The truth investigation of the Wenzhou taxi outage incident, there were flyers in series before the incident

　　"I knew I couldn’t make a fuss." Speaking of the outage yesterday morning, Zhang Xiaodong, a taxi driver from Fuyang, Anhui Province, sighed.

　　Since 6:00 on July 28, more than 2,000 taxis have been suspended in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. Jiang Shaoyong, deputy secretary-general of Wenzhou Municipal Government, said this morning (29th) that the incident has been put to rest after the city’s traffic and public security departments worked hard. At present, the taxi operation order has basically returned to normal.

　　There was a small flyer series 3 days ago.

　　Yesterday at 7:30 am, Mr. Ye, who lived in the Qiushan Garden in the city, was ready to go to work as usual. What he did not expect was that the taxis that usually stopped at the gate of the community to wait for passengers disappeared, and not a single taxi passed by on the street. It seemed that all taxis in Wenzhou had disappeared overnight.

　　Old Ye had no choice but to rush to the bus stop. From people’s discussions, he knew that most of the taxis in the city had been suspended.

　　Master Lin, a taxi driver from Henan, told reporters that he had known about the shutdown three days ago. That day, while having lunch at a noodle stall in Xincheng, someone stuffed him with a small leaflet that read: "We must act together. We will not leave the car from July 28 to 30, 2009… Whoever leaves the car will be responsible for the consequences."

　　Yesterday at about 7.40am, a yellow Fukang taxi was carrying guests past Wenzhou Mansion when an unlicensed car parked on the side of the road suddenly jumped off two people and smashed them with stones. The front windshield of the Fukang car was smashed on the spot, and passengers were forced to get out of the car.

　　The taxi driver who was smashed, surnamed Qiu, is from Anhui. He told reporters that two days ago, he also received a small leaflet demanding that the service be suspended on the 28th. "At that time, I didn’t care, I didn’t expect it to be smashed."

　　At about 8 a.m., when the reporter passed by Huimin Road, he saw many taxis parked on the roadside. He roughly counted more than 70 taxis. Some drivers told the reporter that they had received small leaflets asking to stop the service a few days ago. "I was afraid that the car would be smashed, so I had to drive here to see the heat."

　　A person in charge of the Wenzhou Municipal Party Committee told this reporter that after the incident, Wenzhou City quickly launched an emergency response plan and quickly found out that the outage incident was caused by the instigation of a small number of Anhui taxi drivers. On July 26, they distributed small leaflets with "taxi drivers’ voice", inciting and threatening drivers to stop operating on the 28th and 29th, and asked the government for an explanation on the issue of taxi metering and time freight.

　　The person in charge said that yesterday morning, the police had arraigned eight suspects in accordance with the law. At the same time, on the one hand, the owners were actively organized to resume operations, and on the other hand, more than 100 buses were urgently dispatched to solve the problem of public travel. At present, the incident has basically subsided, and the taxi operation order has returned to normal.

　　"Wenzhou Model" used to be famous

　　Wenzhou’s taxi industry has long been famous across the country.

　　Wenzhou City Road Transport Management Department of the former director Wu Xiyin today to this reporter recalled that in 1998, Wenzhou city rate first in the country, publicly invited tenders to auction the right to operate taxis, units, individuals can participate in the auction, the results of 300 taxis to shoot 200 million diversity, the average auction price 680,000 yuan.

　　The advantage of this approach is to completely break the previous situation where taxis were monopolized by state-owned and collective companies. Who can own taxis and let the market have the final say. This market-dominated taxi industry operation was once attributed to the "Wenzhou model" and is famous for it.

　　Wenzhou’s taxi operating license is permanent, and the market price has now risen to about 1.20 million yuan. The reporter learned in an interview that at present, there are 3,329 taxis in the city, and the owners are basically private or private companies. After the owners subcontract the car, the taxi agencies that bloom everywhere rent the car to others, subcontract it layer by layer, collect the contract fee, and finally fall into the hands of the taxi driver.

