商务租车服务车大战推动租车业发展

　　摘要 : 目前最考验商务租车公司的，既不是资金，也不是运营能力，而是他们与政府的沟通能力

　　Abstract: What is the most difficult for Business-car renting sartups is how to communicate with the authorities other than funding and operation.

　　8月5日，易到用车宣布与百度联手推出商务租车服务“百度专车”。业界传闻，百度向易到用车注资高达3亿美元。而在此前的7月8日，阿里巴巴投资的快的打车已经推出了“一号专车”服务。当然，腾讯也不会闲着，据老冀了解，腾讯投资的滴滴打车也即将推出“滴滴专车”。

　　On August 5, Car-sharing startup Yongche declared to work with Baidu and launch a business-car renting service, Baidu Special Cars. It was rumored Baidu invested USD300m in Yongche. On July 8th, Kuaidi, a subsidiary of Alibaba, launched its new service, No.1 Special Car. Tencent joined in the business too as its subsidiary, Didi is going to launch the service, Didi Special Car.

　　各位朋友估计很多人还记得年初的打车大战，一番肉搏之后，快的打车和滴滴打车胜出。不过，那只是AT布局O2O的前哨战。随着百度的加入，剩下的5个月中，在商务租车市场势必会发生另一场商务租车大战。

　　It is still well remembered the dog-eat-dog battle of taxi calling app at the earlier year, where Kuaidi and Didi won. But it is an outpost of O2O for Ali and Tencent. When Baidu joins, there will happen a much competitive campaign of business-car renting in next 5 months.

　　为了便于讨论，老冀先缩小一下商务租车的范围，这里指的是由商务租车公司提供合法运营的车辆和司机，为乘客提供短期和短距离服务的业务。由于商务租车公司一般能够从劳务公司那里拿到乘客车款15-20%的佣金，有着更好的收入模式，这也使得快的打车和滴滴打车急切地进入这个市场。

　　For better understanding, business-car renting here refers to the service that business-car renting firms provide passengers legally operated vehicles and liscened drivers in short term and short distance As business-car renting firms ear a commission of 15 to 20 percent of taxi fare, Kuaidi and Didi eagerly enter this business-car renting market.

　　那么，这场即将带来的战争是不是仍然是一场烧钱大战呢?会不会仍然是价格战呢?老冀前一段时间采访了很多的相关人士，也就试着给大家分析一下。

　　Is upcoming battle still a battle of Splashing the cash, or a price war?

　　Based on the interviews with several insiders , I’d like to give a analysis.

　　在老冀看来，商务租车市场先不要谈什么烧钱和价格战，而是先要解决合规的问题。不能合规，连运营都无法做到，何谈大战?其实，这也是中国与美国最大的区别。在美国，私家车做商业运营是不违法的。而在中国，私家车是绝对不能够做商业运营的，但是像北京这样的很多大城市的出租车运力又不足，因此才会衍生出数量庞大的黑车。

　　As I see it, what is the most important in business-car renting market is the compliance other than fare price or funding. No compliance, no legal operation, even not to mention the price competition. Actually, the biggest difference between the market in China and that in the US is the compliance. In the US, it is not illegal for private car to operate as a taxi. But in China, it is illegal. There are big gap for the demand of taxis in big cities, like Beijng, which leaDS to numerous vehicles illegally operated as taxi.

　　商务租车公司要保证合规，首先必须跟有合法车辆和运营资质的汽车租赁公司(比如说首都汽车租赁公司、神州租车等)合作，从他们那里拿到合法运营的车辆。其次，开车的司机除了有驾照之外，还必须跟一家合规的劳务公司签订合同，才能拥有开车的资格。

　　In term of compliance, business car rental companies firstly should cooperate with car rental agencies with auhtorised vehicles and operation qualification (like the Capital Car Rental or China Auto Rental) which can offer renting vehicles. Secondly, drivers shall sign a long-term contract with a labor agency besides having a driving license .

　　这些都使得商务租车行业的门槛一下子提高了许多。由于很多大城市已经开始限牌，大的汽车租赁公司如神州租车自己的租车(不带司机)业务也很红火，并不愿意提供大量车辆给商务租车公司。为此，商务租车公司为了解决车辆的难题，一方面只能通过自己购买车辆并挂靠到中小汽车租赁公司旗下，另一方面还要跟地方政府申请足够多的牌照。这个问题不解决，要想在一个城市大规模运营只能是空谈。例如，目前刚刚杀入北京的美国商务租车巨头Uber的车辆数量就严重不足，只能在CBD和三里屯等少数几个地方招揽业务。老冀试着在自己位于石景山附近的家中通过Uber要车，结果只能是泥牛入海。

　　All these make a higher threshold for those entering the business car rental industry. Since the number of plate license is limited in many big cities, some large car rental agencies which don’t offer driver, like China Auto Rental run their own business well and they are reluctant to provide numerous vehicles to business car rental firms. Therefore, in order to solve the problem of vehicles shortage, business car rental firms can only purchase cars themselves and sign these cars with small car rental agencies on the one hand, and apply for enough plate licenses from the local authorities on the other hand. It is impossbile to do large-scale car rental operation in cities if this problem is unsolved. For instance, Uber, US business car rental startup, which just entered Beijing market recently, could only do business in several areas like CBD and Sanlitun because of a serious vehicles shortage. I lives in Beijing suburb near Shijingshan and tried to rent a car from Uber but finally came up empty.

　　值得注意的是，一些商务租车公司采取了变通的方法，就是招揽自己有车的私人司机，帮助他们办理挂靠手续。但是这种办法很难解决车辆的合法性问题——从目前的规定来看，已经登记为私家车的车辆，很难直接变更为运营车辆。因此，我们看到最近上海正在打击黑车市场，已经严重影响到了部分不合规车辆的运营。

　　It is noted that some business car rental firms invited private car owners and help them sign labor contract with car-renting agencies. However, there remains one problem：the compliance of the private car. ACCORDing to the rules, it is hardly possible to turn private cars into business vehicles. Therefore, we can see that the recent anti-unlicensed cars campaign in Shanghai has already had a strong impact on the operation of uncompliant vehicles.

　　因此，在老冀看来，目前最考验商务租车公司的，既不是资金，也不是运营能力，而是他们与政府的沟通能力。谁能够拿到尽可能多的运营车辆，或者谁能够说服政府放开经营，谁就最有可能获得领跑的资格。

　　In a word, it seems that the biggest challenge for business car rentals is neither funding nor operation capacity but the communication skills with the authorities. A company which is able get the most liscened vehicles, or persuade the authorities to lift the control over car rental industry, is most likely to take the lead.