Relevant regulations should be checked for loopholes and gaps. Random charges, running red lights, unprofessional driving... the designated driver industry is full of chaos
There are many parties at night in summer. Recently, some Shanghai citizens have had a lot of troubles because of designated drivers. "The designated driver ran a red light but did not pay the fine. The violation information was recorded on my vehicle, which is very frustrating." "Not only did the designated driver take a detour, but he also took advantage of me being drunk and unconscious to charge me more money."
Industry survey data shows that as of November 2023, there will be one million people engaged in designated driver services in my country, more than 340 million people using designated drivers, and the total number of orders will exceed 1 billion. However, the designated driver industry also has some problems that are often criticized, such as low entry barriers for designated drivers, uneven service quality, and mid-trip price increases.
On August 5, Shanghai resident Mr. Xu used a taxi app to order a designated driver service. After arriving home safely, Mr. Xu thought it was a smooth trip, but he did not expect to receive a motor vehicle violation notification soon after. It turned out that the designated driver ran a red light while driving. "The electronic police took a frontal photo of the designated driver. Although the points are not deducted from me, I need to go in person to pay the fine, but I can't contact the designated driver at all."
Mr. Xu tried to contact the designated driver platform, but the platform said that the driver no longer accepted orders on the platform. Mr. Xu called 12345 twice to complain. On September 5, the designated driver platform contacted Mr. Xu and asked him to send his driving license and other documents to coordinate and resolve the matter. Mr. Xu was annoyed and said: "The complaint process has taken more than a month, and the communication cost is also very high. Because the designated driver ran a red light, the compulsory traffic insurance will also increase next year."
Many car owners have doubts about the professionalism of the designated driver and the designated driver platform. In June this year, the incident of a Ferrari spontaneously ignited by a designated driver caused a sensation and also triggered public discussion on the entry threshold of the designated driver industry. At that time, the Ferrari owner said in an interview: "The designated driver admitted that he set the car to manual first gear and drove the whole journey. I think he has never driven it before and what he said is very unprofessional."
Mr. Chen, a citizen, also had an experience of "mutual wrangling" with a designated driver. At that time, Mr. Chen used his credit card points to redeem a designated driver service. The designated driver fee was about 90 yuan, but when Mr. Chen was about to get off the car, the designated driver took out a QR code and asked Mr. Chen to scan the code to pay 220 yuan. He did not think much about it, "I was drunk at the time and not sober, so I paid it directly."
Mr. Chen realized it the next day: "First, the driver asked me to pay too much. Second, the second leg of the trip took a serious detour. I went from Jiuting to Sijing, a total of about 8 kilometers, but the entire trip was 20 kilometers, which was like going in a circle to get home. Moreover, the designated driver smoked in my car without my consent, and the smell of cigarettes remained in the car the next day."
Afterwards, Mr. Chen immediately contacted the designated driver platform, and after a lot of argument, the designated driver platform refunded Mr. Chen 200 yuan. But in addition to the refund, Mr. Chen's request also included "punishing the driver", and the customer service of the designated driver platform promised, but when Mr. Chen asked how to deal with it specifically, the customer service was vague.
Master Bian, who has several years of experience in designated driving, said that he has registered accounts with many designated driving companies. To become a designated driver, you generally need to be between 20 and 60 years old. Some designated driving companies do not require offline road tests. You can successfully register by only using the "online certification + test" model. They do not consider driving age, driving experience, or driving model too much.
Most of the designated drivers are part-time, and many designated driver companies sign "cooperation agreements" with drivers, which means that they are only information providers in the middle. By building an online platform, they act as information intermediaries to match users who need designated drivers with designated drivers who have service capabilities, and the risks they bear at the legal level are relatively small. The platform often has greater rights, such as allocating orders, freezing accounts, or restricting withdrawals. Master Bian has three funds that have been frozen for a year and have not been withdrawn.
