E-hailing and car rental in China
In our post from last week, we introduced the bike-sharing part of our WeChat survey results. An increasingly more popular bike usage is currently in trend. However, that doesn’t mean that cars will start to disappear from the streets from now on.
In today’s post, we will show you people’s attitude about e-hailing and car rental.
E-hailing
For people who don’t want to drive by themselves, there is a way that is cheaper than taxi but provides the same service: e-hailing.
According to the research results, 99,6% of the respondents have heard of e-hailing APPs such as Didi or Uber. 88,28% have used it at least once. Almost half of total respondents use it regularly.
The advantages of using e-hailing are about the same as bike and car rental: convenient and spontaneous order, cheaper than taxi and fast and time-saving process. With one special advantage: it is especially convenient during rush hour, where taxis are of shortage. Advantages such as no parking cost and no need to drive by oneself are not as strongly mentioned as expected.
Despite the convenience, certain risks and disadvantages cause usage uncertainties. The identity of the drivers, whether they are qualified or certified to do the job is questionable. Especially for drivers coming from out of town, many of them are not familiar with the route or road conditions of big cities. This causes dissatisfaction for some users.
Also, to use the APP, it requires certain degree of technological understanding. This might be difficult for older users.
Due to the above mentioned disadvantages, 12.53% of the users have decreased their usage frequency.
The reasons for the decrease of usage are mostly because they switched to other transportation methods due to bad user experience.
In conclusion, car apps are used insituations like followed:
Car rental
Another transportation method which also helps you to go from A to B for more than 3km without having to group-hug other people in public transportations is the car rental. For people who enjoy driving or prefer to drive by themselves, this is the best idea instead of taking a cab or “call an Uber”.
The majority of the respondents, both owners and non-owners, have heard of car rental before. More owners than non-owners have tried, partly because non-owners are mostly also non-drivers. The interest and willingness to try this transportation method is high in both groups, which is almost every second respondent in each group.
Car-owners and non-owners are on the same page regarding the advantages of car rental. The rent-on-demand is convenient, since it saves maintenance cost and you can rent and return the car wherever there is a renting spot. Thus, also saves parking fee.
The disadvantages of car rental are more focused on the car itself compared to bike rental, where the rental process is of greater importance. Both owner and non-owner have about the same priorities regarding the disadvantages. Since it is a rented car, its condition is the major concern, e.g. how worn-out will the car be? How is the odor in the car? If something is already broken inside, how can I prove that I didn’t break it?
As for the reasons of usage, mostly needed are rental cars for spontaneous urgent usage. Rental car is an alternative for taxis, with the benefit that you can drive it by yourself. As for non-owners,car rental is an option for them to drive without having to buy a car. As for car-owners, trying different car models is a very attractive point.
In order to compete with regular taxis or other transport methods and to boost its use rate, car rental needs to bebetter in price, brands, models, service and insurance.
Comparison e-hailing and car rental
Comparing car rental (49.05%) with e-hailing APPs (44.41%), netizens slightly prefer car rental, which is more flexible regarding time and space and usage. Also, most users prefer to have the steering wheel in their own hands.
Conclusion
All in all, it is to say that users have accepted the trend of being mobile and online at the same time. The booking has switched from offline to online.
As for the way of transport, while riding with other people is fun, most people prefer to take control themselves and drive themselves.
To be able to achieve and stay at the successful level, car rental and e-hailing APPs need to change with the customers' mobile habits and grow with them together.