Reasons for Contradictions in China Taxi Industry

In the market-oriented reform, there are many disadvantages in taxi management mode and operation mechanism. It is a solution to abandon the widely applicable subject license mode and implement the vehicle license mode.

In recent years, there have been many disputes and contradictions in the taxi industry in many cities, which have seriously affected the stability of urban society and exposed many disadvantages of taxi management mode and operation mechanism in market-oriented reform. The author intends to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the current urban taxi licensing model and improve it on the basis of the current taxi management model and the provisions of the Administrative Licensing Law.

The way.

First, the necessity of controlling the number of taxis.

At present, there is a debate on whether the total number of urban taxis should be limited in theory and judicial practice. Supporters of regulators believe that restricting access can avoid market failure. The main reason is that limiting the total number of taxis can alleviate traffic congestion, reduce air pollution, reduce industry management costs, maintain the continuity and stability of supply, and maintain the balance between price and service quality. Of course, there are also some disadvantages in quantity control. First, restricting access leads to the increase of license plate price, which correspondingly increases the entry cost and eventually forms a burden on passengers; Second, regulators are bought by the industry, which actually reduces the social welfare of consumers. In view of this, in the mid-1970s and 1980s, some cities in the United States successively lifted the quantitative control on the taxi industry. However, with the rapid increase in the number of taxis, the average price has risen and the service quality has declined, so that these cities have successively resumed price control or quantity restriction on the taxi industry.

From the theoretical and economic analysis, it is necessary to implement quantitative control on the taxi industry. The implementation of quantity control must be able to grasp the balance between supply and demand and determine the appropriate number of taxi operations, otherwise "government failure" will occur. This is a technical problem, and an empirical data can be obtained through fixed-point observation. You can get on the bus within 3 to 5 minutes, and less than 3 minutes means there are too many vehicles; More than 5 minutes means that there are too few vehicles and insufficient supply. Some experts have analyzed the relationship between the travel characteristics of urban population and the characteristics of taxi operation, and put forward the vacancy rate as a measure to determine the total number of taxis. They think that the vacancy rate is between 30% and 40%, too high will waste resources, too low will reduce the service level. In a word, the amount of control cannot be arbitrarily decided by the government, but by the conditions of social and economic development.

Because government regulation replaces market autonomy to limit the number of taxis, the right to operate taxis has become a limited public resource and a franchise owned by the government, just like a limited radio frequency, which needs to be allocated by setting administrative licenses.

On the premise that the number of taxis is limited, there are two main licensing modes in practice: one is to issue licenses to business entities whose vehicles have the right to operate taxis; The second is to license the taxi directly. As long as you have the right to operate a vehicle and register it with the industry and commerce, you can operate a taxi business. The former is the subject license mode, and the latter is the vehicle license mode.

Two, the main license mode of taxi and its disadvantages

The operation mode of the subject license mode is that as long as the business subject meets the prescribed conditions, it can apply for a taxi license from the government department and obtain the right to operate from the government department for free after approval. In order to control the number, government departments should approve the number of taxis and increase the number of vehicles while approving the main management rights. There is no time limit for the right to operate. As long as the conditions required for the license of the right to operate are maintained, it will always be consistent with the existence of the business entity. Because the management right of the main body is obtained through examination and approval, it is related to the licensee's business situation, and it is not allowed to be freely transferred, only the merger and acquisition problem between business entities occurs. This licensing mechanism has the nature of general prohibition of general licensing, indefinite period and free of charge, and at the same time, licenses are issued according to the principle of acceptance priority. The main licensing model is represented by Beijing in China. It is understood that at present, the taxi control mode in more than 85% cities in China is the same as that in Beijing.

The original intention of the main licensing mode design is to unify the market access conditions, ensure market access, expand the taxi industry in the competition and improve the service quality. However, contrary to expectations, the analysis of economics and the policy practice of various cities show that there are many disadvantages in the actual operation of the main licensing model, which has caused a series of problems.

First, the government lost the income that could have been obtained by auctioning franchise rights, and the operation was unfair. The main licensing mode is to give the franchise that should have been auctioned to the company free of charge in the form of administrative examination and approval. In this way, the company nominally operates in a unified way, but actually transfers the management right to the driver through contracted operation (deposit, money, etc.). Are the price of obtaining a franchise). The income that could have been obtained through the auction concession falls into the hands of taxi companies, which is unfair to qualified operators who have not obtained it.

Second, it distorts the relationship between the government and the company. Since the company obtains the franchise right from the government for free, the government has the right to directly intervene in the internal affairs of the company and control the company's income.

Third, it distorts the relationship between the company and the driver. Under the main licensing mode, the so-called company management system is implemented, and laws, regulations or policies require that the ownership and operating license of taxi vehicles belong to taxi operating companies, and taxis cannot be bought or sold. In the case that the investor of the vehicle is actually the driver, the normal economic relationship is reversed and distorted, and the investor has no ownership, but the manager has become the real owner. The relationship between the investor (laborer) and the company is neither employee relationship, nor contract relationship, nor lease relationship, nor joint-stock relationship, and its capital gains and labor remuneration are not guaranteed.