Master Bian had several payments frozen by the designated driver platform, with the time limit set to 2100. He called the citizen hotline to give feedback, but the other party said that the city has no relevant industry regulations yet, so he should contact the platform to negotiate on his own.
Many experts pointed out that the key to the current chaos in the designated driver industry lies in the lag in relevant laws and regulations.
For example, if an accident or violation occurs during the designated driving, who should the consumer hold responsible? This involves the determination of the relationship between the designated driver and the platform. The key is whether the designated driver service provided by the designated driver is an act of performing the duties of the designated driver company. This is also a controversial issue in the legal community. Is the relationship between the designated driver platform and the driver a labor relationship, an employment relationship, or an intermediary relationship?
Designated driver platforms often emphasize that they are only information providers. However, although the platform mainly plays the role of information release, it controls the algorithm deployment, driver qualification review and itinerary monitoring. Yang Sibin, a professor at the China Institute of Labor Relations, said that in actual judicial cases, the identification of labor relations is relatively complicated and involves the strength of platform management. Even if the designated driver is wearing work clothes and receiving information released by the platform, different cases have different identification results.
The user agreement of a certain designated driver platform emphasizes that the platform is only an information provider and there is no employment relationship between the platform and the driver.
From the regulatory perspective, the traffic management department, industrial and commercial department, human resources and social security department, etc. all bear more or less regulatory responsibilities for the designated driver industry, but the regulatory content is scattered and lacks linkage and coordination, which often leads to a situation of multiple supervision.
Since it is difficult to identify the responsible party and there is no special supervisory department, when disputes arise, consumers can only file complaints and defend their rights through the General Principles of Civil Law and the Consumer Rights Protection Law.
The entry threshold should be raised and the designated driver industry should be gradually regulated
In recent years, various places have been exploring ways to regulate the designated driver industry.
As early as 2014, the Shanghai Road Transport Association established a professional committee for designated driver services, and discussed and passed the "Shanghai Designated Driver Service Standards". It made regulations on the qualifications and charging standards for designated drivers, such as the designated driver must have a local household registration or residence permit, a certificate of no major traffic accidents, more than five years of safe driving experience, and be able to drive various types of cars skillfully. Only after training can they hold a license and take up their posts. Among them, the professional skills training content of designated drivers also specifically mentioned that "only high-level designated drivers can engage in the designated driving business of high-end cars."
However, with the rapid development of the Internet, the designated driver industry has been rapidly updated, and this service standard can no longer meet market demand. Due to the lack of industry management regulations, many Shanghai citizens have disputes over designated drivers. After calling the 12345 hotline to complain, the replies they received were: There are no relevant management regulations for the designated driver industry in the city, and they should contact the platform operator for negotiation. If no agreement can be reached through negotiation, it is recommended to resolve the issue through legal channels.
In April 2021, the group standard "Safety Management Requirements for Designated Driver Services" jointly issued by the China Automobile Dealers Association and the China Road Traffic Safety Association came into effect. This standard introduced the concept of "Internet platform for designated driver services". In March of this year, it was determined by experts that this standard was no longer suitable for the development of the industry and was therefore abolished. On September 9 this year, the Automobile Club Branch of the China Automobile Dealers Association issued an announcement that it was publicly soliciting relevant standards for revision and redrafting.
Of course, group standards are only standards independently formulated by the market, and are not mandatory or binding. They are only used as references within the industry, and whether they are implemented or not depends entirely on the self-discipline of enterprises. Yang Sibin, a professor at the China Institute of Labor Relations, believes that it is not necessary to issue special regulations for every industry. He suggested that we can refer to the standardized management path for industries such as online car-hailing, starting from local regulations and analyzing specific issues.
As for consumers, when placing an order for online designated driver services, they should also choose a designated driver company that is qualified, reputable and has a big brand. They should also distinguish the status of the designated driver. When making payments, they should go through the platform transactions and not pay money to individuals.
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