　　The brother was exploited by the owner to make a net profit

　　Sun Yinlin, a driver from Anhui, said: "If you go here and there, you will earn less than 3,000 yuan a month." Analysts say the widespread exploitation and low income of taxi drivers are a big reason for the taxi outage.

　　"The outage incident proves that the’Wenzhou model ‘of the taxi industry has come to an end." An analyst here believes that the bidding for the taxi operation license back then was the main reason for today’s situation! While policymakers advocated marketization, they tightly controlled the number of taxis in the city. The 3,500 gates remained unchanged for more than ten years, making taxis no longer a means of transportation in the city, but a "blood-sucking syringe" for black-hearted owners to extract hard-earned money from drivers!

　　For example, he said, taxis in Wenzhou run in four shifts, and the people and cars are constantly moving. Taxis are like money printing machines. The average owner can sit for about 500 yuan a day, and the monthly net income is at least 10,000 yuan. Taxi drivers, on the other hand, have to pay 300 yuan for fuel, and the average turnover per shift must reach 240 yuan to make money. If the oil price rises by 15%, the driver’s income will be reduced by 25%. If there is an accident or something, they will have to lose money.

　　The person believes that to solve the problem, the government must face up to reality and take action to operate taxis as municipal public utilities: recover the right to operate taxis, separate the right to use them from their ownership, merge and reorganize taxi companies, establish taxi groups similar to bus companies, and incorporate taxis into urban municipal transportation development plans.

　　As a witness to the development of the taxi industry in Wenzhou, Wu Xiyin firmly opposes this. He believes that the taxi outage incident is not a failure of the market mechanism, but an incomplete reform. To solve the problem, we should find a way to deepen reform, rather than reverse the car and return to the old road of monopoly operation by taxi companies.

　　You need to manage the operation certificate worth millions of yuan

　　At today’s press conference, Wenzhou Municipal Government Deputy Secretary-General Jiang Shaoyong revealed the specific measures to strengthen the regulation of the taxi market recently, including raising taxi freight rates, promoting the construction of taxi management systems, improving the quality of employees, and studying and formulating the maximum limit of taxi contractor fees.

　　"The method is good, but the strength is not enough." Chen Zhongquan, a professor at the Wenzhou Party School who has studied the taxi industry, believes that a taxi association should be established to implement industry management. Chen Zhongquan said that although the right to operate taxis in Wenzhou belongs to individuals, it is still nominally attached to the taxi company, and each car has to pay a management fee of 400 or 500 yuan per month. The wool comes from the sheep, and the taxi driver has to pay the money in the end. This old system not only increases the burden on drivers, but also is not conducive to the market management of the taxi industry. It needs to be changed.

　　"It is recommended that the state regulate the taxi industry from the legislative level." Wang Zhibang, a professor at Zhejiang Technology and Commerce University, believes that as a prefecture-level city, Wenzhou’s regulations on taxi management actually have no legal basis. It is recommended that the state legislate in this regard, such as stipulating the extent to which taxi drivers violate the law and can revoke the taxi’s operating license. An operating license is worth more than one million yuan! In this way, the owner has to strengthen the management of taxi drivers and have to treat the driver well.

　　It is understood that at present, more than 10,000 taxi drivers in Wenzhou are mostly from Anhui and Henan, and the quality is uneven. Although Wenzhou Highway Transportation Management Office has also implemented the service certificate examination system, according to the drivers who have participated in the examination, they basically received 80 yuan for training.

　　"The government should take action in this regard." Chen Zhongquan suggested that the public security and transportation management should jointly establish an agency to be responsible for the review, assessment and management of taxi drivers, and to raise the entry threshold. He also suggested introducing regulations on the upper limit of taxi contractor fees and the lower limit of driver income. (Text/Photo by this reporter, Chen Dongsheng)

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