Fourth, it leads to corruption and hinders citizens from creating wealth through production activities. Taxi franchise is profitable, which leads to all kinds of market entities and even government departments and institutions wanting to enter; However, the license is limited, and it is issued through non-public competition, which leads to private giving and receiving and black-box operation, which leads to corruption.

Fifth, allow self-proliferation and control failure. Due to the existence of quantity control, and there is no time limit for the management right of the business entity, on the one hand, the licenses issued are out of touch with the social needs, on the other hand, the licensees form an almost complete exclusive monopoly, and social contradictions intensify. In addition, in order to maintain the company's operating system, the government has repeatedly ordered the prohibition and rectification of disguised car sales, but "secretly selling" is still common; The government originally wanted to control the taxi industry by controlling the taxi company, but the company "guaranteed and punished"; As a result, there has been an increase in operating costs due to the addition of a company level, leading to the proliferation of black cars and rampant illegal operations. As described by experts, the main licensing mode is ultimately "sacrificing the country, enriching the company, cheating passengers and suffering drivers".

In the subject licensing mode, the allocation of limited public resources controlled by "quantity" is realized by controlling the general licensing mechanism of "quality", which will inevitably lead to contradictions such as unfair distribution and the disconnection between licensing and social needs. In addition, the contradiction between the government's dependence on the company's marketization and the individualization of taxi management cannot be solved, but new contradictions have arisen.

Third, get out of the dilemma of taxi management-vehicle licensing model.

Another way to control the number of taxis is the vehicle license plate model, represented by Wenzhou. The operation mode of vehicle license plate mode is that the government auctions or invites bids for the taxi operating right (taxi operating license) with a limited period, and the operator obtains the operating right and carries out business activities after industrial and commercial registration. The breakthrough of Wenzhou mode to the traditional taxi management and control mode is to auction the vehicle management right directly, allowing it to operate in the form of individual operation, and realizing the unity of the management right, vehicle ownership and management right of the business subject.

As mentioned above, in the realization of taxi number control, the main license plate method has many shortcomings, but the vehicle license plate method has many advantages:

First, issuing business licenses to vehicles can directly achieve the purpose of quantity control. Setting the license plate directly on the vehicle management right is the most efficient way to realize the allocation of public resources with limited taxi management right. On the contrary, the function of the main business license is to check the market access, which is open in the number of operators and vehicles, and can not directly achieve the purpose of quantity control.

Second, issuing paid use licenses in a competitive way can ensure the fair distribution of resources. The allocation of limited public resources caused by quantity restriction should be obtained through equal competition and the corresponding consideration should be paid, which is also specifically stipulated in the Administrative Licensing Law. The principle of priority acceptance does not apply to the license of taxi operation right, but should be obtained by the licensee through bidding or auction to maintain social equity and improve the efficiency of resource use.

Thirdly, the license plate of vehicle operation right is allowed to be transferred, which improves the efficiency of resource utilization. If the administrative license is related to the holder's personal attributes, it is not transferable. For example, administrative licenses such as lawyer qualification license can only be obtained if the applicant has appropriate conduct, skills and quality and meets the prescribed conditions, and they are non-transferable. However, some licenses are not based on personal fitness or personal skills, but are closely related to land, business and vehicles. If it is generally believed that planning permission is closely related to real estate, then after the transfer of real estate, planning permission can be inherited by the corresponding land acquisition person. The license of vehicle management right is related to a specific vehicle, but it can be separated from the personal attributes of the licensee, so it can be transferred. Allowing the right to operate vehicles to be traded freely like commodities, and allowing people who lack resource indicators but need to use resources to obtain them through trading or transferee, can improve the efficiency of resource utilization.

Fourthly, the license of vehicle operation right with a time limit can coordinate the contradiction between license and social development. As for how to coordinate the contradiction between the issued administrative licenses and the social needs, one way is to revoke all administrative licenses, but the government needs to pay a lot of compensation; Another way that countries usually adopt is to specify the duration of the concession. In order to improve the economic benefit and prevent the licensee from forming a monopoly, in foreign countries, the permission of bidding and auction is accompanied by a time limit. After the expiration of the time limit, the government can bid and auction separately, or increase or decrease the number of administrative licenses according to the actual situation, so as to solve the contradiction between franchising and economic and social development.

Fifth, relaxing restrictions on commercial entities can reduce operating costs. Under the current social and economic development level, individual labor is the economic and technical feature of taxi industry: vehicles are labor tools, drivers are laborers, and products provide transportation and replacement services for consumers. Due to the infinite diversity of people's travel direction, time, place and arrival place, the particularity of taxi industry's production and operation is determined: individual supply, individual consumption, liquidity and uncertainty. Therefore, the taxi industry is most suitable for self-employment, and even if the corporate operation mode is adopted, the self-employment characteristics of taxis cannot be changed or changed. Therefore, under the current situation that individual taxi operation still has the advantages of flexibility and low cost, the strong implementation of corporate operation can only fall into a contradictory and chaotic situation. On the other hand, even if corporate management is implemented, the liberalization of business forms is not necessarily unfavorable to corporate management. With the development of social economy, the improvement of management level and technical means, the scale benefit and brand benefit of enterprise economic management are increasingly prominent, and there is no need for the government to merge and unite through administrative means. Enterprises with excellent management will naturally become "bigger and stronger" in the competition.