TU-TESL

• 22

It has been 10 years since Uber launched the revolution of online car Hailing market. This year, they also successfully IPO, setting various records, which is more like cutting vegetables and melons. Unfortunately, Uber, who seems to have achieved several small goals this year, is actually living a very bad life. The story of their crazy expansion has been unable to satisfy investors' appetite, because after the IPO, everyone's attention has shifted to profits, and huge losses are still Uber's daily life. Under such circumstances, Uber not only failed to set an ultra-high issue price as once expected, but also the stock price fell steadily after listing, which was a lifeless look. As like as two peas, Uber's main competitor Lyft, its development trajectory is almost the same as that of Uber. In addition to the decline of stock prices and the aggravation of losses, the regulatory authorities have not spared them. Under high pressure, these taxi platforms should not only solve the problem of sustainable development, but also shoulder social responsibility. Earlier this year, the New York government announced that it would limit driver idling, while the California government would allow taxi platforms to establish formal employment relationships with drivers (cost wise, the new California law could cost Uber and LYFT an additional $10000 per driver per year). In addition, the New Jersey Department of labor also required Uber to pay the $650 million in employment tax owed. This is not the most terrible. As one of Uber's main battlefields, the city of London announced that it would not issue Uber a new business license in the future due to security issues. That is to say, the law of "big but not down" may not be applicable to the taxi platform in the future. In order to regain the trust of the regulatory authorities and highlight their irreplaceable nature, the online car Hailing industry must reorient itself, such as becoming the mainstay of solving traffic congestion and public problems (reducing the waste of resources and increasing carbon emissions of single bike). If these problems can be properly solved, hundreds of billions of dollars of value can be created, so taxi platforms must work with local governments to release these values. With this fulcrum, the taxi platform can go further, because social responsibility and profit are always closely linked. According to the established roadmap, Uber's goal is to achieve an EBITDA of 15-20%, so that drivers' wages can also double. Obviously, it's time to put an end to the part-time economy and get rid of the brutal growth model of asset appreciation. Looking back, we must admit that Uber is the initiator of this "new travel revolution" (which is still in progress). In the past decade, the company has completely changed the layout of urban transportation. With the help of smart phones, taxi giants not only make the sharing traffic bigger and stronger, but also reduce people's travel threshold. It can be said that network car hailing, which facilitates people's access to the economic and social center, has an absolute positive impact on urban travel, especially in areas where public transport is not efficient enough. In addition, from a quantitative point of view, the online car Hailing industry has actually brought a large number of jobs. However, these positive effects have not been widely recognized, which is all due to Uber and LYFT. In the past few years, academic circles have proved the negative effects of network car Hailing on traffic jams and urban air pollution through research. In terms of job creation, online car Hailing has been criticized as creating a large number of low-level freelance jobs, which not only make money less and work longer, but also have no social security. In short, Uber and LYFT are expanding crazily without taking on the corresponding social responsibility. In 2016, Uber called out the slogan "let more people use fewer cars". Now looking back, this slogan is still not out of date, even more important. At present, Uber's car sharing service uberpool has been tepid. The reason is that there are too few drivers, and the route optimization algorithm is not in place. On the whole, drivers can't make any money from carpooling. In order to keep the original intention of sharing economy, the taxi platform must employ some drivers with KPI as employees, so that the vehicle regulation managers can optimize every trip in an all-round way, so as to maximize the fleet revenue and better meet the needs of users. Under the employment mode, the driver will not pick and choose the jobs sent, so as to solve the problem of low efficiency of the existing operation model. On the basis of order dispatching optimization, the taxi platform should publicize carpooling and rethink how to serve more users with fewer cars. To do this, Uber should first correct its attitude and make uberpool its largest business. Most of the researches by experts in the field of travel show that the optimization of dispatch and the assistance of users' carpooling can reduce the existing fleet size of the taxi platform by 5-7 times. Through the actuarial work of experts, this is the best plan for online car Hailing companies to achieve 15-20% profit margin. Given that drivers are no longer tied to a vehicle in this mode, the taxi platform can optimize asset utilization and make money from the scale effect of vehicle access and potential fleet service providers. To achieve this optimization, the platform needs to manage a fleet with critical size and to some extent limit competition. In such a case, the taxi platform has become a transportation service operator and solves two most important problems: partial optimization of assets and waste of subsidy funds. Under the new model, the taxi platform can take social responsibility while making money, such as reducing urban traffic congestion and exhaust pollution. It should be noted that there are more opportunities to release after paradigm change. Online car Hailing companies can go further and authorize technology to municipal managers to help them complete the comprehensive travel and traffic management system (or even integrate all travel modes into one application to complete the seamless management of travel and payment), so that they can have a stable core position and usher in greater success. In addition to the existing core services, CNCA can also provide services for the design of Maas platform or simulation tools to optimize the urban planning capacity of the government. Car Hailing companies can also play an important role in implementing congestion pricing and providing additional services, such as installing air pollution sensors on operating vehicles. Obviously, the company can cooperate with the municipal government to achieve a win-win situation. Of course, in order to achieve in-depth cooperation with local governments, the taxi platform must be greatly adjusted in the organizational structure. After all, in this regard, the municipal government needs to make policy because of the city. Now, it's useless to eat all the fresh things. In other words, the company must establish a strong localization team and give them independent decision-making power in the future. The change in thinking is the first step. But what's the use of what we have in mind? The result will depend on whether Uber and LYFT can complete the change in this fleeting window period.