Deepening the reform of road freight rate: basically cutting down the price

On November 21, the Ministry of transport and the national development and Reform Commission jointly issued the opinions on deepening the reform of road transport prices (hereinafter referred to as the opinions). The opinions pointed out that the reform should give full play to the leverage role of price in regulating the relationship between supply and demand in the market, speed up the improvement of the mechanism that prices are mainly determined by the market, hand over to the market all the prices that can be formed by the market, stimulate market vitality and improve the efficiency of resource allocation. The opinion emphasizes that the price of transport services in the field of basic public services should be kept basically stable, so as to prevent the sharp rise and fall of prices in Spring Festival, holidays and other peak seasons of transport. In addition, by 2020, the prices in the competitive areas and links of road transport will be basically liberalized, and the dynamic adjustment mechanism of road transport prices with government pricing and government guided prices that really need to be retained will be effectively established, and the price behaviors of operators in the fields of road passenger transport and taxi will be more standardized. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, policies and measures have been introduced to reform road transport prices.

In October 2015, the opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on promoting the reform of price mechanism proposed to gradually expand the scope of independent pricing by operators in road passenger transport and other fields, timely liberalize the prices in competitive areas, improve the price charging rules, further improve the formation mechanism of taxi freight rate, and play the leverage role of freight rate in regulating the supply and demand relationship of taxi transport market. In July 2016, the guiding opinions on deepening reform and promoting the healthy development of taxi industry issued by the state office put forward clear requirements for rationalizing the formation mechanism of cruiser price and standardizing the price behavior of online car Hailing. On the other hand, in recent years, with the continuous improvement of the comprehensive transportation system and the continuous improvement of the integration level of urban and rural transportation, as well as the rapid development of new business modes such as network car hailing and road passenger customized service, the competition in various fields and links of road transportation is more full. As a result, the current road transport price formation mechanism, which is based on such documents as the charging rules of the bus passenger station, the rules of the car freight rate and the regulations on the management of the road transport price, has not been able to meet the high-quality development requirements of the industry under the new situation, has affected the people's travel experience, and needs to deepen the market-oriented reform. In this context, the local government has carried out many market-oriented reforms in terms of road transport price management, pricing mechanism, charging items and charging standards of passenger stations. As of 2018, 22 provinces have clearly liberalized the inter provincial passenger line, parallel passenger line with high-speed railway, customized passenger line and other competitive passenger price by revising the provincial pricing catalogue, issuing special notice or revising the provincial freight management document, and implemented market adjustment price; liberalized other service charges except for the basic services of passenger station vehicles and passenger station services, and even the whole We will liberalize the charges at passenger stations and adjust the prices in the market.

At present, Inner Mongolia, Ningbo, Nanjing, Fuzhou and other provinces and cities have successively issued relevant policy documents on taxi tariff reform, promoting the change of cruiser tariff from government pricing to government guided price, scientifically determining tariff level and optimizing tariff formation mechanism and structure. From the perspective of reform effect, after the price level was liberalized, the road transport market was stable and orderly, there was no obvious price change, and the social stability was not affected by the price adjustment, which accumulated practical experience for the national level to introduce policies and measures. On this basis, the two ministries and commissions conducted in-depth research and solicited public opinions on the opinions on July 12 this year, which was finally jointly issued today. The opinions will come into force on January 1, 2020. It is helpful for the fair competition between cruisers and online car Hailing. The reporter noted that in terms of cruising taxis, the opinions pointed out that for those who implement government pricing or government guided price management, local governments should speed up and improve the formation mechanism of freight rates, establish and improve the dynamic adjustment mechanism of freight rates, and regularly evaluate them in accordance with the requirements of the guidance on deepening reform and promoting the healthy development of taxi industry Estimated perfection. According to the local actual situation, the taxi operation cost, income level of residents and drivers, traffic conditions, service quality and other factors shall be comprehensively considered, and the taxi tariff level and structure shall be adjusted in time according to the specified procedures. At the same time, encourage all regions to gradually establish and improve the mechanism of freight rate adjustment, conduct hearings on the mechanism of freight rate adjustment, timely implement the adjustment of freight rate and make an announcement to the society when reaching the starting conditions, realize the institutionalization and dynamic adjustment of freight rate, and enhance the timeliness and flexibility of the price. Shen Lijun, President of the City Intelligent Information Technology Research Institute, told the daily economic news that in the past, most of the touring taxi freight rates were fixed by the government departments. With the increase of the cost of personnel and fuel, the long-term unchanged price has seriously restricted the sustainable development of the touring taxi industry.

