deposits. Once the driver returns the car or terminates the contract early for some reason, the company will withhold the deposit, charge high liquidated damages, and demand compensation for vehicle damage on the grounds that the contract stipulates, infringing on the driver's legitimate rights and interests.
Relevant departments have also given preventive suggestions to online car-hailing drivers: Drivers who intend to engage in online car-hailing operations should have a thorough understanding of online car-hailing regulations, policies and market operating risks, and choose leasing companies and platforms with good reputation and strength, and do not blindly enter the market; be familiar with the terms of the contract signed and their own Conduct detailed consultation and understanding of the risks you assume, especially the terms and conditions regarding operating qualifications, lease term, rent, deposit, insurance, liability for breach of contract, etc. You should pay attention to guard against various forms of contract traps, do not believe any false propaganda and promises of high returns, and choose the "work mode" carefully.
Reporter Wang Jingzi