"This time, the opinions can better adapt to the changes in market demand, reflecting that the decisive role of the market in resource allocation has been enhanced, and its purpose is to promote the competition between tour taxis and online reservation taxis in a more fair environment." Shen Lijun said that the price mechanism adjustment is the only way for the reform of patrol taxi, and also reflects the determination of governments at all levels to reform the taxi. At the same time, the market price adjustment will accelerate the further integration and development of cruiser and online car hailing, and enhance the competitiveness of cruiser taxis. In terms of online car hailing, the opinion points out that the price behavior of online car Hailing should be standardized, and the market adjusted price should be implemented for online car Hailing. The city people's government can implement the government guided price if it is necessary. The online car Hailing platform company shall take the initiative to open the pricing mechanism and dynamic price increase mechanism, publish the tariff structure and price increase rules through the company's website, mobile Internet application (APP) and other ways, maintain reasonable and relatively stable price increase standards, ensure clear, standard and transparent settlement bills, and accept social supervision. So what are the situations that "the city people's government thinks it is necessary to implement the government's guide price"? Will it be similar to the patrol taxi? Shen Lijun said that in general, the market price is reasonable, but for the sudden large-scale travel demand caused by major holidays, the transportation capacity shortage in the near and far suburbs, etc., the government can take it into consideration to some extent Guide price to avoid market regulation failure. If the pricing of online car Hailing deviates from the market price seriously, it is necessary for the local government to adjust the price.

In general, this situation is less likely to happen and will not converge with the cruise taxi. In terms of preferential travel for children, the current freight rate policy takes height as the basis for children's free ticket and half ticket, many people think it is unfair, and the voice based on age is increasingly strong. According to the draft for comments in July, except for buses with less than 9 seats, children with valid identity documents shall be judged by age, those under 6 years old shall be free of charge, and those between 6 and 14 years old shall be subject to half price preferential treatment; those without valid identity documents shall be judged by height, which is convenient for passengers and operators. In the opinions published this time, except for age, height can still be used as the basis for the division of preferential rides for children. The opinion points out that each adult passenger can take a free ride with a child under 6 years old (including 6 years old) or under 1.2m tall (including 1.2m) who does not occupy a seat alone. If a child needs to occupy a seat alone or more than 1 person, the excess number of people will be subject to half price preferential treatment and seats will be provided; if a child between 6-14 years old or 1.2m-1.5m tall will be subject to half price preferential treatment and half price preferential treatment will be provided For seats. Among them, valid identity documents proving the age of children include ID card, temporary ID card, residence permit for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents, pass for Hong Kong and Macao residents to and from the mainland, pass for Taiwan residents to and from the mainland, passport, permanent residence ID card for foreigners, etc. Under the condition of full load, the number of free children shall not exceed 10% of the authorized number of passengers (rounded by the decimal places). It's worth noting that sun Wenjian, a spokesman of the Ministry of transport, said at the conference that the problem of children's riding is only applicable to taking the road bus, that is to say, the long-distance bus and rural passenger transport, which are usually referred to, are not applicable to public transport, subway, civil aviation, railway and other modes of transportation. Many people are worried about preventing the price from rising and falling in the peak season of transportation.

Will the price of passenger transport rise after the market pricing is liberalized? Shen Lijun said that even if the price is set by the market, the price cannot rise at will, and the compliance process must be followed. In the interpretation of the opinions, the Ministry of transport pointed out that although the direction of road transport price reform is marketization and improving the pricing autonomy of operators, the document emphasized that operators should maintain the basic stability of road transport price, prevent the rise and fall of transport peak season prices such as spring transport and holidays, and protect the basic travel and legal price rights and interests of the people. The main measures include: the road transport operators should clearly mark the price, publicize the service items and prices, and keep the price basically stable. The operators of regular bus passenger transport shall announce the implementation fare to the society at least 7 days in advance at the bus terminal, ticket selling channel, etc.; if the government guided price is implemented for regular bus passenger transport, the upper limit fare shall also be marked on the ticket (including electronic ticket) or publicized through ticket selling channel. The operators of bus stations and regular buses are encouraged to provide free endorsement service to passengers. The road transport operators shall, in accordance with the price policy, formulate or adjust the price, the online car Hailing platform company shall adjust the pricing mechanism or the dynamic price increase mechanism, which shall be announced to the society at least 7 days in advance. In addition, we should strengthen price monitoring and credit system construction. Local competent departments in charge of price, transportation, etc. should establish and improve the monitoring, analysis and early warning mechanism of road transportation price, closely track and analyze the overall level of road transportation price and the price trend in important areas in the region, focus on strengthening the price monitoring in Spring Festival, holidays and other key periods, improve the response plan for abnormal price fluctuation, timely put forward regulatory suggestions, and keep the price level reasonable Section. It is necessary to promote the establishment of the road transport price credit supervision mechanism, and implement the joint punishment for the relevant subjects responsible for dishonesty in accordance with the law and regulations.